Context, Ben Chap, context. You have officially gone off topic.

Anyhow, what route did your friend zipper six pieces from in Jtree?

Placed a #1 master cam in a small roof so it was already facing where the weight of the fall would. I was tired but pushed up, kept moving a bit more for a good next hold. Went in for a thin hands jam couldn't hold fell 20 feet on it and held perfectly!

2 stories:

1. I was on mountainproject.com/v/excuse-station/105717409 on my 3rd day at Indian Creek ever. I placed all my 1s and had to go about 10 feet to the upper part where you can get a .75 in. I put the .75 pulled up the rope to clip and my foot slipped. I ended up falling about 30 feet. I guess this doesn't quite fit into this forum since a #1 is a huge piece of gear. Even though the rock is soft the gear was huge.

2. My friend was climbing mountainproject.com/v/spocks-brain/106060847 and he made it to the jug at the top. He was pumped and fell on the mantle about 20 feet onto a 00 metolius with a high-pitched scream and everything. It held but he made me finish the climb. Even though the gear was small, quartzite is as hard as rock gets.

Ben Chapman - Glad you guys walked away from the fall. Apologies if this is a dumb question but was the first piece set for an upwards pull?

Edited for clarity.

Tried out wearing a gopro and got this fall on video:

My buddy, Bruce, and I were climbing the south face of Boulder's Matron. He'd led straight up on the second pitch, missing the traverse (can't remember now where it went, but I think right). He'd clipped an old bong that was sunk in mud in the crack as the first piece off the belay. Above that, he placed a small Campbell SaddleWedge (it was awhile ago), wedging it half-in and half-out of the crack, then a couple more things that were even more dubious. His top piece, when he discovered he'd climbed into trouble, was a #2 or so Friend that he told me later was hanging by two tipped-out cams. He popped, the Friend and the piece below that gave, and he just kept coming at me sitting there on a ledge. He whistled past me, then stopped, out of my sight. The SaddleWedge had held.

He was able to climb back up to the ledge, unhurt. We rapped off and another buddy and I returned the next day to retrieve the nut. Had to pound the hell out of it to remove it.

If you "zipper" 6 pieces that you thought were "good"...they were either not good pieces, slung too short, and/or the lower piece was not set to keep the rope from pulling the rest of them outward. Six well placed pieces of gear do not just pull out.

my first real fall onto gear (apart from a few small falls on hexes) i took a 20 foot fall off the roof of illusion dweller on a camalot 0, held perfectly. more recently i took two 10' falls onto a .75, again on desert granite. after the first fall it was tipped out on one side but still working passively. replaced it and tried again, after the second fall it was still in good form. it's nice to fall on gear, to remind you that it's there for a reason

I led this insane crack in the splatte. You know you get into that rhythm, lock for lock, jam and jam, in that total zone of movement. Thrushing for each new move that you don't want to stop.

So, I did that and I popped off, zing...


But, I stopped. So I'm looking down, my last piece is still pretty far down. What the??

A #5 stopper on my harness snags the crack, and didn't rip off.


trad is so...rad

While aiding, The only placement I could come up with was the truly shitty cam in the picture below... After that, I stepped on the second step of the etrier and placed a shitty nut that survived the brutal bounce testing, so I eased onto the nut... I completely committed to the top nut, stepped up two rungs of the aider, and POP! Only thing was, I was still connected to the shitty cam with my daisy chain. Took a pretty decent (~2-3ft) static fall onto the cam. That one fall, as small as it was, went a long ways to boosting my confidence in well-placed and well-set rock pro!

2-3 ft static fall onto this one - any takers? Submitted By: Alex Washburne on Jan 22, 2013

"i think someone oiled them"
lol

After I led Candy Land in S. Tahoe, my partner decided he wanted to go for a lead on the pre-placed gear. This is what I learned:

1) Those jumbo knob tieoffs are as bomber as they look
2) The 000 C3 held 4-5 successive whingers from a 200lbs climber, from
10 feet above the piece. My confidence in small gear has since more
than doubled.

Many falls on a lot of pieces. The ones that standbout in my mind are taking a 25' on first pitch of Nut Cracker in Yose with one brassy nut for pro. Held me from decking. Also remember taking a whipper after going up a book to a roof where I placed a wired tricam. Traversed out and up on face when a foot blew sending me pendulum into book. Piece held perfect.

I failed to grab 2 extra number 3's from my partner for a flare-ing fist crack on camp 4 wall. I was out of gear and 6 feet above my last piece with a ledge below me before I realized. I ended placing a .4 C4 as far as I would reach in the crack on the left side of a chockstone. When I pulled on it, I could see the chalkstone flex. I placed a #1 C4 on the other side of the chalkstone as a chalk (fully uncammed) and equalized the two. Took a 12 footer on that sketchy contraption and it fell. Most scared I've ever been on lead but now my confidence in gear is unreal!

I was climbing a hard (for me) route in Gallatin Canyon last year where the crux was pulling a bulge. The crack beneath the bulge was wider than a 3,but a 4 wouldn't fit. I managed to get the 3 placed well enough and proceeded to fall on it 3 times before finally figuring out the move. No big deal, but every time I fell the 3 would rotate slightly so that the outer lobes came out of the crack and only 2 lobes were catching. It inspired confidence... and led me to add a 3.5 to the rack.

Biggest whip ever was a 35+ footer on last pitch of Recompense Cathedral Ledge, North Conway twenty some-odd-years ago. Hot sweaty summer day. Fell on an old pin backed-up by a small nut - ripped both. Stopped by a BD #2 Camelot! Still have the old pin. Thank you. Try not to do that anymore. :)