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ninjaslut
Jul 12, 2004, 8:46 PM
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Allright, I recently read John Long's halirous accident review Close Calls, which includes a number of true accounts of climbers suffering the consequences of their horrible judgment on the walls, but none of climbers who's mistakes have cost them the ultimate price. After most of the accident stories, one finds himself thinking that whoever the actual climber invovled was, he should just retire from the sport for his own good, (and that of those around him).
Just because I want more to read, let's see who has the funniest story from the wonderful world of botched climbing. If you've got a great example of why somone should quit climbing before their idiocy catches up with them, post it, and feel free to change names to protect the ignorant...or not.
NS
P.S. The only ground rule is that no story can involve a death or permenant debilitating injury; that would just get the PC police's panties in a wad.
P.P.S. If you aren't familiar with the book, check it out...it's great:
http://www.amazon.com/...918-9728146?v=glance
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sawdust
Jul 12, 2004, 9:25 PM
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I am climbing at a small local 40' crag with a dozon routes, as it is the only craig within two hours that has more than 3 routes. Because of this and the fact that it is overhung, a lot of rapellers frequent the area - you know the types - always have girls they're trying to impress with them.
Anyways one day I'm bouldering down at the base and notoice a static line being fed down through the tops of one of the most popular routes there (10b/c). I think the rapellers are going to rap down it, but then the other end of the line starts being fed down. I start thinking to myself 'Good God, are they going try to climb on a static line?'
Another point that needs to be mentioned to understand this is the fact that the ground at the base is severly sloping downhill, moving away from the base. It also has some offset starts that make ground falls on TR a real possibility if you do not get more than 10' off the deck. There is a medium sized boulder at the base of the climb they are about to do.
Sure enough, they get down to the base and start climbing. Neither of the two makes it more than 5' off the ground. They are in hiking boots btw. One guys decides to try it again, he makes it about 10' up and then pops. His stupid 'belayer' (who doesn't realize what he is doing) immediately begins lowering the guys while he's swinging wildly. He is being lowered to the ground just as he is swinging towards to boulder at the base. He sticks his leg out to absorb the impact - but HE DOES IT STRAIGHT LEGGED - then I hear a very load 'JESUS CHRIST!!! I broke my F*#@^%$ leg!!!
The guy had to be carried out, and I never heard from them again. Not sure if he actually broke his leg or not, but it looked pretty bad. Moral of the story, when you fall - stay loose. I thought it was amusing that someone with so little knowledge would embark upon something so potentially dangerous without making sure they were doing it right.
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kpalsson
Jul 12, 2004, 9:43 PM
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I'd just like to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with toproping on static rope.
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climbersoze
Jul 12, 2004, 9:48 PM
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In reply to: I'd just like to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with toproping on static rope.
Ditto.
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atg200
Jul 12, 2004, 9:51 PM
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The "Shivering on the Spire" story in Close Calls is about me from my first year of climbing.
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ninjaslut
Jul 12, 2004, 10:10 PM
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In reply to: The "Shivering on the Spire" story in Close Calls is about me from my first year of climbing.
Are you saying it's actually about you? Or did you just do something similar?
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jazzmann
Jul 12, 2004, 10:19 PM
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This story sorta fits the topic. There were four of us at red rocks one fine spring trying to decide what to climb. Finally we agreed that two of us would do cat in the hat and the other two would do dark shadows then we would swap routes. My partner and I started with dark shadows and of course it was nice and mellow. When we were finished we ran over to find our friends still waiting to get on cat in the hat. They told us there were at least three different groups ahead of them. Our friends who were waiting had kinda lost there motivation at that point so we asked if we could jump in front with plans to simul - climb the route. "yea whatever" they said. so we were off. We easily passed everyone on the route (one group of four that should not have been there in the first place) and topped out before anyone else. of course that was only half the battle, we still had to rap past all these people. I rapped first on a single fixed line with the intention of having my partner pull up a second rope from our other friends who made good time getting to that rap station. Me and partner just had to mention to our friends how we raced up to top out before all these bumblies and we will be the first to get down as well. Boy are we special. When we reached the ground, right as we were high fiving each other I realized my partner had left the entire rack at the top of the route. 6 pitches up. should he retire? No .... But maybe ease up on the weed a little.
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risos
Jul 12, 2004, 10:37 PM
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how about leading on static rope... the reason given was "it takes scrapes on edges better" oh did I mention the draws were diy made with webbing hand-sewn together and the binners were those pear-shaped ones found in hardware store...
The guy probabbly in his fifties said I wont fall as he climbed up wearing his aqua socks.
Oh and did I mention we were leaving because it was raining misserably and the routes were soaking wet?
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robmcc
Jul 12, 2004, 10:52 PM
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In reply to: how about leading on static rope...
You'll probably die. :) Less stretch (still some--but less) makes for higher forces which will very likely pull your gear.
In reply to: oh did I mention the draws were diy made with webbing hand-sewn together and the binners were those pear-shaped ones found in hardware store...
Odd. You mention something that's ok, but leave out the bits that are clearly not?
In reply to: Oh and did I mention we were leaving because it was raining misserably and the routes were soaking wet?
That explains the aqua socks.
Rob
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atg200
Jul 12, 2004, 10:53 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: The "Shivering on the Spire" story in Close Calls is about me from my first year of climbing. Are you saying it's actually about you? Or did you just do something similar?
the story is actually about me personally.
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ninjaslut
Jul 12, 2004, 11:02 PM
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In reply to: the story is actually about me personally.
Wow, cool!! I'm impressed! How did Long find out about the story?
P.S. Yeah, you should have retired from climbing.
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epic_ed
Jul 12, 2004, 11:24 PM
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Hmm. I thought for certain this thread was going to be about me.
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korporal
Jul 13, 2004, 3:29 AM
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That has to be one of the greatest pics ever. Period. End of story.
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punkrawkclimber
Jul 13, 2004, 6:33 AM
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I thought we drown the old ones
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philbox
Moderator
Jul 13, 2004, 7:15 AM
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Ahahahahaha, crotch, boogers all over my screen from snorting while laughing. I got tears coming outta my eyes.
How many times have I seen that pic. It just seems sooo apropriate for a reply to this thread. Sorry epic_ed.
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j_ung
Jul 13, 2004, 6:20 PM
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This thread takes me back... to my first ever post on RC.com. Like to hear it? Hear it goes.
In reply to: Once, at Carderock, a local DC crag famous for accessibility and therefore, crowds, I observed a fella rappelling Aussie style. Though slightly crunchy in threadbare shorts that showed his tighty whities and an equally torn T-shirt, he appeared confident, set a bomber anchor and proceded to rappel face first. Not that none of the assembled masses had never seen it before, but still it's somewhat rare, so the majority of us stopped what we were doing and watched. Mid-rappel, the intrepid abseiler's torn shorts became firmly lodged in the figure 8 suspended mere inches above his sky-turned ass and he stopped cold. After several seconds of bouncing to try to free himself -- to no avail -- he removed both hands from the brake to poke, prod and wiggle the offending device. Bad move. Letting go the brake added just the right amount of weight to his stuck and stretched-to-the-limit shorts, which promptly ripped from his pelvis and slurped through his figure 8 like a chunk of strawberry through a curvy milkshake straw. Thus freed from the bondage of his shorts -- yet without a hand on the brake -- the would-be hero crashed frontside-first into a thankfully un-talused landing. His shorts, like an Autumn leaf, fluttered to the ground beside him. Though the rappeller, who disappeared quickly afterward, was uninjured, many more of us were later admitted to the hospital with torn abdominal muscles from forceful laughing. True story... except for the torn stomach muscles part. :wink: |
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coylec
Jul 13, 2004, 6:32 PM
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beautiful.
coylec
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billcoe_
Jul 15, 2004, 7:29 PM
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I posted this one just yesterday on RC.com in response to "slightly humorus incident.
In reply to: Nice one. Were there 500 climbers milling around at the base watching? :lol: The only thing worse would be climbing an easy route (Moonshine Diheadral) in the Diheadrals area at Smith rocks (about 5,000 spectators milling around the area at all times), only clipping 1 ear of your REI Harness with 1 non-locking carabiner, then dropping the rope after you untie to thread. :( :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: You are about 80 feet up, and the only way down if you don't rappel is the 5.9 climbing route you just came up. Our protagonist in this mini-drama (Dennis Hemminger) proceeds to start screaming, while hanging onto the anchor for dear life. (OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, I'M ONLY F**EN CLIPPED WITH 1 BINER, OH MY GAAAAAOWWWWWWWWWDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!! I'M SOOOOOOF*UCKKKKKKEEEDDDDD :!: :!: :!: :!: This grabbed the attention of everyone tighter than if Pam Anderson had appeared buck naked riding on a white horse. The moral of that story is that you probably had best not talk up that you are Mr Experianced with 6 years of experiance, big numbers this, big numbers that, I pull hard this blah blah blah, when you basically only have 1 year of experiance repeated 6 years in a row. Dennis thanked me for leading up to bail him out so he could rappel. Unlike Dennis, I made sure the rope was tied off to the anchors when I untied and threaded, at least I avoided that consequesne of us BOTH up there screaming at the top of our lungs "OH MY GAWD, WE'RE SO F* KED". My next Dennis story is much much worse. At the end of that one, Alan Watts casually wandered over and said to me: "you know Bill, someone should talk to him about quiting climbing". (Alan is a quite gentle person who doesn't talk bad of others so it was pretty severe). I looked at him and said, you're right. Walked over to where Dennis, now safetly on the deck had barely escaped death. Moments before on lead he had been screaming that he was going to die, that he couldn't hold on, his hands were cramping, SCREAMING as he continued to move up anyway "I CAN'T PUT PRO IN, I CAN'T LET GO, I CAN'T HOLD ON!!, I'M SOOOO F*UCKED" OH MY GAWWWWWDDDDDD, he continues up anyway, I'M GONNA PEEL, I CAN'T HOLD ON, WATCH ME OH GOD OH GOD he moves up some more, OH MY GOOOODDDDDDD!!! OH MY FU*EN GAAAWWWDDDDD he continues to wail at the top of his lungs: it was most impressive given the increadible difficulty of the 5.10A crack and the fact that you can put a piece in every couple of feet although Dennis was unable to stop to do this. I told him, that had he come off, or had that SINGLE #2 friend had pulled when he FINALLY AND AGONIZINGLY reached a point where he could barely put the piece in and clipped and hung immediatly without a second look at the friend, there was no gear, ie NONE, between the 60+ feet and the deck, that he would have died right in front of the hundreds of other climbers standing around in the diheadral area, none of whom could help but had to watch the drama unfold, through his own stupidity and he should consider quitting climbing altogether. He looked at me and said: "hey, sometimes ya just gotta go for it". We had a major disagreement about that which we discussed. Later he did quietly quit. Today, he still lives, driving a taxi cab I hear, abiet surely 2 of his 9 lives must have been used up. :!: Geeze, my palms are sweating now. Regards: Bill
(editied by billcoe_for spelling, to make a little more sense and add some details.)
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hoppinbig
Jul 15, 2004, 7:42 PM
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J-ung... dude that has to be one of the funniest things I have ever heard.... I'm still laughing... oh good god... thanks dude.
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flipnfall
Jul 15, 2004, 8:33 PM
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I LOVE that picture. That is the funniest thing I have EVER seen.
GT
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mtnjohn
Jul 15, 2004, 8:42 PM
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That picture is so funny on so many levels.
Damn I can't stop laughing.
I can't remember what I was gonna post about dumb climbing incidents?
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kbearchk
Jul 15, 2004, 10:21 PM
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Being very inexperianced I don't really see what's so funny about that picture. They guy is quite large however. Is that it?
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mtn_eagle
Jul 15, 2004, 11:02 PM
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Once while descending a peak in the North Cascades, we found ourselves in a bit of a wind-storm and in the dark with fading headlamps. We could't find the descent route so we started setting our own raps on slung horns and left gear. About 300 feet straight down to the glacier I put a single stopper in a seemingly bomber tapering crack. Despite all that I knew about redundancy in a rapel system, it my harried state I threaded the rope and started to repel. I was 5 feet above the ledge my partner was standing on. I kind of jumped down to the ledge and let the rope stop me as my feet hit. Something was weird about the way I landed...did the rope slip an inch or so? I stopped and climbed back up to look at the nut. It was still in place but it seemed like the crack was a little wider. I gave a hard tub on the nut and it came flying out as the rock rotated another inch. I climbed back down, set another anchor and we landed on the glacier without incident. It wasn't until a few days later that the whole experience gave me a few panic attacks. I've filed it away as a learning experience but it still makes my palms sweat to think about. My partner was pissed that I stopped my rapel and remembers almost telling me "Just go, we gotta get down!", so I think the experience gives her some sweaty palms as well.
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jw11733
Jul 16, 2004, 5:13 PM
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In reply to: I'd just like to point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with toproping on static rope.
Not true. See the article on rockandice.com about toproping (under safety)
The forces generated with even a little slack in the system can be in the 1000 pound range. Static ropes can have as little as 0.5% stretch, compared to 6-10% for a dynamic rope. The force is inversely proportional to the stretch, so your 0.5% static rope generates 12x the load of a 6% dynamic rope. So with a couple feet of slack and a static rope, the force on the anchors can be huge. Not a good idea. However, using static rope for the top-rope anchor is an accepted practice.
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