Climbing Accident in Staunton State Park
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There was a life flight for an accident Saturday 8/23/14? I heard it was in the Tan Corridor.. Anyone have any information on this. I hope the climbing team is OK... |
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I wasn't there, but it was a friend of mine. |
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Glad to hear she is OK.. Thanks for info.... |
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Eesh that sounds horrible. Good reminder about two tie in points. |
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That is good to hear! Walking out of the ER after that is awesome. |
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Damn. Glad the injured party sounds to be doing alright, all things considered. For what it's worth the description of the accident location sounds more like the Whistle Pig. |
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I believe There was a death several years ago I'm WV due to a similar scenario. |
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A park worker told me Tan Corridor, but he could have been confused. I did some laps on Whistle Pig a few weeks back and all four rapid links were open on both anchors.. Good thing to double check at each station. |
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Wow, what a story. In the last four years, we have had two cleaning incidents at our local crag and the climbers were severely injured. |
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gblauer wrote:Wow, what a story. In the last four years, we have had two cleaning incidents at our local crag and the climbers were severely injured. Just two weekends ago, a friend of mine rescued a climber at our local crag who had just cleaned a climb and was holding on to her biner...she had failed to clip the biner to her harness. She was lucky that Chris was able to rap in and get to her so quickly. Otherwise it would have been a 40 foot fall. Since our local crag is very conducive to "gym to crag", we installed some anchors ground level so that climbers new to outdoor climbing could learn to clean climbs in a safe environment. I am so glad the climber is ok.So she was at the anchor, clipped a biner to the anchor, grabbed it and called off belay? I am trying to figure out how this could happen. I imagine that's a pretty scary wait until your friend rapped in. |
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Interesting First Track Jack. I would defer to the park employee, just can't think of a 40 foot slab route in the Tan Corridor. It's really here nor there anyway, just glad the climber is still with us. |
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Roger that Mike. |
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J mac wrote: So she was at the anchor, clipped a biner to the anchor, grabbed it and called off belay? I am trying to figure out how this could happen. I imagine that's a pretty scary wait until your friend rapped in.Honestly, we don't quite know what she did. When Chris got to her she was hanging on to a biner which was clipped through her belay device. Her belay device wasn't clipped to her harness. |
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Just a follow up. I confirmed with Park worker on the SAR team that responded and it was the Tan Corridor. The tree branch part didn't make sense for the Whistle Pig area. He was not able to give me any details, they would have to come from the climbing party.. Anyways, glad she walked out of the ER that night.. |
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So to clarify a little more I was at the scene. Peter w has the story correct. She was cleaning the anchor of reef on it, in the tan corridor. Essentially the tape on the alpine draw was the only thing holding her and the climbing tape is very strong so it was holding her full weight for a minute while she was cleaning. As she began to feed the rope through the chains to rap, it broke. Leaving the carabiner up there and she came down with the alpine draw girth hitched to her harness and broken tape stuck on the sling still. |
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I'm trying to visualize this tape thing - what was the intended purpose/setup? I've not heard of it before. |
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Sounds like the same mechanism by which that young gun died due to the keepers being installed wrong. |
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The purpose is to stabilize one end, like a quick draw. So you can easily grab it and extend your tripled alpine draw. |
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Adam Burch wrote:I'm trying to visualize this tape thing - what was the intended purpose/setup? I've not heard of it before.I'm picturing that someone used adhesive tape like a rubber band to trap one carabiner on an alpine draw: "Essentially the tape on the alpine draw was the only thing holding her and the climbing tape is very strong so it was holding her full weight for a minute while she was cleaning." And this happened ukclimbing.com/news/item.ph… But, it took a bit longer than with a rubber band because a few wraps of climbing tape would be stronger. |
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Kerndouglas wrote:The purpose is to stabilize one end, like a quick draw. So you can easily grab it and extend your tripled alpine draw.Say word? I've never found the need to do that, although I've seen some good arguments about the benefits of keeping the biner properly positioned when you whip. What a feeling it must have been, for the gear to just cut loose and you go falling like that. Amazing and fortunate that she's okay. |
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The video demonstrates exactly what we believe happened. |