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kane_schutzman
Mar 17, 2007, 11:07 PM
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Alright,
Just imagining someone going up an A4-A5 route gives me goose bumps. I wanna hear about the most HANEOUS fall that you have had while aiding, whether it was on a A1 or an Ashityourpants. Include distance, what you had below you, what you were doing, and make it real, and like we are there. I have never personally aided a big wall, but aiding single pitch stuff is still fun as hell for me. Lets hear it!
Btw, how many people do you guys think actually do A4 and up routes? Not many I suspect.
Edit: If you have no good stories where you actually fall, then maybe describe a time when a fall would have seriously sucked and the circumstances.
(This post was edited by kane_schutzman on Mar 18, 2007, 2:39 AM)
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fenderfour
Mar 19, 2007, 2:24 PM
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I am no b@d@ss aid climber, but I've taken a few. I learned Aid through the "books and balls" method. I bought Bigwalls, Climbing Anchors, More Climbing Anchors, and FTOH and read. My first pitch was a 120' A1. It took me three hours to climb the pitch in the rain.
My second climb was the same pitch, but this time I had cam hooks. When I first started aid climbig I didn't have enough ger to leave everything, so I had to leapfrog my nuts and small cams up the wall. I had just pulled the #5 nut out and I was weighting my sh!tty Pika cam hook, watching it flex almost 15 degrees in a decent placement. I stepped up to the second step in my aiders and was preparing to set the #5 nut again. I heard a ping and suddenly I was on top rope. Between rope stretch, slack,a dna n inattentive partner, I dropped about 25' onto a #4 nut. I was about 10' off the deck.
After I figured out what happened, I let out a whoop, my partner cursed the gods and I yarded back up to my #4 nut.
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joeforte
Mar 19, 2007, 3:02 PM
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Ok, I'll bite.
This winter I was seriously lacking partners, and I was really itchin to climb. I've managed to also teach myself through the books and balls method, and after 2 years of climbing... I'm leading trad .10s. I really love the physics behind it all, and find a true joy in placing gear.
It was a rainy winters day, so I decided to go try aid. My first pitch I toprope solo'd a 5.8 crack. Man that was boring. Without any real fall potential, and mindless hand crack gear placements, I soon got bored, stepped out of the aiders and freed the rest of the pitch.
As I walked back to my truck, I passed a very thin crack called "The green slime " It was an A1 pitch that years later went free at like 5.11c or something. It's 110 degrees overhanging, and just a beautiful crack that goes vertical, diagonal right, then vertical again.
I decided to build a bomber anchor at the bottom and Aid Solo it. I used my cinch to belay myself, backed up with a clove hitch on two opposed lockers, both slung to my harness for some freedom. The pitch was going well, and I was loving it. The placements were creative, and rather scary considering most of them were alongside loose blocks that kinda formed a jenga game up the wall. I was thinking.... why didn't anyone clean this, so I pulled on one, and realized that if I removed the blocks, the crack would grow about 10 inches wider, and only be protectable with big bros and such. So I put the block back in its place, and continued on.
When I came to the diagonal in the crack, the only gear I could see was about 3 feet right of my position. As I leaned up and out, the nut I was standing on blew out and as I whipped past it, it smacked me in the eye. This was a BIG nut, I believe a #9 walnut. It knocked me out, and gave me a bloody brow.
I woke up, by myself, hanging from a wet rainy wall with blood in my hands having no idea what was going on. There was NO WAY I was gonna try to down aid that jenga below me, so I juged back up and thanked the nut that caught me. Then I finished the pitch, scared shitless, and went home a happy man.
Moral of the story..... Wear glasses and a helmet if you're gonna solo aid!!
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stymingersfink
Mar 20, 2007, 3:25 AM
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30' onto a pecker placed in fractured rock (it held), stopping me probably 6' before I would have fractured my ankles/legs/body on the Black Tower. It was only 1000' off the deck though, so making an emergency retreat would have been relatively easy (?).
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atg200
Mar 20, 2007, 4:23 AM
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My most spectacular fall was going over the roof 600' or so up the kingfisher in the fisher towers. i was backcleaning a lot to keep down drag and jumped on a fixed tricam without testing it. not too bright, and i took a 40 footer into space when it held. for bonus points the piece that held was a godawful bent knifeblade piton that has been there for years - i clipped it as a joke. didn't think it was that funny when i was ascending the line back up to it.
second best was trying to do a solo first hammerless ascent of a nailing route on devils tower. i blew a tiny rp, and went past a couple of backcleaned camhooks and handplaced beaks. it was only 35' or so, but it was my first solo aid fall and it scared the hell out of me.
i've climbed A3+, but never honest to god A4 and not sure i could keep it together enough to try.
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Davey
Mar 20, 2007, 7:15 AM
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j_ung wrote: Where's Kate when you need her? http://www.rockclimbing.com/...es_Screamer_243.html In reply to: Surprisingly, I was able to feel the deployment of each Screamer prior to the failure of it’s associated gear. This slowing effect resulted in a very gentle catch despite falling roughly 120 feet with only 70 feet of rope out. Beat that, ya bums. 
yeah she wins 
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kane_schutzman
Mar 20, 2007, 2:26 PM
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You are some crasy sons a bitches, sorry, but I just can't even picture that big of a fall!
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wanderlustmd
Mar 20, 2007, 4:31 PM
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That must have been a crazy feeling:
"OhthankgodFUCK....ohthankgodFUCK...oh thankgodFUCK.."
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munky
Mar 20, 2007, 4:53 PM
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I once was aiding up a flight of stairs (ya know gripping with vice-like severity at the railings) and slipped, fell, and rolled down 10 stairs. It would have been pretty heinous had I not drank a bottle of George Dicket before hand.
Seriously though, a really good article on sketchy aiding techniques is in a climbing magazine a few issues ago. Its the one with Ivo Ninov on the front cover. He and his partner Ammon McNeely (a complete badass) did an Grade V A4 route in under 24 hours. All I can say is WTF! In the article McNeely is run out 40 feet or so on hook placements, meaning he has no gear for 40 feet and below him are a slew of shitty copperheads, RPs, etc. While runout, his haul line gets caught and he can't move. He's completely F-ed. He has to rap off of a hook placement 80 feet or so (bear in mind he is about 2000 feet off the deck) to free the haul line. Then he has to jug back up that rope all the while hoping that hook placement doesn't blow which would have sent him on the ride of his life. THAT'S GRIPPING!!
(This post was edited by munky on Mar 20, 2007, 4:56 PM)
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dr_feelgood
Mar 20, 2007, 10:11 PM
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munky wrote: I once was aiding up a flight of stairs (ya know gripping with vice-like severity at the railings) and slipped, fell, and rolled down 10 stairs. It would have been pretty heinous had I not drank a bottle of George Dicket before hand. Seriously though, a really good article on sketchy aiding techniques is in a climbing magazine a few issues ago. Its the one with Ivo Ninov on the front cover. He and his partner Ammon McNeely (a complete badass) did an Grade V A4 route in under 24 hours. All I can say is WTF! In the article McNeely is run out 40 feet or so on hook placements, meaning he has no gear for 40 feet and below him are a slew of shitty copperheads, RPs, etc. While runout, his haul line gets caught and he can't move. He's completely F-ed. He has to rap off of a hook placement 80 feet or so (bear in mind he is about 2000 feet off the deck) to free the haul line. Then he has to jug back up that rope all the while hoping that hook placement doesn't blow which would have sent him on the ride of his life. THAT'S GRIPPING!!
Dude.... my butthole just puckered reading that. HOLY SHIT.
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skinner
Mar 21, 2007, 12:54 PM
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I have just basically quit telling my whipper story ever since reading Kate's. The story of my little 90' bounce+whipper even sounded bitchin to me when I told it. Now it just pales in comparison, so I usually tell Kate's instead and get all the, "omg's, & holy-fvk's" that a truly good whippers story brings.
And.. ya, where is Kate? Because I re-read it again and for the first time noticed "The test began when a #1 wire rivet hanger broke". No idea why, but even though I read it several times, for some reason I had always thought the rivet broke, not the hanger. Kate please tell me about this hanger? Did the cable break or did it pull through the swage?
Now I am going to have to gather everone I ever told it to and re-tell the correct version!
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fearlessclimber
Mar 22, 2007, 12:30 AM
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i was climbing an A4 at pinnicle peak in phoenix, say about a 100 feet with many A3 and A4 placements, i was on a shallow bottomed out crack and was a hook above my last placement which was a rurp, i was putting in a micronut, smallest size when my piece i was on shifted, i would have fallen over 40 feet and possibly decked, but i placed the micro nut just in time to save my ass from falling, i still have a scar on my hand from hanging on the wire of the micronut, pretty much saved my life.
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holdplease2
Mar 24, 2007, 4:06 PM
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Hey Skinner -
Thank you for the PM head's up on your question.
The rivit hanger broke when the wire pulled through the swage. I had been standing on the piece for a minute or so, drinking water and looking for more rivit hangers on the rack. It creaked, I looked at it, then it blew.
The rivit hanger was made by Verm and was sold at the Yosemite Mountain Shop. It had not been used before. It was one of the "cinching" rivit hangers, the swage that blew was the one that the aider biner clips into, leaving the rivit hanger on the rivit. The next party up measured the fall with their tag line and retrieved the hanger and passed it to a friend of mine who still has it.
Take home lessons: Especially when you are going to be trusting your life to gear made in someone's garage, test it on the ground. And use the beefiest stuff you can whenever you have the opportunity.
-Kate.
(This post was edited by holdplease2 on Mar 24, 2007, 4:13 PM)
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yetanotherdave
Mar 24, 2007, 4:50 PM
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holdplease2 wrote: The rivit hanger broke when the wire pulled through the swage. ... use the beefiest stuff you can whenever you have the opportunity.
So far my biggest fall is 50', when a cam pulled after a long camhooking section. I'm pretty happy to lose the 'scariest whipper' contest we have going here :)
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tradclmbr
Mar 24, 2007, 4:55 PM
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I also can't beat Kate's fall, but I did manage to take a 30' on the changing corners (c1!!!!) pitch in the upper section of the Nose. Seems I changed corners too early....the half-slotted micro-offset nut and two cam hook moves should have given me a clue.
I was standing 2nd step on a cam hook, placed yet another crappy micro-nut (having fixed our grey TCU in the great roof), stood up and ....ping, ping, ping. It wasnt the distance of the fall, but rather our position high up on the wall that made it so memorable
My belayer got quit the surprise. Thank god for gri gri's. This episode confirms only I could make c1 into c2+!
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climbinginchico
Mar 25, 2007, 4:47 AM
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Kate is BadAss.
In addition to being one of the nicest people I know.
That's one helluva fall...
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holdplease2
Mar 25, 2007, 5:56 AM
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Justanotherdave - the dubloons are great, be sure to request one big enough to fit over machine heads or whatever.
Sometimes broken rivit hangers are wedged in tight behind a nailed rivit, no way to sneak another hanger behind the head. Dubloons work for this.
For "chopped" bolts or rivits, you can hooka thread with a dubloon. This is way sketch, seemingly. But really not so bad.
FISH dubloons will hold over a thouand pounds (IIRC). Wheras a rivit hanger of the same thickness tests at below 300.
Don't buy the pika version...they beveled both sides of many of the washers, wheras fish bevels only one. This means the FISH product can get flush to the rock wheras the pika cannot if you get one of the bad ones.
:) Sorry for the OT drift! Glad to be winning the competition here! All falling is dangerous, so I don't mean to make light.
ClimbinginChico - When ya comin' back to Josh? I found another "Double Crux Bypass" alternative for us! Can't wait to climb with you again!!!!!!!
-Kate.
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fenderfour
Mar 26, 2007, 2:38 PM
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Ok, Holdplease gets the award for nastiest fall (so far). keep posting stories. I love to hear about people and air time.
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areyoumydude
Mar 26, 2007, 5:12 PM
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munky wrote: Seriously though, a really good article on sketchy aiding techniques is in a climbing magazine a few issues ago. Its the one with Ivo Ninov on the front cover. He and his partner Ammon McNeely (a complete badass) did an Grade V A4 route in under 24 hours.(bear in mind he is about 2000 feet off the deck) !!
Native Son is a grade VI A4+ and is about 1800 ft total.
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stymingersfink
Mar 27, 2007, 1:17 AM
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areyoumydude wrote: munky wrote: Seriously though, a really good article on sketchy aiding techniques is in a climbing magazine a few issues ago. Its the one with Ivo Ninov on the front cover. He and his partner Ammon McNeely (a complete badass) did an Grade V A4 route in under 24 hours.(bear in mind he is about 2000 feet off the deck) !! Native Son is a grade VI A4+ and is about 1800 ft total.
i would posit that they brought the stone down to their level... grade IV, A4+ 600M
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tripperjm
Mar 27, 2007, 3:27 AM
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It happened about 20 years ago. Dave, Jeff and myself were doing the Mescalito. We were up a couple of days when the storm hit. We set up the bivy and figured we wouldn't be climbing the next day, so we started to drink and continued to drink most of the night watching the storm. When we woke up late the next day still drunk, the weather had cleared. It was Jeff's lead, he crawled out of his ledge, downed a beer and headed up. A couple of moves off the belay and he was into a good crack, which he crack jumared for about 45 feet. When the crack petered out he placed a small stopper, back cleaned the cam, stood up in the high step and the piece blew. The only gear he had in was just off the belay. As he fell past the stance, the bottom step of his aid slings clipped a carabiner at the belay and Jeff came to an abrupt stop. Hanging upside down Jeff puked the 5th of scotch he had consumed the night before. Dave and I stared at each other Fuuuuk.... and I pulled in 50' of slack in the rope. Somehow, gate flutter or the way the sling cliped in, the gate on the oval carabiner that caught the fall had swung past the nose. He had been caught by his daisy on a open gate carabiner after falling about 50 feet. In classic style, Jeff wiped the puke off his face and headed back up, this time he left a cam half way up the good crack.
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fixednut
Mar 27, 2007, 3:51 AM
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^^ HOLY FUCK ^^
If your buddy was the subject of a Petzl safety diagram in that situation, he would have either exploded into a cloud of dust and a skull and cross-bones, or his spine would have snapped right in half accompanied by a lot of jagged lines and a big exclamation point.
(This post was edited by fixednut on Mar 27, 2007, 3:56 AM)
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stymingersfink
Mar 27, 2007, 3:57 AM
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^^^no shit!^^^^
a whole 5th! Wasted! 
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