The horse is dead. Dig it up, ride it to Colorado and hand the man his fine. Good luck collecting it since he signed no waiver, did not agree in advance and didn't receive a single ticket, notice if violation or wrong doing.

Idiots (did I say that?) like you are why people are getting tight. You want to fine people and make something that isn't about money at all, about money.

You will keep this shit (that is not like me at all to swear) up and be an idiot (I did it again? What is in this glass anyways?) and then to climb we will all need anti-majid (someone else has taken over my keyboard) insurance and it will be effing expensive. I'll have to carry it and so will every last one of us.

I'll be glad to file my first claim when I find you, cut your rope and shove your ass (more swearing, we are in the soapbox right?) into a freezing cold river and let you sit in it and shiver for 5 hours.

Then we'll need insurance against angry pissed off people shoving dip-shits (I need to stop. Think happy thoughts. Where's is Sandler's happy place? Oh yeah. Happy.) into ice cold rivers.

You get it Majid? (I'm being a tad harsh but it's an old topic. I've calmed myself down. Sat in that river I was talking about.)

you are one mean dude and cutting rope is a crime

If you get enough peoples attention we'll all need insurance.

Its not just majid. You will see the 'blame attitude' coming from many climbers, from noob to journeymen. RARELY will you see it from experienced climbers though you will see it from many who think they are experienced.

The thought progression:
1. I am a safe and responsible climber
2. I think X is too dangerous or just plain irresponsible, ergo

{...SNIP...}

Here is a fact - those two climbers can out climb the vast majority of U.S. climbers. They played a climbing game, for their own motives. If someone wants to delve their egos to determine motives and then punish for the wrong ones, be prepared to have the same done to you.

DMT

Just don't be like 5 others on this site and blame the world on Majid however, as its no different then him blaming these climbers.
....
DMT

Its not just majid. You will see the 'blame attitude' coming from many climbers, from noob to journeymen. RARELY will you see it from experienced climbers though you will see it from many who think they are experienced.

There are two three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the inability of some climbers to understand that not everybody has to climb for their reasons.

Jay

Just don't be like 5 others on this site and blame the world on Majid however, as its no different then him blaming these climbers.

The call for private rescue insurance has been around for way longer than majid. I'm told its the model for much of Europe and works well there. With cash strapped budgets and no sign of economic resurgence I believe its highly likely that many rescue agencies will begin assigning fault and issuing bills as a funding mechanism.

But I agree with you hysterical ranting like Majid's and the rest of the BILL EM crowd will hasten that day.

DMT

Hi all,

This is Bill Wright - the guy who wrote the accident report and the other climber rescued. I just discovered this thread (sent to me via a Google alert I have set up to notify me about speed climbing references). Lots of interesting ideas here and critiques that I'd like to respond to and learn from. Since the accident I have thought of other things perhaps I should have done. While I hope to never get in a similar situation, if I do, I hope to perform better.

But I'd like to address this issue of paying for the rescue. In 1981 my partner was leading on Castle Rock when he dislocated his shoulder. I climbed up to his ledge and attempted to lower him myself, but he was in too much pain and had to hold his arm and couldn't keep himself away from the rock at the same time. So, I rapped off, drove down the canyon until I could find a phone and called RMR. I then returned to the rock and climbed back up to my buddy to be with him while we waited for the rescue. I was a freshman in college at the time.

The other rescue was when I made a terrible mistake trying to clean an overhanging route on rappel and had my buddy use a Fireman's belay to belay me. A piece popped at the wrong time I fell 75 feet, breaking my back (barely). I was carried out in a litter over lots of rough terrain but no vertical evac. After that I made a $300 donation to RMR.

For this accident I'll make a similar donation. Our company raised a bunch of money for a gift for Tom and the left over (about $300) was donated to RMR. My inlaws are donating as well. Is it enough? Probably not.

I went to the RMR meeting last night. I know many of these guys. I promote them and defend them as much as I can to the climbing community. They volunteer to the do medical support at my running race where I raise money to maintain the trails in Eldo. I think most of them would say that they like and respect me and that I represent them well. But you'd all be welcome to contact them and get their opinion.

So, I have been involved in 3 rescues over the course of my 31 years of rock climbing, where I climb hundreds of pitches a year. Have I made mistakes? Hell, yes! Am I sorry about that? Hell, yes! But I firmly believe that I do not deserve a rescue. It was my choice to climb the way I did. No one is obligated to go to my rescue. That said, people WANT to help. People WANT to be heros. I do. Obviously I don't want to need a rescue. That means I've screwed up so badly I can't get myself out of it. I'm so grateful for the help we got. But RMR folks are JAZZED about helping others. They operate in a very safe manner. Are their risks? Yes, but they do this willingly for no pay because they LIVE for this stuff.

I'll address the other ideas about what more I could have done in a later post. I appreciate everyone's ideas here and the intent to not criticize me but to help all of us learn what was the best course of action. I understand that and if you are critical of how I behaved, that's okay. I doubt you can be more critical than myself. Believe me I feel like shit for not doing more for Tom, either because I was too dumb or too chicken...

Hi all,

This is Bill Wright - the guy who wrote the accident report and the other climber rescued. I just discovered this thread (sent to me via a Google alert I have set up to notify me about speed climbing references). Lots of interesting ideas here and critiques that I'd like to respond to and learn from. Since the accident I have thought of other things perhaps I should have done. While I hope to never get in a similar situation, if I do, I hope to perform better.

But I'd like to address this issue of paying for the rescue. In 1981 my partner was leading on Castle Rock when he dislocated his shoulder. I climbed up to his ledge and attempted to lower him myself, but he was in too much pain and had to hold his arm and couldn't keep himself away from the rock at the same time. So, I rapped off, drove down the canyon until I could find a phone and called RMR. I then returned to the rock and climbed back up to my buddy to be with him while we waited for the rescue. I was a freshman in college at the time.

The other rescue was when I made a terrible mistake trying to clean an overhanging route on rappel and had my buddy use a Fireman's belay to belay me. A piece popped at the wrong time I fell 75 feet, breaking my back (barely). I was carried out in a litter over lots of rough terrain but no vertical evac. After that I made a $300 donation to RMR.

For this accident I'll make a similar donation. Our company raised a bunch of money for a gift for Tom and the left over (about $300) was donated to RMR. My inlaws are donating as well. Is it enough? Probably not.

I went to the RMR meeting last night. I know many of these guys. I promote them and defend them as much as I can to the climbing community. They volunteer to the do medical support at my running race where I raise money to maintain the trails in Eldo. I think most of them would say that they like and respect me and that I represent them well. But you'd all be welcome to contact them and get their opinion.

So, I have been involved in 3 rescues over the course of my 31 years of rock climbing, where I climb hundreds of pitches a year. Have I made mistakes? Hell, yes! Am I sorry about that? Hell, yes! But I firmly believe that I do not deserve a rescue. It was my choice to climb the way I did. No one is obligated to go to my rescue. That said, people WANT to help. People WANT to be heros. I do. Obviously I don't want to need a rescue. That means I've screwed up so badly I can't get myself out of it. I'm so grateful for the help we got. But RMR folks are JAZZED about helping others. They operate in a very safe manner. Are their risks? Yes, but they do this willingly for no pay because they LIVE for this stuff.

I'll address the other ideas about what more I could have done in a later post. I appreciate everyone's ideas here and the intent to not criticize me but to help all of us learn what was the best course of action. I understand that and if you are critical of how I behaved, that's okay. I doubt you can be more critical than myself. Believe me I feel like shit for not doing more for Tom, either because I was too dumb or too chicken...

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you call our attempt at 100 pitches in Eldo a stunt... I guess you are disparaging us.

let's assume that RMR was not coming , phone was not working and you were all by yourself up there in that situation. explain me your self-rescue plan in detail on how you were going to lower the partner down to base..

Someone said that my blog read like self-promotion. Dang. I'm sorry it came off that way... For us, we figured it was right out there are our very limit and we wanted to see where that limit was... Our limit.

Hold off on that, majid.

Let's stick to the context of the actual accident for now. Bill W may have more to say about what he thinks he might have done differently to help Tom. I'll wager that is more important to most of us than spinning off into other scenarios of your making.