Winter Climbing in Southern California

How about this one... True story... party of 2 rapping down a huge alpine wall. The sketchy anchors (only one piece at a time cause its a long way to the flats.)
Single piece anchor fails, taking away the partner AND both cords... stranded climber must either Jump off to get IT over quickly... OR downclimb 3,000 feet of uncharted 5.10....

Truth is better than fiction

Guy Keesee wrote:How about this one... True story... party of 2 rapping down a huge alpine wall. The sketchy anchors (only one piece at a time cause its a long way to the flats.) Single piece anchor fails, taking away the partner AND both cords... stranded climber must either Jump off to get IT over quickly... OR downclimb 3,000 feet of uncharted 5.10.... Truth is better than fiction

wow I would love to read the full story of this. any links to the story or is this a climbing legend passed down

Guy, not cool. Had a good friend die recently on the vampire...

Miss Roni, as for the scenario... Best beat wouldn't be simul climbing because of multiple real risk factors involved with getting the shot. Not to mention that if you had your second fall than cut his end of the rope, he'd ultimately be dooming his partner cause the rope would not have any Knott's in it or be tide to anything and escape the closed system causing them both to fall (so its not really a realistic situation)...

This would be wayyy easier to explain, safer for the actors, easier to get the shots, less training time, less dynamic parts to figure out, and wayyy more believable even to the climbing community. Best scenario would be if your team is on a multipich (two would work just fine and that gives you more options for actual route choices.. Especially if your doing Jtree in peak season, your gonna wanna pic something that's not a popular route and won't have hords lined up at the base waiting for you to finish) where the team is anchored in to a not so bomber anchor atop the at least the first pitch but not the last and the leadrer starts the next pitch. Do to run out, lack of gear, or lack of appropriate gear he decides to wait 20 feet into the pitch to place gear and as he starts to place the gear, he fumbles it and takes a 40ft fall... This is not a good place to be in! This generates the highest types of forces that can be placed onto a rope system. Google "factor two falls" for some in debth info. So with the leader taking a factor two fall, the anchor blows and there's only one piece left. The belayer caught the fall but it knocked the belayer and 3rd person (if you even want them there now) off there feet so literally everyone is dangling on one piece of pro. The pro is starting to fail and once the leader (the veteran climber of the group now 20ft below the belay station) hears this from the other climbers he cuts the rope on his end to save whoever is at the failing belay station.

More realistic cause once hes cut the rope, the belayer is still direct straight in to the anchor and will not be affected by the rope cutting. And he will also be able to now be freed up from the weight of the fallen climber literally holding him down so he's now free to go fix the piece of failing pro and maybe even place another piece.
Way easier and more believable.

As for locations. Jtree and Idyllwild (snowfall has been next to nothing the last few years leaving tahquitz and suicide prime conditions during winter months) will be your closest with the most options. But as said above..San Diego area has several multipich. There's some in the San Bernardinos... The five fingers aren't to far away and really beautiful up near ridgecrest.. Heck there's even a 2 pitch climb in palm springs at dry falls. You don't even need anything that even really needs to be climbable. Just the right rock location and walk offs for this. So cal is loaded with that type of possibility.

Karl.... sorry for the loss of your friend. Stick around this sport for awhile and you will have a long list, I do.

Jan... here is the story... from Wiki.

Self-rescue on Annapurna[edit]

The South Face of Annapurna
On the strength of his climbs in the Alps, Lafaille was invited on an expedition to Annapurna by Pierre Béghin, one of the leading French climbers of the day. The pair attempted the mountain's vast South Face following the monsoon season in October 1991 in Alpine style, with no Sherpa support, pre-stocked campsites or fixed ropes on the upper mountain. They had reached a height of 7,400 metres when bad weather forced them to descend.[2] The pair made a series of abseils down the face, but due to their lightweight approach they had little protective equipment and were often forced to abseil from a single anchor to conserve equipment. On the fourth or fifth abseil, Beghin fell to his death when the single cam he was using as an anchor became dislodged from the rock. Beghin had been carrying most of the pair's technical equipment, including all the ropes, and Lafaille was left alone on the face, a vertical mile above safety.[4]

With great difficulty, Lafaille managed to climb down the 75 degree face to the pair's last bivouac site, where he found 20 metres of thin rope, allowing him to make short abseils down some of the hardest parts. With no technical equipment to use as anchors he was forced to entrust his weight to tent pegs or, on one occasion, a plastic bottle. He finally reached what should have been the relative safety of the top of a fixed rope which he and Beghin had installed on a steep rock band, but almost immediately he was struck by a falling rock, which broke his right arm. Disabled and helpless, he lay on a ledge for two days in the hope that other climbers would rescue him. However, while there was a Slovenian team attempting a route on a different part of the South Face, they judged that a rescue attempt would be too dangerous to undertake, so help never came. The cruellest thing about the ordeal, Lafaille said, was being able to see life in the valley below, and by night, the flashbulbs of trekkers' cameras. In spite of this, he later agreed that the Slovenians had made the right decision in not trying to save him.[4]

Eventually, with all hope of rescue gone, Lafaille resolved to continue down alone. He initially tried to continue abseiling, but unable to control the rope with only one hand and his teeth he reverted to downclimbing one-handed, and was utterly exhausted when he reached the Slovenian team's base camp.[4] By that time the climbers at the base of the mountain had given up hope for him, and his first wife, Véronique, had already been told that he had died.[5] Reinhold Messner later said that the survival instinct he showed was of the sort which defines the best mountaineers.[6]

Guy, its all good. Hard to make any kinda joke like that without bumbing into someone with there own list. Unfortunately have a few on mine and was even directly involved with the rescue of one. BTW thanks for the touching the void bumb. Started watching it. Really well done documentary!

When I made the Joke about the Vampire and simulclimbing, I was not thinking about Lucas. I consider myself very fortunate to have met and spent an afternoon bouldering in the county park with that bright, talented young man…. As with all climbers who have left us much too early, deep hurt and sadness is all that is left behind. I am sorry to have dredged up some sad feelings that you still have for your friend. Those feelings will never leave you but will soften with the passing years. I still think of my friend Tobin and when I go and do a climb that we did together memories come flooding back into my head. I hope your memories of Lucas will always continue. I recall one of my Japanese friends who would say, “When you think of the dead, they are alive”
Peace to you.

karl schmidt wrote:...the anchor blows and there's only one piece left...everyone is dangling on one piece of pro. The pro is starting to fail...

Again? How is the pro "starting to fail" exactly? How does it go from loaded and holding one moment to starting to fail the next? Can you walk us through that? And what brand of gear is this, that would hold for a while and then start to not hold anymore? I need to check if I have any and get rid of them.

Guy, you are being too kind. Karl needs to relax a little (and it seems he has). Are we not able to discuss routes, or potential for trouble on routes, because someone actually had trouble on that route?

I guess that cancels out discussing 40% of the routes.

See what I mean?

It's obviously horrible that anyone dies climbing, especially a friend. However, stop apologizing - you didn't say anything wrong.

Hey Guys,

Well there's certainly some great scenarios here, but unfortunately none of them will work in my scene; they either cancel out the self-sacrifice scenario in which there's time for dialog to take place or it doesn't work in reality.

I've decided to write the scenario in a scene that takes place while NOT climbing. My main character and his buddy will still climb in JT during January, but no one's going to die there.

The new scene will actually work better for the flow of my story.

Your help has been very valuable to me and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to pick things apart, show me the errors and give me helpful advice.

I'll let you know if anything comes of the script.

Thanks and be careful out there!

-Roni

Adam... Hi, no worries. I know I didn't say anything wrong. I just didn't want to hurt any feelings. I know how deep the death of a good friend can affect ones soul.

But back to this ridiculous topic....

I think that, in climbing, the truth is better than any wanna-be screen writer could ever invent.

carry on..

EDIT TO ADD: Miss Roni.... your really missing out on skipping the JT death scene.... Double Cross claims a life every 3 or 5 days