Is the rumor true that some newbies had a little mishap on High E at the gunks and had to cut the rope on some girl that was hanging in space screaming after not making the crux move?

One can only hope.

Anyone? Anyone at all? I NEED TO KNOW!

This is shaping up to be the best thread ever. I once had a girlfriend hanging in space screaming on CCK Direct, I was worried hikers on the carriage road were going to call 911.

R

Enjoy.

Edit:

First person witness on page 8
Involved party witness on page 17

The involved party witness is on page 16.

This kind of reminded me of the final scene in the Eiger sanction when Clint cuts the rope to get into the tunnel.... I bet that guy won't be getting too nice of a XMAS present from his sister this year, what a jerk! IMHO

I knew some people who were in the area at the time. I guess the yelling and screaming was memorable. Kinda too bad I was in the Near Trapps that day. I wish I'd seen it myself.

After reading the Gunks.com post, I have to say that I'm a little amazed that nobody was seriously injured in all of this. I'd like to know how she cut the rope and took a factor 2 fall onto the anchor while (presumably) holding a knife without cutting herself.

I have _NEVER_ taken a factor 2, or anything even close to it, but when I have taken harder falls I doubt I would have been able to hold onto a knife like that, especially if I was scared, which she clearly was.

Although I love climbing at the Gunks I'll admit that I've seen some scary scary stuff, most of it 100% preventable. When you think about it, our sport is a little unique. Many other sports that involve a similarly high degree of objective danger involve careful licensing regimes to minimize how much danger people inadvertently get themselves into. For example - there are licensing requirements for sky divers and you can't refill a SCUBA tank unless you have a license. Of course these measures aren't fool proof, but there is a structure. In contrast, any fool with a credit card can buy enough climbing equipment to kill himself and all his buddies in a single act of stupidity.

I'm not suggesting that we should have this sort of a system but it is kinda interesting to me that climbing has managed to dodge this sort of a requirement for so long. This is especially true at a crag like the Gunks. I can't even count the number of stupid stupid incidents I've seen that a little training / education / experience would have prevented.

Hmmmm...I finally read "Tim's" account. I'd say for someone who was so panicked, it was remarkable she could summon the nerve to cut the rope. Must have took a lot of convincing.

What a bunch of gumbies.

If I remember right, 3rd pitch to Erect Direction reads something like if the second should fall an epic may ensue. Gotta love the place.

What's the matter not into the Hollywood thing. Lotta years ago had a girlfriend fall at the roof to Elder Clevage. 3:1 was just enough to get her to the lip to make the move. Don't think I'll ever here the end of that one. Self rescue surely part of the learning curve. But I know climbers with 10 or more years experience and glaze over at it's mention.

Gumby party of 3? Your table is ready...

You should always carry the necessary tools to make your preferred friction knot be it a prussik, hedden, klemheist, or bachmann (or if you want to out-gumby yourself an autoblock).

I really hope this brings self-rescue to the forefront of at least a few peoples minds...

IF THE ONLY KNOT YOU CAN TIE IS A FIGURE 8 YOU ARE NOT READY TO CLIMB OUTSIDE GUMBY!!!

No not even sport...

As for the team that helped her down...is that the best you've got? Call around to other parties for some help, figure the situation out, its not like it would have killed her to sit there for a bit longer...

Cutting a rope is like a fist fight...it is a last resort and the result of a cessation of logic, that and nobody wins...

I believe "her" belayer was well above her and didn't/couldn't doll out slack, so the rescuer had her cut the rope to transfer her weight to his anchor.

"Our lead climber ascended to the roof with our second rope and setup and anchor. He put the rope through the anchor, which was slightly above her waist. She was close enough to grab our rope and tie in using a figure 8 knot. Then I put on her on belay. With the rope tight her feet were about a foot or so from the cliff. Still we heard nothing from her leader. Therefore we suggested she cut the rope and when she did she landed softly on to the cliff as if on a top rope."

Well that makes more sense. I only read the part on page 8. I guess I should have read farther. The guys on Modern Times made the fall out to be a lot harder than it was I guess.

I still don't think I would have cut the rope. No way. No How.

I find it interesting that the "rescuing" climber didn't think of finishing the climb and telling the genius at the top to lower his partner. She could have been pulled in to the ledge fairly easily and it would have been a lot less complicated than rigging anchors or performing some form of self-rescue.

Sometimes we humans over-think things and make it all much more complicated than it needs to be. Just glad this didn't end any worse than it did.

LOL!

My brother lives in Denver and he and his friends go out to Indian Creek pretty regularly. I would have to disagree. If you want to see TRUE gumby material follow a Gunks climber around for a day at Indian Creek. I proved (repeatedly) that the Gunks is poor preparation for splitter crack climbing.

Big surprise, I know.

I wonder how much the belayer really knew about what was going on down below. High E is famous for being a communications disaster. This is especially true if the belayer stays at the top of the climb bear the anchor trees rather than descending to the edge of the climb to improve communication. If you're not familiar with the climb/area it's an easy mistake to make.

The noise from the road below is often ridiculous and there is usually wind. Because the top part of the climb is pretty overhanging, the rock can block line of sight, also complicating communication.

It's entirely possible the guy was having a good time watching her struggle but I think it is also possible he didn't understand the gravity of the situation.

Yeah, I've never climbed there, so I don't know. That was just the opinion of one of the climbers that was on the scene and posted up about it.