Who else has fallen while soloing?

I'm fascinated by soloing. The Honnold write up in Rock and Ice was amazing. I'll admit I enjoy watching it. Not in a voyeuristic way but in an "OMG Holy anxiety" kind of way. Old films of Osman just give me chills. Like, dude you just dyno'd 500 feet off the deck...you are completely out of your gourd aren't you?? I have Dyno's I've done 100 times, and 99 of em nailed it...what about the 1 I don't? Hell I have crux moves on stuff as easy as 5.7 that I've done 100 times. 99 are perfection. One of them, I'm happy I got a rope.

That's what fascinates me. 1 move. 1 slip. That's it. I have a couple routes at the lake I know I could, and would love to solo just to feel that, just to know what the hell it's like. But all that runs through my head is, what if today is the 1 slip? And the older I get the less likely it is that I'll go for that solo.

Mad respect to those who do. That's a whole 'nother level of climbing. Kudos to you guys.

I've never fallen while soloing, thankfully, but I was once so close that I was in tears, literally, apologizing to my mom. I've soloed quite a bit (escape artist and casually off route in the Black), plus a dozen or so moderate routes here and there, but it wasn't until I went for a voyage up this rock on the right side when headed towards estes park from boulder that my reality check seriously checked in. I forget the name of the rock, but the route was probably four pitches, with a crux of .10, and that's when reality struck. Early in the season, slippery wet mossy hand crack through a bulge, me an easy 300' off the deck and thinking any semblance of passage was marginal to say the least. Up and down, up and down, thinking I'm gonna fall for sure if I go for this move... downclimbing was out of the question at this point, so I figured my best move was to dive a few hundred feet and try and land best as I could in this spruce tree far below. One, two, and I couldn't get myself to jump, so I figured balls out at going for the move was my best bet. Made it, mostly cause my consequence was certain death; smoked half a pack of cigs once I made it to the top. Soloing is serious business, not to be taken lightly, or especially cause you saw someone on TV doing such a thing. Be fully aware of what you are doing.

I seriously doubt you forget the name of the multipitch 5.10 you solo and almost meet your maker on...

brent armstrong wrote:I seriously doubt you forget the name of the multipitch 5.10 you solo and almost meet your maker on...

That ice climb fall was pretty terrifying. Wow. Thanks for posting that up.

No falls for me, but I can count the times I have free soloed anything 5th class on both hands.

I've never fallen while soloing but I've had some very close calls due to stuff like being attacked by a large swarm of wasps and severe forearm cramps.

I cratered once free soloing the Little Devil, it was pretty epic. Scraped up my knee n'shit.

Glenn Schuler wrote:I cratered once free soloing the Little Devil, it was pretty epic. Scraped up my knee n'shit.

Glenn Schuler wrote:I cratered once free soloing the Little Devil, it was pretty epic. Scraped up my knee n'shit.

Glenn Schuler wrote:I cratered once free soloing the Little Devil, it was pretty epic. Scraped up my knee n'shit.

Seems like almost every page in Alpinist #38 mentions someone dying (part two of their feature on K2). But even the stories that don't mention K2 have a lot of death. It was macabre. Granted the people writing in Alpinist tend to be at the top of the game, but man the road to the top does seem strewn with bodies.

I've pretty much given up on technical climbing because of medical reasons, so I'm trying to assess how much of this is sour grapes on my part, but man, it seems like death has become all too common in climbing.

I went almost 30 feet off of a highball once. The landing was good, I had a pad and suffered no lasting injury. It isnt quite the same as falling on a solo, but it was a long way down, and it definitely changed my mindset about some of the other things I had been doing.

I just sprained my wrist on a highball boulder. Only ~15 ft or so, but I didn't 100% hit the pad. Not exactly feeling badass after that.

I spent the first four years of my climbing doing nothing but soloing. In February 1987, the start of my 7th year climbing, I took a long fall soloing in the Flatirons. I kept the report from The Daily Camera where it was described as a 100ft fall. Long complicated back story to how it came about. Remarkably, 25 years later I can recall every millisecond of the fall, exactly how it arose, my response, the fall, what I hit on the way down, rolling out onto the forest floor. I awoke four hours after the fall. Granger Banks was holding my neck and head to keep my airway patent. He had hauled me over to a tree and got me stabilized and breathing. I passed out again after learning his name and remained unconscious for a total of nearly 8 hrs. I awoke once more in the stretcher while Rocky Mtn Rescue was hauling me down to Boulder but passed out again after determining that I had use of my arms and legs. Funny recovery. Dr. ABS had opened an emergency clinic for dogs and cats (She is a Vet), and she put me up in one of her dog kennels for the subsequent three weeks. But I did get to eat "people food".

Several years ago on a cold september afternoon I fell from very near the top of Lamb's slide when some rotten newer snow gave way. The rest of the climb had been very firm plastic ice and I was pretty relaxed.

I slid about 30 feet, maybe more. I was starting to bounce on the wavy surface and dragging both tools and front points was not slowing me down. I ended up arresting on a single tool point, feet shooting out below me when the weight was taken by the ice axe.

The rest of the night was a windy hypothermic route finding debacle on Clark's arrow.

Only one of a few solos, but probably the closest I have come to dying while climbing.