Then he's backpedalling. USnavy taught him to slam your ass and he did.

750+ lead fall catches (includeing some R rated lines), zero incidents, zero injuries...

This is a minor incident that happened yesterday, April 30, 2010. I got a little bruised up and my ankle is a bit sore, but I'm fine. I'd just like to discuss what happened so that I can be safer in the future.

I was climbing an off-width crack in Zion National Park called Sumo Wrestler (5.10-). I usually don't climb this sort of route so I thought it was a chance to try something a bit out of the ordinary.

I think I was about 40 feet up and had placed several pieces deep in the crack. Each piece was clipped to a short dog-bone quickdraw. No extension slings were used. My last piece was a #4 Camalot.

At this point, I made a mistake. I saw some thin flakes protruding from the face high and to the left of the crack. I jammed a leg in the crack and grabbed the flakes. I knew the flakes were weak and liable to break. However, off-width technique is not my strong suite and I gave in to the temptation to pull down hard on the flakes. Almost immediately, the flakes crumpled in my hands and I was airborn.

As I came down, the rope sheared on the left side of the crack. My belayer says that he jumped back away from the wall to shorten the fall. I slammed into the wall fairly hard, bruising my left hip and tweaking my right ankle. I won't be climbing again for at least a few days.

What is very disconcerting, though, is that the rope was sheared to the core. As a matter of fact, a few of the core strands were severed. I feel that if the edge had been sharper, you might be reading about another incident similar to the July 11, 2009 Seneca Rocks incident ( see other thread ).

By my own analysis, the cause of the fall was pulling down on holds that I knew were likely to break. The cam was about at my feet, so I was not run out. I've been wondering if it would have been wise to put a runner on that last cam; would that have prevented the rope shearing on the edge of the crack? The crack eans a little bit to the left at the point where the rope presumably sheared, so that probably contributed to the shear damage. Would it likely have prevented damage to the rope had the belayer given a dynamic belay instead of jumping away from the wall?

Off-width junkies, please chime in? :-)

Zero honesty.

Jay

First off your belayer should have provided you with a dynamic catch if you were that far off the deck and that close to your piece. Remember I told you I wouldn’t climb with you in Mexico if you didn’t pay attention to that? I have brought the subject up with you multiple times so I know you know this. Dynamic catches are very important, they can easily make the difference between a soft ride and a broken foot. Not to mention hard catches can rip marginal gear. Its a serious matter.

As far as the rope goes, ropes under tension are much more suitable to damage from abrasion then when they are not under tension. The fact that you clipped the cam in short made the issue worse. Glad to see your okay. How’s your vacation going anyway? I can’t wait to make it down to there, let me know how the rest of your trip goes.

Shit. Again I find myself agreeing with one of your posts. I hate it when gumbies improve. It undermines my entire worldview. Now if you could just get the whole then/than–your/you're thing figured out.

Jay

Well if I ever make a million dollars I will hire Vanna White to teach me demonstrative adjectives just for you.

Well, actually there is. This accident is not purely the belayers fault. The "leader" clearly got himself in over his head, by a large margin.

Apparently you're very new to climbing. By starting on something much tamer that was more at his level, he would have been able to learn some skills, and not find himself in a desperate situation. It's very clear to me by his description of the incident that he knowingly headed into bad territory because he was scared.

In this situation, he used poor judgement. Not only by his own admission did not have ow skills, he now how to grapple with gear to boot.

Great way to get into trouble.

Now if you could just get the whole then/than–your/you're thing figured out.

I can't think of a better way to learn not to go off route.

Hoo boy. I guess you're right, in the sense that the "best" way to learn not to do something is a way that 1 - The only reason why you're not dead is plain old luck and a few strands of core, and 2 - results in injury.

IMO, you keep learning by your "best" method, you'll have a short climbing career.

GO

ummm actually I provide a dynamic catch 99%+ of the time. The only exception is if the climber is going to deck or hit a ledge. Talk shit all you want but I am a very attentive belayer, I take belaying seriously. 750+ lead fall catches (includeing some R rated lines), zero incidents, zero injuries...

at 750 lead fall, I think you got a sh*tty partner

Six years leading, 2 - 4x a week a year long. Do the math, that’s about one catch every day I go climbing. That’s pretty conservative. I think I caught six or seven lead falls yesterday alone.

Hoo boy. I guess you're right, in the sense that the "best" way to learn not to do something is a way that 1 - The only reason why you're not dead is plain old luck and a few strands of core, and 2 - results in injury.

IMO, you keep learning by your "best" method, you'll have a short climbing career.

GO

On bolts or gear?

...it's just a fall that wasn't too pretty.

We've all had a hundred of them.

You guys are taking my words out of context. I've said already that the guy was in over his head and made mistakes. Anytime the leader falls it's his/her fault. Can't blame it on anyone else.

I just don't think that the grade of the climb is automatically a reason to say "you picked the wrong route... what were you thinking?" I don't see how you are supposed to learn how to climb harder without climbing harder. I suck at OW but a 5.6 or 5.7 like someone suggested that the OP should have been on still feels easy for me. I'm not sure I'd skip over the 5.9, but then again 5.9 can be harder than 5.10 where I'm from! What other ways are there to develop your OW technique?

Luck is a contributing factor in every climbing incident. In this case I think the rope did it's job. Sure you can say he was lucky that the rope didn't break, but you could also say that he was unlucky that his belayer short roped him, maybe causing the core shot.