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Whipper story: 40 feet face-first on Lumpy
I was about 19 and my dad was belaying me on a 5.10 corner called "Bonzo," which is on Sundance Buttress on Lumpy Ridge. Fortunately, the corner is dead vertical — a rare aspect on Lumpy. In those days I had a bad habit of running it out on easy parts and waiting to place gear until I was cruxing. (Place at good stances and climb through cruxes until the next stance — that's how you send!) Anyway, I cruised to the top of the pumpy corner, where the crack faded out.

Reaching the anchors entails a few slab moves after the crack ends in a bulge. I'd run it out about 10 to 15 feet through easy hand jams above a #4 Metolius. When the crack tapered, I plugged a #1 Metolius TCU in a down-facing flake that turned out to be slightly expando (meaning the flake could flex outward). I climbed about five feet above the TCU. A toe hold broke and my weight dropped onto the TCU, which held for a split second. My balance was compromised when the TCU popped and I fell outward and into a nose dive.

I'll never forget watching the slack zip through the gear by my face as I picked up speed toward the ground. I remember thinking that all of my pro must be ripping out since I wasn't stopping, and I was even picking out the granite boulder my head was going to splatter on. That's when the #4 Metolius caught me and I felt the elastic rope bring me to a halt in a jarring bounce.

My only injury was a skinned right pinky finger, which had grazed the rock on the way down.

I know I fell 40 feet because I was at the very top of the corner and stopped at the very bottom of the corner, making it easy to estimate the distance (I was perhaps 30 feet off the ground when I stopped).

My dad couldn't see me during the fall. He said he stepped backwards and had plenty of time to take in three or four loops of slack.

The #4 cam is now a momento on my rack — the cable where a sling was girth hitched had been pulled into a sharp V shape, as opposed to the origanal U shape. There are also marks on the teeth where they bit into the rock.

I learned lots of lessons that day, especially how much easier small cams pop out with only a tiny bit of flex. I hope this story might help someone else play the game a little smarter.

- Derek

Whipper story: 40 feet face-first on Lumpy
I was about 19 and my dad was belaying me on a 5.10 corner called "Bonzo," which is on Sundance Buttress on Lumpy Ridge. Fortunately, the corner is dead vertical — a rare aspect on Lumpy. In those days I had a bad habit of running it out on easy parts and waiting to place gear until I was cruxing. (Place at good stances and climb through cruxes until the next stance — that's how you send!) Anyway, I cruised to the top of the pumpy corner, where the crack faded out.

Reaching the anchors entails a few slab moves after the crack ends in a bulge. I'd run it out about 10 to 15 feet through easy hand jams above a #4 Metolius. When the crack tapered, I plugged a #1 Metolius TCU in a down-facing flake that turned out to be slightly expando (meaning the flake could flex outward). I climbed about five feet above the TCU. A toe hold broke and my weight dropped onto the TCU, which held for a split second. My balance was compromised when the TCU popped and I fell outward and into a nose dive.

I'll never forget watching the slack zip through the gear by my face as I picked up speed toward the ground. I remember thinking that all of my pro must be ripping out since I wasn't stopping, and I was even picking out the granite boulder my head was going to splatter on. That's when the #4 Metolius caught me and I felt the elastic rope bring me to a halt in a jarring bounce.

My only injury was a skinned right pinky finger, which had grazed the rock on the way down.

I know I fell 40 feet because I was at the very top of the corner and stopped at the very bottom of the corner, making it easy to estimate the distance (I was perhaps 30 feet off the ground when I stopped).

My dad couldn't see me during the fall. He said he stepped backwards and had plenty of time to take in three or four loops of slack.

The #4 cam is now a momento on my rack — the cable where a sling was girth hitched had been pulled into a sharp V shape, as opposed to the origanal U shape. There are also marks on the teeth where they bit into the rock.

I learned lots of lessons that day, especially how much easier small cams pop out with only a tiny bit of flex; it's smart to double up on pro after significant runouts; and be ready and balanced in case the first piece of pro to catch you pops out. I hope this story might help someone else play the game a little smarter.

- Derek

Lee Smith wrote:This is why I hardly ever sport climb.

I think we all agree it would be longer fall if you were trad climbing, even if the distance between gear was the same ;).

Ryan Kelly wrote:This 3D computer animation that I just got in from NASA might help: Both situations are a 6 foot fall (all extraneous variables omitted). The difference is that in situation 1 he ends up 6 feet below the lower bolt, in situation 2 he's only 3 feet below.

You do have a better chance of decking by clipping low, when you are near the ground.

Guy H. wrote: You have a better chance of decking by clipping low, when you are near the ground.

I don't even know how to respond to this.

Ryan Kelly wrote: I don't even know how to respond to this.

There is also more rope out when clipping low, which will give you more rope stretch. This will increase the length of the fall.

I wasn't looking for a response.

Guy H. wrote: There is also more rope out when clipping low, which will give you more rope stretch. This will increase the length of the fall. I wasn't looking for a response.

Your posts are illuminating.

Guy H. wrote: You have a better chance of decking by clipping low, when you are near the ground.

be careful when clipping the first bolt. if you blow it you can hit the ground!

but seriously, it is true you have a better chance of hitting the ground if you clip low, but if you climb higher you also run the risk of hitting the ground from higher up. clip when it's safe, or back off. there's no shame in it. anyone who tells you otherwise is a dangerous person to be climbing with.

I was climbing Creatures of Waste (10c) on the North Side of Looking Glass. It's a long layback to a finger crack, into another long layback. I was getting pretty pumped at the finger crack and couldn't find a rest stance. I grabbed my stoppers and put the first one that fell into my hand in the crack and slid it down till it stuck and clipped it. I then proceeded to climb and get more pumped. The next time I stopped to place gear I grabbed the wrong size and fell about 40 feet and swung about 10 to the left and came within 2 inches of leaving my face stuck on a rock.

The other scary fall I had was a 35 foot deck fall at Big Green. I was way off the ground with a #0 C3 as pro and fell when I was about 6 ft from the first bolt. It was a climb I had no business being on and I'm lucky I didn't get killed. My belayer/spotter kept me from landing on a rock and breaking my ankle, or worse.

Michael McKinnon wrote: yes we clip low so we don't have all that rope to pull up and it saves energy.

I totally have no idea what you quoted me. Your post seems to have no relation to mine at all.

Joel Andersen wrote: You'd be wrong.

And so I am.

However, since I hate being wrong, I would just add that when people pull rope to clip way above them, they generally pull about 2 feet more than they need.

I humbly walk away with tail between legs.

The take away should be that if you have clipped the draw and feel you are going to peel clipping the rope just grab the draw!

spencerparkin wrote:Thanks all for the replies. I want to try to correct myself...and hopefully not get this wrong, because there appears to be a lot of confusion and I may well be confused too. I stated earlier that I increased my fall factor, but I believe now that isn't true. If at any stationary point, (you are stopped, (not moving up or down)), you then pull rope up, you are then adding X meters of rope to the system _and_ X meters of rope to your potential fall distance. So what you're really doing is bringing your fall factor closer to 1. If you're fall factor was above 1, it is decreased. If it was below 1, then it was increased. In my case, I think it was decreased. This added more stretch so that I got a softer catch, but it also increased my fall distance, which was scary since I barely tapped the ground with my left heal. To make it scarier, you also have to think about how much rope might slip through the belayer's device.

If your fall factor was above 1 on a single pitch climb, you're doing it wrong.

Since you seem to have missed most of what was discussed:

• "Clipping high" doesn't add any more distance to a fall than clipping at your waist. If someone on the internet tells you otherwise, flame them.
• It does however, mean that you'll end up closer to the ground, since you weren't as high as you would have been if you clipped at your waist.
• Clip from the "best stance", issues discussed heretofore withstanding.
• Fall factor has no relevance in single pitch sport climbing. Really, it doesn't, stop worrying about it.

The extra meter of rope you add to the system clipping a bolt isn't going to change the fall factor or give you a softer catch. My guess is that you got a little sketched and tried to get the clip in as soon as the bolt was within reach as opposed to finding a stance. The advantage to advancing closer to the next bolt is by pulling up less rope, you are spending less time with that awkward pulling movement.

My biggest whipper was facilitated by being a noob at Shelf during the early (pre R&I guide) days.
Looking for a .10, I was led mistakenly to a .12. When it got hard, I traversed over, then went up, skipping 2 bolts. When traversing back and almost within reach of the anchors, I Elvised off without warning. I know that feeling of quietly watching the ground rapidly approaching and how you feel like an observer rather than the participant. At the end, my feet were 4' above the deck and my belayer was 8' up. Since then, I haven't been shy about grabbing draws if I feel that the act of pulling up rope is going to exceed my limit.

I took at least a 45' fall off the University Wall in Squamish. What made it scary is when I fell my rope was behind my leg and flipped me upside down. I thought that the sharp flake on the pitch cut my rope because I heard a distinctive "pop" so I thought I was plummeting 700' to my death. The "pop" turned out to be a blue alien's stem breaking and failing. When my next cam held and I stopped falling I was level with my belayer (Lee Dingemans) and still upside down. My pinky finger was bleeding but I was otherwise okay. I jugged the rope and finished the pitch and then we bailed.

140', below my belayer, 1.7 factor on the system, obviously some failure involved. I am alive today, and that is really all I care to discuss about it anymore. Time and space distortion when you are taking an unexpected fall like that is real.

I took a 40+ footer off of Lizard Marmalade Direct on Mt. Lemmon this past spring. Easily the longest I've ever taken. It was my first time on it and I was kind of going for it. There is a pod or flare that maybe marks the end of the crux, once you pull into it? Anyhow, I placed a cam in the flare, and as I was pulling in and beginning to lose my balance, I kicked the cam and immediately became aware that it was now tipped out, at the same time as I was going...going...gone! My next cam was a long way down below....

Didn't touch the wall once on the way down. That climb is steep!

My most recent fall of any length was on Howling At the Wind in July 2008. Have a look in the comments field.

mountainproject.com/v/color…

35 feet upside down while offroute on the yellow spur(Pretty hard to do). I had that same thought process of the rope breaking and thinking I was going to die in a graceful swan dive toward the ground 300 feet away. Came away with some scraped/bruised knuckles and a scratch on my chest.

falling is fun!

Its best to clip with your feet for the following reasons:

1) less rope out, as proven by discussion above. and most importantly:
2) Don't have to let go with your hands!

Just practice a little at your local gym before taking it to the crags.