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majid_sabet
May 14, 2008, 7:46 PM
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While rigging cords and material to beat-up Angry in the RC Lab, I remembered an old story where a friend of mine had to tie everything he had to save his friend from falling over the edge.
So here is the story to best of my recall;
Back in 80’s or so, a party of three experienced climbers/cavers were on a climbing expedition somewhere in Southern USA or in Mexico to do a bunch of climbing. The approach to the climbing area was a day hike so they parked their car and early in the morning, they headed to the climbing area. By mid afternoon, they finished climbing and they began hiking back toward their car. Half way thru the hike, the trail divided in to two ways. One option was to continue hiking on the original trail which took a good few hours of hike or to take the shortcut. While arguing which way to go, one guy chickened out and the other two climbers (TF, AJ) decided to take the shortcut which included climbing over some questionable 4th and low grade 5th class wall.
Since they did not want to carry the heavy bag over the 5th class rocks, they let the third member (KC) take the load and he hiked toward the car. 15-20 minutes short of the sunset, both climbers reached the top of the rocks and were only 30 minutes away from their car.
While sitting on top, they heard a voice similar to KCs saying “ I am coming, I am coming ahhh, I am almost there” then they saw a hand appeared over the edge of the rock and they knew it was KC but then he yelled;
I am fallinggggggggggggggggggg falling aahhhhhhh and kabus his hand slid backward and he disappeared and the whole canyon ended up in total silence.
Both guys on top were shocked that their buddy just fell to his death and died so for another 10 minutes or so, they did not do anything and were thinking; WTF did just happen but then they heard this slow voice from the canyon below saying;
H e lp
Help
Please he l p me
First; they thought it was KC’s ghost or his sprit was calling them and TF and AJ felt bad for abandoning KC alone back there but, as they began focusing more, it was his real voice calling for help. To check out things and to find out what is going on, they knew down climbing the last steep section was out of question so TF dropped on his belly and began crawling head down while AJ hold his leg from behind. After TF made a visual contact, he noticed that KC had landed in awkward sitting position on a very small cone head knob some 20-30 feet below with his backpack against the rock.
Mean while, KC is still saying “I am goinaaa die, iam goonaa die”
They knew the knob was in a scary place because they just passed it earlier and surely, he was in very bad position cause he could not turn around on his own to continue his climb. They also knew he had the freaking rope on his bag so they began thinking create and took their clothing off and after cutting their shirts, tying the shoelaces, underwear, pants and everything else, TF dropped on his belly again and lowered the cord to KC and after several attempts and just as sun was disappearing, KC grabbed the Mickey Mouse cord, unzipped the bag and attacked the cord to the end of the rope. Guys on top pulled the rope up and asked him to tie the other end to his waist and then he turned and climbed safely to the top.
Once KC reached the top and took some time to rest, he opened the bag and said;
I been climbing for long time and you see this cam
Fu*k it,
He started throwing all the climbing gear one by one in to the canyon and added;
I am done with climbing
And based on TF, he basically did not climb again.
(This post was edited by majid_sabet on May 14, 2008, 7:48 PM)
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reg
May 14, 2008, 8:01 PM
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Registered: Nov 10, 2004
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KC should not have been left alone.
thanks for the drawing - it brought it all together!
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Carnage
May 15, 2008, 6:23 AM
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i kept waiting for like a big climax or a punchline or something.
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SharpEndFemme
May 15, 2008, 7:00 AM
Post #4 of 10
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Registered: May 8, 2008
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I think the punchline is that somewhere in SouthernUSA/Mexico there is a canyon full of perfectly good gear. Majid, can you draw me a picture of how to get there?
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gunkiemike
May 15, 2008, 10:02 AM
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Registered: Oct 1, 2002
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TF and AJ took the dangerous route, yet KC fell on un-climbable terrain????
"They knew the knob was in a scary place because they just passed it". Wait, I though they went different ways????
Sun setting...underwear off....definitely sounds like a joke.
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geezergecko
May 15, 2008, 12:46 PM
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Registered: Mar 26, 2002
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A (Majid) variation of a similar story I have heard quite often and not just for climbing, eg. surfers who find themselves on that just a bit too big of a wave.
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dingus
May 15, 2008, 1:37 PM
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Registered: Dec 16, 2002
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No self respecting climber would trhow perfectly good cams into a canyon like that. He must have been the caver. Cavers are always using bogus gear.
DMT
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dutyje
May 15, 2008, 3:03 PM
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Registered: Apr 1, 2004
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I'm pretty sure I could get this to work even if he were 1,000 feet down the cliff.
If all the stuff they tied together wouldn't reach, they could always cut their pant legs into strips and tie them all together. The laces on my approach shoes are a kernmantle (sp) construction, so I could always pull the Majid Snakeskin Rope Trick on them to extend a bit. If that still wasn't enough, I could shave my head with my knife and weave the hair into a rope to extend a bit further. I could unweave my socks...
While we're doing all this, of course, the fallen guy at the bottom is biding his time stripping out the core strands to make a 1,000' shoestring, which he will jug to the top using prusiks made from his ass hairs.
Thanks, Majid, your information will get me out of any situation now!
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the_climber
May 15, 2008, 3:33 PM
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Registered: Oct 9, 2003
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dingus wrote: No self respecting climber would trhow perfectly good cams into a canyon like that. He must have been the caver. Cavers are always using bogus gear. DMT
I know what you mean:
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joshy8200
May 15, 2008, 3:41 PM
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Registered: Oct 1, 2002
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Is the point of the story to justify the guy littering the canyon with his gear?
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