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Scooter12ga
Apr 2, 2010, 9:12 PM
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Comments like these typically get peppered in randomly in other threads, but there's no one source. Like the tips and tricks thread, this can become the all-in-one for things you didn't think would happen because you were educated.
What's a dangerous situation that happened to you, which you knew about before hand (from a book, a guide service, etc...)? You thought you could avoid it, by being aware, adding redundancy, taking extra precautions, whatever... These don't necessarily have to be tragic situations but things I'm thinking about are: lockers coming open, pro pulling/walking out, whatever. And if you know the cause, even better - perhaps others can learn from our mistakes.
I don't have a great example, but I'll get it started with this:
Climbing two weeks ago on some local basalt, I placed a nut in a nice constriction - textbook placement with the shape of the rock and nut nicely meshing. Tugged on it to set it. Torqued it at different angles to make sure it was solid. "Bomber," I thought, for sure this placement would need a tool to get out. Extended it with a shoulder length sling to reduce the rope jiggling it. Then just moments later and a couple moves up my belayer calls out to alert me, I look down toward him and see the nut finishing its ride down the rope toward my last piece. "I see it," I yelled back and quickly placed another piece. No harm, no tragedy - but even "great" looking placements aren't necessarily "good."
What's your story?
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thomasribiere
Apr 2, 2010, 9:16 PM
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Learning to climb on the internet.
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evanwish
Apr 2, 2010, 10:47 PM
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Holds breaking.
and even a huge block pulling out of an offwidth on me. No fun.
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adatesman
Apr 4, 2010, 5:02 PM
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clausti
Apr 4, 2010, 5:21 PM
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Scooter12ga wrote: Comments like these typically get peppered in randomly in other threads, but there's no one source. Like the tips and tricks thread, this can become the all-in-one for things you didn't think would happen because you were educated. What's a dangerous situation that happened to you, which you knew about before hand (from a book, a guide service, etc...)? You thought you could avoid it, by being aware, adding redundancy, taking extra precautions, whatever... These don't necessarily have to be tragic situations but things I'm thinking about are: lockers coming open, pro pulling/walking out, whatever. And if you know the cause, even better - perhaps others can learn from our mistakes. I don't have a great example, but I'll get it started with this: Climbing two weeks ago on some local basalt, I placed a nut in a nice constriction - textbook placement with the shape of the rock and nut nicely meshing. Tugged on it to set it. Torqued it at different angles to make sure it was solid. "Bomber," I thought, for sure this placement would need a tool to get out. Extended it with a shoulder length sling to reduce the rope jiggling it. Then just moments later and a couple moves up my belayer calls out to alert me, I look down toward him and see the nut finishing its ride down the rope toward my last piece. "I see it," I yelled back and quickly placed another piece. No harm, no tragedy - but even "great" looking placements aren't necessarily "good." What's your story?
just because you kicked your nut or your rope doesn't mean it wasn't a good placement.
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jacques
Apr 4, 2010, 7:30 PM
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falling. every person know that you can fall. The people took courses, study the ABC of climbing, but they never learn that when a quebec guide teach them "by the book" he forgot to teach them what is obvious for all people.
Two climbers fixed a portaledge, get in to it an onclip there rope from the belay to a loop on the portaledge. The loop was for there accessory and both climbers fell to death when it broke.
In my opinion, learn every thing from books, friends and internet, but take a guide to brings you in dangerous situation that the guide, not you, control. Your not going to like your guide, but your going to save your life and be gratefull to him two or three years later.
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hafilax
Apr 4, 2010, 8:24 PM
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There are a few things that I've seen people underestimate and that I've underestimated myself.
One is the fatigue in a long multipitch climb. Not only do you physically have to get up the wall but mentally as well. The last pitches can be way below your limit but they suddenly seem insurmountable once dehydrated and mentally taxed. I've gotten in over my head but only did so knowing that my partner could (probably) bail me out (and did). You don't know how your going to deal with it until it happens.
The other is bolt ladders. Steep A0 is hard for a 5.6 climber. Put them in tied aiders with spaced out bolts and they're in for an epic. I've witnessed this once and heard countless other stories about the bolt ladder on the Monkey Face in Smith Rock.
I guess there is always rappelling which I consider to be one of, if not the, most dangerous components of climbing. You can free every pitch without weighting a piece but once you commit to a rappel you are relying on the every safety system that you've built. Add to that fatigue, dehydration, impending darkness and storms plus old fashioned complacency and it can be deadly. My heart jumps every time I weight the anchor for a rappel.
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evanwish
Apr 4, 2010, 9:17 PM
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adatesman wrote: evanwish wrote: Holds breaking. and even a huge block pulling out of an offwidth on me. No fun. No fun whatsoever. My first lead fall happened when the small ledge I was standing on detached from the cliff while I was slinging a horn. Was a bit run out at the time (~15' above last piece) and went for quite a ride. Area has a reputation for being chossy, but damn!
Oh damn! Thats an unwelcome surprise!
I guess another example paralleling this would be falling rock. My first year leading we were at the base getting ready to climb and some kids at the top of the rock (the trail goes along the top, and you rap into the climb) started chucking rocks over the cliff. I mean BIG rocks. Big enough to fill the inside of your helmet. Even after yelling and cussing it took the damn kids a while to figure out that meant to stop...
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adatesman
Apr 4, 2010, 9:41 PM
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coolcat83
Apr 4, 2010, 10:37 PM
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I was leading an easy warm up to set up some top ropes up a 5.3ish gully. it was a bit chossy on the left side so i kept to the right where there were a few placements. but I had to cross over at the top to exit above a large flake. I was about to exit when the block I was standing on, (which really appeared to be part of the larger cliff face) shifted, I yelled rock...but it didn't come off, until I took my foot off it, then it proceeded to slowly ooze off the cliff face and then tumble full speed towards my belayer missing him by a few feet. All I could do was yell rock and hope that he didn't get hit, and that I didn't get pulled off, my last placement was a crappy psychological 0tcu placement. lots of excitement for a 5.3 hike.
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1up
Apr 4, 2010, 11:24 PM
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[quote
I guess there is always rappelling which I consider to be one of, if not the, most dangerous components of climbing. You can free every pitch without weighting a piece but once you commit to a rappel you are relying on the every safety system that you've built. Add to that fatigue, dehydration, impending darkness and storms plus old fashioned complacency and it can be deadly. My heart jumps every time I weight the anchor for a rappel.
I couldn't agree with this more. I have this crazy mental check list i go threw when rapping and have my partner or partners double check everything before anyone heads down the rope. I still hate being the last guy down the line because you don't have anyone to check to make sure you clipped in properly, especially in the dark. I just got a chill thinking about it 
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evanwish
Apr 5, 2010, 1:24 AM
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Here's one I found particularly powerful, and relevant to this thread.
I'll keep my comments to a minimum for respect to the victim, but this is a powerful example of needing to play it safe (retreat, not try to race the weather).
http://www.friendsofyosar.org/...hedral_Fatality.html
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tradrenn
Apr 5, 2010, 1:31 AM
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1up wrote: hafilax wrote: I guess there is always rappelling which I consider to be one of, if not the, most dangerous components of climbing. You can free every pitch without weighting a piece but once you commit to a rappel you are relying on the every safety system that you've built. Add to that fatigue, dehydration, impending darkness and storms plus old fashioned complacency and it can be deadly. My heart jumps every time I weight the anchor for a rappel. I couldn't agree with this more. I have this crazy mental check list i go threw when rapping and have my partner or partners double check everything before anyone heads down the rope. I still hate being the last guy down the line because you don't have anyone to check to make sure you clipped in properly, especially in the dark. I just got a chill thinking about it
Fixed that for ya.
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TarHeelEMT
Apr 5, 2010, 6:25 PM
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While I had always been aware of the possibility as an abstraction, this weekend at Table Rock, NC, I saw a two-foot thick tree with slings and rappel rings that had fallen down to the access trail beneath the crag.
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1up
Apr 5, 2010, 10:14 PM
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Thanks.
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patmay81
Apr 5, 2010, 10:50 PM
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hafilax wrote: The other is bolt ladders. Steep A0 is hard for a 5.6 climber. Put them in tied aiders with spaced out bolts and they're in for an epic. I've witnessed this once and heard countless other stories about the bolt ladder on the Monkey Face in Smith Rock.
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dingus
Apr 5, 2010, 11:33 PM
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Potato goes in front. Now I knew about this issue for years, but I'm no tater abuser so I never saw it put to practice.
Then one day I saw a bloke at the crag... wearing shiny lycra (I am THAT old) with the potato in back.
The Horror....
The Horror....
DMT
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altelis
Apr 6, 2010, 12:00 AM
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dingus wrote: Potato goes in front. Now I knew about this issue for years, but I'm no tater abuser so I never saw it put to practice. Then one day I saw a bloke at the crag... wearing shiny lycra (I am THAT old) with the potato in back. The Horror....
The Horror.... DMT
Where are those trophies when you really need them?
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bill413
Apr 6, 2010, 12:34 AM
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dingus wrote: Potato goes in front. Now I knew about this issue for years, but I'm no tater abuser so I never saw it put to practice. Then one day I saw a bloke at the crag... wearing shiny lycra
That is more than I needed to read before experiencing terror!
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Piedpiper
Apr 7, 2010, 2:02 AM
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Never in my wildest dreams did I think this could happen and probably couldn't pull it off again if I tried. I just I made the transition into ice climbing after years of climbing rock and didn't have enough coin to buy my own set of tools. I usually borrowed a set of tools but the ice was in prime conditions and every one seemed to be out climbing so there were no spare tools kicking around. My buddy and I had our hearts set on climbing this 2 pitch WI2+ gully that had been coming in nicely. We decided that it would be possible to share a set of ice tools. He led the first pitch trailing a haul rope. At the top of the first pitch we planned on lowering the tools down to me and I would cruise on up and we would repeat the process on the next pitch. My partner began to lower the tools clipped to the end of the rope with a locking biner (just to make sure). Everything was going fine until they managed to clip themselves to a quick draw on an ice screw halfway up the pitch. I ended up having to climb the first half of the pitch without ice tools. Nobody hurt, some good laughs and tons of inconvenience.
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airscape
Apr 7, 2010, 8:25 AM
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My brother and his partner topped out on a multipitch climb and sat on the cliff looking at the sunset. Everything was great until the sun dissapeared and not one of them had a flashlight.
They had to walk off in pitch blackness not knowing where the path was.
The next day doing the walk off in daylight they realized in how much danger they where of dieing.
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jt512
Apr 7, 2010, 9:40 AM
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airscape wrote: My brother and his partner topped out on a multipitch climb and sat on the cliff looking at the sunset. Everything was great until the sun dissapeared and not one of them had a flashlight. They had to walk off in pitch blackness not knowing where the path was. The next day doing the walk off in daylight they realized in how much danger they where of dieing.
Better late than never, I suppose.
Jay
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airscape
Apr 7, 2010, 9:43 AM
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That came out a bit skew.... Guess one should read what you type before pressing post reply.
But oh well 
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airscape
Apr 7, 2010, 10:39 AM
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Thanks for that link, it was some really interesting reading.
People get themselves into such trouble.
Mostly it seems people just make one stupid judgement call and it starts escalating into more and more bad calls untill the sutuation is completely unfixable, and it seems moslty they would have been ok if they had just stopped and thunk for a second.
^^ Does that make sence? I don't know.
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