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billcoe_
Apr 4, 2006, 4:25 AM
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This woman was damn lucky you were there and had gear. I know the feeling you have, it is one of the best. The very best.
My congrats.
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slcliffdiver
Apr 4, 2006, 5:00 AM
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First good job on the rescue.
Don't kill yourself or fellow rescuers then don't let the rescuee die. Injuries that don't cause death come after you've taken care of the above.
I had high angle rescue training (included rescuing non climbers) about a million years ago and I'm pretty sure it went like this for a resuee sans harness:
Rap down, secure yourself, then girth hitch the best part of the body you can find without killing them (okay maybe not a neck;) then clip to harness then do something fancier. Has this changed or were my instructors out of the main? While a diaper harness is pretty fast and maybe you can do it with a minimal disturbance in some circumstances I still can't see taking the extra time with an imment fall possibly in the works to do it first.
It wasn't a fire department gig so we weren't expected to have much special equipment. I think the only non climbing technical rescue items that I didn't already have were a small pulley and emt scissors (which if I recall corectly were supposed to be in the rescue pouch either in addition to or instead of the first aid pouch).
Basically it was first person there secures the person and hangs out and attends to the rescuee the best they can while enough equipment and people show up to perform the rescue.
Anyway I'm realizing I've reviewed rescue techniques that presume a climber with a harness but not someone without a harness in a looooong time. Time for a refreasher.
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majid_sabet
Apr 4, 2006, 5:19 AM
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Observation
Planning
Execution
Safety comes first and remember , you are the #1 ,your partner is #2 and he/she down below is the last on list .
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larryd
Apr 4, 2006, 5:20 AM
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There is a quick way to do a little better than the girth hitch: after you pass one end of the sling through the other (beginning of the girth) add a half-hitch and you now have a loop that won't tighten up.
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toejam
Apr 4, 2006, 5:22 AM
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Nice job. Lowering is best when you have the manpower and time to set it up, but a rappel is generally faster for getting down to secure the victim and perform first aid. A double length runner can be rigged fairly quickly as a harness on smaller sized victims, a bit easier than most climbing harnesses. A second double-length can be rigged as a chest harness. It is usually a good idea to descend well off to the side of a victim, esp. one in such a precarious position, and then traverse over to minimize the possibility of injuring or dislodging them with rockfall.
Everyone should learn how to back up a rappel with an autoblock or prussik, either above or below the device, and how to lock off with a mule knot. Both are well described in Fasulo's Self-Rescue book.
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jimdavis
Apr 4, 2006, 5:35 AM
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This sounds like it was a semi low angle (<60 degrees) rescue if she was walking on moss.
My initial thoughts would be to fix the rope to a tree...rap myself down with a backup and girth hitch her waist ASAP. I've seen a buddy get rescued (drill) with a girth hitch around the waist.....and yea it sucks, but it works fine.
Once I had her secured with at least a girth hitch...so she could stop worrying about dying...I might try and rig an improv harness (be it a bowline on a coil, or whatever)
As you said someone came and got you, it sounds like there were quite a few people around to help. Once I had the patient secure...I'd have her weight her harness (sling, etc) which i'd attach to the rope, below me as a rescuer...and try and scrable back up to the top. I'd have my climbing partner and whoever was around pulling us up on the rope. Maybe have the climbing partner put a prussik on the rope for a belay once you start getting brought up.
That's my thoughts.
Priority one, get yourself to her safely, and get her attached so the situation won't get any worse. Once you have her on a rope, you've got a lot of time to think of the best course of action.
But hey, you both made it, so it sounds like whatever you did worked just fine.
Props for seeking some feedback!
Jim
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dirtineye
Apr 4, 2006, 6:13 AM
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IF you have made a rappel backup, such as an auto block, below your device, you will not be able to use a mule knot, and instead you make another backup knot below the rappel backup, such as a figure 8 on a bight, and clip this knot to your harness or belay loop.
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jumpingrock
Apr 4, 2006, 2:50 PM
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[quote="cutty"]In reply to: Apparently a boy and his dog had to be rescued from the exact same place earlier in the week. :-(
I watched this "rescue" on the news. And when I read your report I was damn happy that the situations were not reversed. ie it was not you rescueing the boy and dog and the fire department rescueing the lady. The fire department made such a holy mess of it. Took them something like an hour to even rap down to the boy. Fortunatly, he was on a nice ledge and in no immediate danger. Again I fear to think what might have happened had he been in greater danger.
Good Work!
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cutty
Apr 5, 2006, 5:00 AM
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Sorry. This is long.
Hi again everyone,
I really wanted to discuss the girth hitched sling thing, and so I posted only about that while leaving out all the other details, and now I realize lots of people have been trying to read between the lines and fill in the blanks. There's a bunch of confusion about exactly what happened, and when, and since you've all been kind enough to participate, I think I owe it to you to give a more thorough report. I think I can also snag a (really bad) picture from the rescue earlier in the week for those who are curious.
I've left out various details that didn't seem relevant to the rescue itself.
The feedback I've received has been excellent and is very much appreciated. I've learned an immense amount from this experience, from analyzing it afterward, and from everyone's suggestions about alternatives I could have considered and things I should have done differently. Thank you all.
SITUATION:
Arriving on the scene, I've been told that a hiker has fallen from the top of the cliff to a ledge just below, that she is uninjured, that a rope is needed to reach her, and that she is losing her grip and will soon fall and die. I have a quick look for myself. (From what I pieced together during and afterward, it seems the truth is the victim scrambled down there on her own, and then when she tried to come back up the moss started to give way and she started slipping toward the edge.)
Victim is 3 to 4 meters below cliff edge, lying prone on steep ramp, feet and right hand dug into moss, left hand holding jackets tied together and lowered by people above. Left side pressed against cliff. Exposure on right side and near feet. The moss is slowly giving way and she's saying her grip is failing. There's a very small ledge just past where her feet are, so her risk of falling may not be all that great, but with her current position, if she slipped her feet could conceivably slip right past the ledge and she'd be off.
I can't see the base of the cliff and can only guess at the elevation, but we're probably 5 or so meters above the tree tops, and I anticipate very rough ground below. At a rough guess, it's probably more than 30m, there may not be any anchors on the way down, there's no anchors near the cliff edge, and I have no idea if there's a trail leading back up.
WHAT HAPPENED:
0) Assess the situation. Can I do this? Am I likely to make the situation better, or worse? Do I really know what I'm doing?
1) Setup anchors: clove hitch on a draw clipped to a pin and a tree (figure eight clipped to a sling?)
* I should have inspected *both* anchors. Someone else rigged the tree, and I never looked at the it. I put my faith in other climbers that were there. (They were just hiking so had no gear.) I also should have tied stoppers in the ends of the rope.
* I had no experience rapping with a backup knot, so I decided to do the rap down to her without one. I know how to rig it, but considering I'd never done it before and time might be critical, I decide to go with what I know and minimize unknown variables. My plan is to rap down to her level without a backup knot, and then rig one while I'm there to free up both my hands.
2) Gather misc gear, spare harness, for use in securing victim.
3) Setup rappel. (ATC) (I did check to make sure the rope ends are both hanging well below the victim.)
4) Rap down to victim's level (3 to 4m) but off to the side.
5) Traverse over to victim, using extreme caution to stay away from the moss and to not jostle victim.
6) Victim says she can't hold on much longer. I elect to secure her first before securing my rappel. The only option that looks safe based on her position is rigging something around her waist. Anything else, particularly anything around her chest/shoulders looks likely to dislodge her.
7) Rappel ropes held low in left hand, pinch end of sling between knuckles. Lean forward and rest my left fist near where her waist is against the rock. I reach around with my free right hand and grab the sling from my other knuckles. Gently pull sling through, wrap around her waist, girth hitch and clip to belay loop with locking biner. Left hand never left the ropes.
8) Victim should now be secure from falling.
9) Tie an autoblock around rappel ropes, clipped to leg loops. Test the autoblock by weighting it. Both my hands are now free.
* At this point, I should have tied a figure eight below the autoblock and clipped into it.
* A mule would have been a good alternative, and probably would have been less trouble to rig than the autoblock. It never occurred to me at the time.
10) Take spare harness and secure the swami around victim. Girth hitch sling to belay loop and clip it into my belay loop with locker. Remove the sling girth hitched around her waist.
* It's been suggested that I should have connected her to the rope instead of my harness, and this would have been a good point to do it. If I'd connected her above my belay device, and if she had fallen, her weight wouldn't have come onto my harness and my legs.
11) I help the victim to better footing so she can be more relaxed and weight her swami a little. (It immediately slips up around her lower ribs. Ooops.)
12) Secure leg loops on victim. Victim is now both secure, and should also be relatively comfortable in the event of a fall.
13) Fire department shows up. I explain the situation. They want to take control and haul her out with their own gear, which I agree to. They begin to setup above. Meanwhile...
14) I take one strand of the rope below the autoblock, tie an eight, and clip it into her harness.
15) I don't remember exactly what I did here, but I think I tied a prusik on the same strand, above my belay device, and clipped that into her harness as well. Regardless, she now has two connections to the right-hand rope strand. (Victim was on my right, more or less.)
16) I rig my Gri Gri on the left-hand strand, below the autoblock, clip it into my harness, and then tie an eight below it as a stopper knot backup.
* I should have clipped that eight directly into my harness.
17) Untie the autoblock.
18) Disconnect belay device. (Note that for most of this procedure I'm able to stand and balance without weighting the rope, simplifying this part greatly.
19) Again, I'm fuzzy on exactly what I did, but I think I either had enough slack on "my" strand to tie an eight and clip into it, or I tied a klemheist above the Gri and clipped into that. Either way, I now had two connections to the left-hand side of the rope.
20) At this point, both the victim and I have two connections to our own rope strands, with a sling connecting us together between belay loops. We can now be hauled out separately by the fire department, which isn't ready yet, so the victim and I hang out and chat for a few minutes.
21) Fire department tosses down a static line with an eight tied into it. I clip it into her harness with a locker, then remove the sling connecting the victim and I together. They pull her up while she scrambles up the ramp.
22) Fire department tosses down the line again, with the biner attached. I clip into it and they haul me out while I scramble/climb up the steeper face.
23) All done!
ANALYSIS
Things I did wrong:
* I didn't inspect the tree anchor myself, or have someone I personally knew to be competent inspect it. It was a judgment call based on my brief interaction with another climber that was there, who was saying all the same things to me that I would have been saying to someone else in his position, so I felt there was reason to be confident in his skills. Maybe it wasn't absolutely stupid, but had I to do it over again I'd run up to take a quick look at the other anchor that was out of my line of sight.
Things I could have done better:
* I didn't tie stoppers in the end of the rope, or get the people helping rig the rope to do it.
* I could have, and possibly should have tied a mule knot instead of setting up an autoblock below my belay device.
* I missed some obvious opportunities to clip in to eights as backups earlier in the rescue process
* When I was rigging the Gri Gri I ran a brief risk of dropping it when I was trying to juggle the rope, the Gri and a biner all at once.
Things I did right:
* Obviously, it was a successful rescue. But I feel it's important to mention that there were a lot of people there who were bystanders, active participants, and everything in between. There was one individual in particular who may have had the very best of intentions, but he kept instructing various people (including me) to do things that were very unsafe and would have profoundly endangered the victim. I ignored him for the most part, and verbally refused one of his suggestions. It doesn't seem to be mentioned much, but I think it's important to point out that part of a safe rescue is identifying who has a clue, and who doesn't, and how you deal with the clueless, no matter how well intentioned they are.
Things I've added to my "to-practice list" (which already had a bunch of stuff on it):
* Rappelling with a backup knot. As I said, it was on my todo list for that particular day, so this isn't an "add", but it's worth reiterating.
* Putting a harness on a victim. The swami was no problem, but I wasted a bunch of time with the leg loops. Not a life threatening thing, but...
* Improvising a chest harness and putting it on a victim, even though it wasn't relevant to this rescue.
* Improvising a swami or a harness out of Stuff At Hand, and putting it on a victim. I've learned there's a world of difference between knowing how to improvise a swami in theory and actually having to do it on the fly with a ticking clock and no margin for error. Obvious in retrospect, of course. Rescuing someone who is already wearing a harness would be much simpler!
* Ascending a rope with a victim. Without the fire department, that's how I would have chosen to get her back up to the top. I'm sure it would have been all kinds of awkward and difficult.
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epoch
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Apr 5, 2006, 11:17 AM
Post #35 of 48
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I was going to quote it, but it is too long.
I think that overall you did good. It is important to establish WHO is in charge in a rescue situation. Nothing can be done if everyone wants to play General. It is good that you realized that you should have given a once over to the anchor (compare it to checking your knots and harness when you climb). And may I add that you practice how to lower with a patient durring a rescue. If the fire department hadn't shown up that may have been safer and easier for both of you, if the rope had made it to the ground.
You did a great job!!!
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fishbelly
Apr 5, 2006, 1:23 PM
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Congratulations!
You had a plan.
You executed the plan with resources on hand.
You were successful.
After action reports are good but don't over analyze.
Next time you may have added extra gear and more importantly experience.
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snothead
Apr 5, 2006, 2:28 PM
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Congrats, sounds like a valuable experience.
When I was a kid my mom taught me how to tie a bow-line one-handed. She told me it had applications in rescueing people. She had no experience in mountaineering or rescueing, nor do I. But, I can tie a bowline around my own or someone else's waist in less than five seconds and with only one hand. It requires a lot of twisting of the wrist around the rope, and if someone was to slip as you were tying it your wrist could be caught in a half-tied knot. But it is another tool for your bag, especially if you are concerned about injuries from a girth-hitch tightening as it is weighted.
Here's a link that shows you how to tie it
http://www.climerware.com/bowline.shtml
I know bowlines need to be backed up.
I have one question about bowlines though. I don't know if they are as safe when tied in webbing or not. Does anyone know?
Good on ya, you can rescue me from my hiking follies anytime.
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cracklover
Apr 7, 2006, 4:48 AM
Post #38 of 48
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In reply to: In reply to: Sounds good. I think the sling girthed around her waist is fine. The one thing I really don't like is the idea of you operating on her one-handed. Sorry to say it, but that's just stupid, since you know how to mule off your device. It'll take longer for you to work on her with one hand, make everything more fidgety, and seriously increase the risk of you winding up needing a rescue (or worse) too. Anyway, kudos to you for helping her out! GO And just where do you see that he worked one handed, or needed to mule off his device? he had a rappel backup, and a backup knot. Yes it would be stupid to do what you suggest he did, but he didn't do that.
The only one who said he rigged a backup before he started down was you. Here's what cutty said:
In reply to: In reply to: Did you happen to have an auto-block in your rappel system? Not when I started rapelling down, I didn't. It was a judgement call. I know in theory how to rig an autoblock, but I'd never rapped with one before. Ironically it was on my list of things to practice that day, but in that situation I felt that having never tried it before added an unknown variable into the system. Maybe I'd screw it up and jam it in my belay device. Maybe it would lock unexpectedly and throw me off balance at exactly the wrong time and knock the hiker off the cliff. I decided it was better to get down there first, get stable, get her temporarily secured (one-handed) and then back up my rappel. I don't at all think that was "ideal", and if she'd just been stuck without an immediate risk of falling I would have gone with the backup and trusted myself to work out any problems on the way down. |
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cracklover
Apr 7, 2006, 4:56 AM
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Cutty, what was your rappel device? If it wasn't your gri gri, and you had a gri gri with you, why didn't you use it?
GO
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mtnrsq
Apr 7, 2006, 6:15 AM
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Nice job. Simply put - you put a solid plan together and implemented it well with the equipment you had.
If possible, lowering is always a good option since you don't have to worry about controlling the descent. It does take competent support up top. If you rap make sure you can lock off the rappel and work the situation w/both hands.
Talking to your "victim" is always good. Give them an idea what you are going to do and what you want them to do and NOT do (e.g., "Don't try to grab me when I get close."). Be calm and reassuring if at all possible.
Get the victim on the rope. If they are attached to you via your harness you may be pulled off your feet, etc. if they slip/fall. A simple Swiss-seat/swami style webbing harness will work well.
In some instances it may be best to stabilize the situation (secure the victim), but not complete the rescue (i.e., wait for assistance) if you know help is on the way.
I gotta repeat it - first rate job. Serious points to you.
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cutty
Apr 7, 2006, 6:17 AM
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In reply to: Cutty, what was your rappel device? If it wasn't your gri gri, and you had a gri gri with you, why didn't you use it?
ATC. When I was initially gathering my gear and getting set up for the rappel, the anchors were still being setup and the lines weren't fixed. They became fixed afterward, but I was already set up on rappel.
The Gri Gri would have been a good alternative, though in my limited experience rapping with it so far I'm not a big fan of the ride. Seems to depend a lot on the rope though...
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cutty
Apr 7, 2006, 6:28 AM
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In reply to: Talking to your "victim" is always good. Give them an idea what you are going to do and what you want them to do and NOT do (e.g., "Don't try to grab me when I get close."). Be calm and reassuring if at all possible.
I don't clearly remember much of what I said, but I was talking to her from the moment I started the rappel and all through the hairy parts. Mostly I was just trying to reassure her and help her keep calm. As I was drawing near I told her to hold still and stay as she was, and when I was putting the initial sling around her waist I firmly told her to not try to help me out by moving to make it easier for me.
I give her credit for being very calm and rational. She did exactly what I told her to do, and even when she was telling me that she didn't think she could hold on much longer she was pretty matter of fact about it. She kept a very cool head, which made things a lot easier for me.
Communication is definitely important!
Thanks for the feedback and the praise.
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antiqued
Apr 7, 2006, 10:18 PM
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With the advantage of hindsight, here are a couple of questions/suggestions:
It sound like you rappelled on doubled ropes. Should you have fixed the pair, and rapped on only one, making it easier to attach the victim to an already unloaded line?
Should the first step have been to fix a pair of lines, and then to knot several hand and foot loops in one, and lower it to the victim? (Presuming that the victim could last much longer on foot loops and hand loops than moss)
I didn't see the situation, and I don't know if these would be right, but would welcome discussion.
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cutty
Apr 7, 2006, 11:08 PM
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In reply to: It sound like you rappelled on doubled ropes. Should you have fixed the pair, and rapped on only one, making it easier to attach the victim to an already unloaded line?
I've been going over this in my head a bit lately, since the question has been brought to mind in a few different forms. I see it as a valid option, but based on the situation I can't personally think of any strong arguments for or against it. The only argument against that I can think of is the extra friction on rappel might have made things a little easier to deal when I got down there prior to tying the autoblock.
If she had been further down, things could have been different. There were no anchors near the edge, so a lot of rope was eaten up setting up the anchors. If she'd been further down a single line rap (or lower) might have been required.
If she'd been further down it would have most likely meant she was injured too, which would have changed a lot of other things.
Edit: It's also worth considering that while there were two separate anchors, they weren't joined to a masterpoint. If one of the anchors had failed, one strand would have suddenly had a whole lot of slack in it.
In reply to: Should the first step have been to fix a pair of lines, and then to knot several hand and foot loops in one, and lower it to the victim? (Presuming that the victim could last much longer on foot loops and hand loops than moss)
That's a great technique to have in the toolbox. It didn't occur to me at the time, but it wouldn't have been a safe option so I might have discarded it subsconsciously. My understanding based on the communication I had when arriving on the scene was that she was weakening and could go at any moment. In a situation like that, it seems like you're trying to balance speed against risk. Take to long, and she might fall. Do something too risky, and she (or someone else) might fall.
Getting loops to where she was would have been quick and easy, definitely. But the act of her reaching for them could possibly have dislodged her, or at least that was my assessment at the time.
Another factor which I don't think I considered at the time, but is obvious in hindsight, is the victim's own athleticism. She was a big girl. With her size, it's highly unlikely she could hang from a single hand in a loop, or even both hands in a loop, for any length of time at all. I can think of more ways that her trying to use loops could have made the situation worse.
But if I'd run into, say, a fairly athletic-looking person who'd freesoloed herself into trouble, I can see how that might be a much superior option.
It seems though that rigging for and executing a short rappel isn't likely to be any quicker, and it saves the victim from having to do anything but hang on.
In reply to: I didn't see the situation, and I don't know if these would be right, but would welcome discussion.
And I welcome the suggestions! Lowering loops isn't mentioned in self-rescue. Maybe the safe applications of doing that are limited, but I'd rather have an obscure option that's better for rare situations lodged somewhere in my brain where it's got a decent chance of popping out in an emergency.
If nothing else, I think this shows how there's no One True Way when it comes to rescuing. There's just the Safe Way That Is Also Quickest.
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dirtineye
Apr 7, 2006, 11:25 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: In reply to: Sounds good. I think the sling girthed around her waist is fine. The one thing I really don't like is the idea of you operating on her one-handed. Sorry to say it, but that's just stupid, since you know how to mule off your device. It'll take longer for you to work on her with one hand, make everything more fidgety, and seriously increase the risk of you winding up needing a rescue (or worse) too. Anyway, kudos to you for helping her out! GO And just where do you see that he worked one handed, or needed to mule off his device? he had a rappel backup, and a backup knot. Yes it would be stupid to do what you suggest he did, but he didn't do that. The only one who said he rigged a backup before he started down was you. Here's what cutty said: In reply to: In reply to: Did you happen to have an auto-block in your rappel system? Not when I started rapelling down, I didn't. It was a judgement call. I know in theory how to rig an autoblock, but I'd never rapped with one before. Ironically it was on my list of things to practice that day, but in that situation I felt that having never tried it before added an unknown variable into the system. Maybe I'd screw it up and jam it in my belay device. Maybe it would lock unexpectedly and throw me off balance at exactly the wrong time and knock the hiker off the cliff. I decided it was better to get down there first, get stable, get her temporarily secured (one-handed) and then back up my rappel. I don't at all think that was "ideal", and if she'd just been stuck without an immediate risk of falling I would have gone with the backup and trusted myself to work out any problems on the way down.
That post got in before mine somehow. I started typing before epoch asked his Q, and finished after.
Oh well.
Yeah it's stupid to work one handed uner those circumstances. It's also stupid to rap down in such a situation without a backup that takes 10 seconds to set. But now it's clear he didn't know how to do it.
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schnoz
Apr 7, 2006, 11:59 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: Talking to your "victim" is always good. Give them an idea what you are going to do and what you want them to do and NOT do (e.g., "Don't try to grab me when I get close."). Be calm and reassuring if at all possible. I don't clearly remember much of what I said, but I was talking to her from the moment I started the rappel and all through the hairy parts. Mostly I was just trying to reassure her and help her keep calm. As I was drawing near I told her to hold still and stay as she was, and when I was putting the initial sling around her waist I firmly told her to not try to help me out by moving to make it easier for me. I give her credit for being very calm and rational. She did exactly what I told her to do, and even when she was telling me that she didn't think she could hold on much longer she was pretty matter of fact about it. She kept a very cool head, which made things a lot easier for me. Communication is definitely important! Thanks for the feedback and the praise.
Hi Cutty, job well done. Thanks for posting not only a description of what you did but also asking others how you could have improved what you did, spawning a good discussion.
The above quote was my only real question after your initial post. In everything I've been taught about rescue (which is a little limited), it's always important to talk to the victim and in doing so, you're helping your own safety as well. Sounds like you did a good job in this respect.
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cutty
Apr 8, 2006, 12:09 AM
Post #47 of 48
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Registered: May 26, 2005
Posts: 47
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In reply to: But now it's clear he didn't know how to do it.
I'm tempted to launch into a lengthy defense of this over mostly semantic differences, but I think that's just over-reacting to something I'm likely intepreting in a way it's not intended. (Hah. Make sense of that!)
However, even though it's just semantic difference I will point out that I did know how to tie an autoblock, but I made the judgement that doing so could have increased the danger to the victim.
But I've said that already, and I've said other things on this topic. I'm happy to discuss it further if anyone likes, but for the moment I'll just accept the criticism: it would certainly be better had I felt confident in my ability to rappel with a backup knot without any slight risk of further complicating the rescue.
Unless my next rescue happens within the first 15 minutes of arriving at the crag (as this one did!) I'm sure I won't need to make that call again.
(Ack, it ended up being sorta lengthy anyway. )
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cutty
Apr 8, 2006, 12:27 AM
Post #48 of 48
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Registered: May 26, 2005
Posts: 47
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In reply to: The above quote was my only real question after your initial post. In everything I've been taught about rescue (which is a little limited), it's always important to talk to the victim and in doing so, you're helping your own safety as well. Sounds like you did a good job in this respect.
My bad. I was so anxious about sussing out the wisdom of my girth-hitch solution that I left out a lot of relevant details. If I'd posted under the topic "I girth hitched. Should I have?" then maybe that would have been ok. But I think it's worthwhile to go into all the details and I should have waited to type up a more detailed report first.
And even in the detailed report, I didn't mention anything about talking to the victim. I think it's an important aspect, and a great point to bring up. Even if all you can think to say is to describe what you're doing, that's still going to be reassuring to the victim, as long as you can radiate calmness and confidence and you don't say anything to make her feel worse.
"It's pretty scary down here, hey? Wow, that's a long, long fall. I don't think you'd survive it! We'd better hurry up. Boy, that moss looks sketchy, I can actually see it squishing toward the edge. I guess the recent rain made it all soft and gooey. Oh, nice tattoo, by the way. Did it hurt much? I was thinking of getting one here [points], but I'm not sure if it's really "me". What do you think? Is that your natural hair color?"
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