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adelphos
Jul 29, 2011, 12:33 AM
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So my wife and I are climbing this weekend. I'm on belay and she has just clipped into the anchors at the top of a 5.9, 20 meters or so up. While she is pulling through the rope, a quick-draw falls off of her harness.
I see the whole thing and immediately yell, ROCK! It hits the wall and goes spinning towards a couple next to us who are tying on shoes and just kind of stumbling in prep to start an adjacent route.
I continuing to yell in their direction now, and they are oblivious. Then I'm waving at them, while I'm yelling. Still they are in lala land. Finally I watch helplessly as the guy gets a solid whack on the shoulder from the clip.
So, my wife see what happened and apologizes from up the wall, says it won't happen again. I apologize as well and the guy comes back with a kind of rude comment.
How would you respond?
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acorneau
Jul 29, 2011, 12:37 AM
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adelphos wrote: So my wife and I are climbing this weekend. I'm on belay and she has just clipped into the anchors at the top of a 5.9, 20 meters or so up. While she is pulling through the rope, a quick-draw falls off of her harness. I see the whole thing and immediately yell, ROCK! It hits the wall and goes spinning towards a couple next to us who are tying on shoes and just kind of stumbling in prep to start an adjacent route. I continuing to yell in their direction now, and they are oblivious. Then I'm waving at them, while I'm yelling. Still they are in lala land. Finally I watch helplessly as the guy gets a solid whack on the shoulder from the clip. So, my wife see what happened and apologizes from up the wall, says it won't happen again. I apologize as well and the guy comes back with a kind of rude comment. How would you respond?
You gave the warning of a falling object, he (seemingly) ignored that warning. His loss.
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swoopee
Jul 29, 2011, 12:41 AM
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You really did all you could do, well other than your wife not dropping the quickdraw in the first place. Don't worry about it. The other guy's a jerk. Next time she could try aiming for his head. 
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adelphos
Jul 29, 2011, 12:47 AM
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LOL, that's kind of what I figured, but just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed some kind of climbing law. I'd just hate to think what would have happened if she pulled off a flake like I had nearly done earlier in the day.
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6pacfershur
Jul 29, 2011, 12:49 AM
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this didnt happen at Metcalfe, did it?
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tory_c89
Jul 29, 2011, 12:50 AM
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OOPS SORRY
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adelphos
Jul 29, 2011, 12:57 AM
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Nope, not sure where Metcalfe is. We were at a wall at exit 38 in Washington state.
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wonderwoman
Jul 29, 2011, 2:26 AM
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adelphos wrote: So my wife and I are climbing this weekend. I'm on belay and she has just clipped into the anchors at the top of a 5.9, 20 meters or so up. While she is pulling through the rope, a quick-draw falls off of her harness. I see the whole thing and immediately yell, ROCK! It hits the wall and goes spinning towards a couple next to us who are tying on shoes and just kind of stumbling in prep to start an adjacent route. I continuing to yell in their direction now, and they are oblivious. Then I'm waving at them, while I'm yelling. Still they are in lala land. Finally I watch helplessly as the guy gets a solid whack on the shoulder from the clip. So, my wife see what happened and apologizes from up the wall, says it won't happen again. I apologize as well and the guy comes back with a kind of rude comment. How would you respond?
I wouldn't respond. You did all that you could, but you cannot control the inappropriate reactions of others.
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moose_droppings
Jul 29, 2011, 3:07 AM
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adelphos wrote: So my wife and I are climbing this weekend. I'm on belay belaying and she has just clipped into the anchors at the top of a 5.9, 20 meters or so up. While she is pulling through the rope, a quick-draw falls off of her harness. I see the whole thing and immediately yell, ROCK! It hits the wall and goes spinning towards a couple next to us who are tying on shoes and just kind of stumbling in prep to start an adjacent route. I continuing to yell in their direction now, and they are oblivious. Then I'm waving at them, while I'm yelling. Still they are in lala land. Finally I watch helplessly as the guy gets a solid whack on the shoulder from the clip. So, my wife see what happened and apologizes from up the wall, says it won't happen again. I apologize as well and the guy comes back with a kind of rude comment. How would you respond?
You can only do so much.
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JoeHamilton
Jul 29, 2011, 3:50 AM
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I think you did the best you could.
And if someone here tells you to cut their top rope don't listen, its the lack of bacon.
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Kartessa
Jul 29, 2011, 3:55 AM
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JoeHamilton wrote: I think you did the best you could. And if someone here tells you to cut their top rope don't listen, its the lack of bacon.
Stop talkin, start cuttin.
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adelphos
Jul 29, 2011, 4:28 AM
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I'm from Washington state, well I've been out here since '96 so that's long enough. We have a lot of granite and the area we were climbing in had some nice flakes to grab on but some were a little loose.
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blueeyedclimber
Jul 29, 2011, 12:14 PM
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adelphos wrote: I see the whole thing and immediately yell, ROCK! It hits the wall and goes spinning towards a couple next to us who are tying on shoes and just kind of stumbling in prep to start an adjacent route. I continuing to yell in their direction now, and they are oblivious. Then I'm waving at them, while I'm yelling. Still they are in lala land. Finally I watch helplessly as the guy gets a solid whack on the shoulder from the clip.
Is it me, or does it seem like the quickdraw took an abnormal amount of time to come down?
Josh
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boymeetsrock
Jul 29, 2011, 1:33 PM
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blueeyedclimber wrote: adelphos wrote: I see the whole thing and immediately yell, ROCK! It hits the wall and goes spinning towards a couple next to us who are tying on shoes and just kind of stumbling in prep to start an adjacent route. I continuing to yell in their direction now, and they are oblivious. Then I'm waving at them, while I'm yelling. Still they are in lala land. Finally I watch helplessly as the guy gets a solid whack on the shoulder from the clip. Is it me, or does it seem like the quickdraw took an abnormal amount of time to come down? Josh
They use WC Helium draws.
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sungam
Jul 29, 2011, 2:12 PM
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"Could you pass me that draw, bro?"
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Ryan_moore
Jul 29, 2011, 2:14 PM
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i would respond: hey shut the fuck up i just gave you a free quick draw!
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JoeHamilton
Jul 29, 2011, 2:20 PM
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Ryan_moore wrote: i would respond: hey shut the fuck up i just gave you a free quick draw!
Filed in my memory incase I'm ever in that situation
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sungam
Jul 29, 2011, 2:39 PM
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Ryan_moore wrote: i would respond: hey shut the fuck up i just gave you a free quick draw!
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Kartessa
Jul 29, 2011, 3:30 PM
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I'd like to know how far over these guys were from you, that they couldn't hear you and how wandering your route was to have your climber above them and you so far. I mean if you were climbing a sport route, how far can it trend?
This whole story confuses me.
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adelphos
Jul 29, 2011, 3:54 PM
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They were pretty close, close enough that I could almost reach out and touch them. It seemed to take forever for the thing to hit the ground. It would have dropped in front of me, but it slammed into the rock about half way down and that just spun it in the direction.
The thing that irked me most was just that they were so oblivious to what was going on around them. Usually when some starts yelling at the rock, everyone starts looking. Like I said earlier, what if it had really been a rock?
We didn't want to give away the quick-draw as we figured with a hit like that it should be retired.
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ChalkIsCheap
Jul 29, 2011, 4:06 PM
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adelphos wrote: They were pretty close, close enough that I could almost reach out and touch them. It seemed to take forever for the thing to hit the ground. It would have dropped in front of me, but it slammed into the rock about half way down and that just spun it in the direction. The thing that irked me most was just that they were so oblivious to what was going on around them. Usually when some starts yelling at the rock, everyone starts looking. Like I said earlier, what if it had really been a rock? We didn't want to give away the quick-draw as we figured with a hit like that it should be retired.
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JoeHamilton
Jul 29, 2011, 4:55 PM
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Adelphos, read dropped my atc . Lol, that draw might be totally fine.
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happiegrrrl
Jul 29, 2011, 5:28 PM
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After you had yelled "rock" a couple times and seen no response, you should have yelled "Hey ASSHOLE! ROCK!"
Pretty sure he definitely would have heard the "asshole," but whether you would have then had enough time to clarify why you had simply wanted to get his attention, I cannot say. At any rate - the guy probably would have launched toward you, with his partner dragged alongside trying to hold him back as he came to kick your ass. Either way - they probably wouldn't have gotten clipped by the clippy thingie.
Catastrophe averted!
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