Climbing Reality Check

This is a post on the Eldo Loose Rock Inventory forum that resulted from a rock fall and injuries 9 days ago. It may serve better in its own forum here.

Ok, here it is. Something that is going to piss a lot of people off. But, know one has gone here, so I will. And I'm expecting some angry rebuttals. But, I thought about it a lot while I was climbing Grand Giraffe in Eldo on Sunday touching a dozen large blocks with fractures all around.

You will likely be pissid off if you believe SUV's kill people. NO, people driving SUV's carelessly kill people. You will likely get pissed off if you believe guns kill people. No, people carelessly or violently using guns kill people. And, what seems most analogous to loose rock in Eldo is: You will likely be pissed off if want to kill every shark in the ocean after a shark attack.

I am not necessarily apposed to the Trundle Eldo Party to rid loose rock hazards. The intentions are very good. But, we are not getting to the root of the issue. As climbers, we make choices, critical choices. We decide where to climb, when to climb, who our partners will be, what gear to use, to wear a helmet or not, to climb beneath other parties or not, to belay standing or seated, seated gives you little chance to move quickly from rock fall, to belay directly below your leader or slightly off to the side, to pull on loose rock (if you climb in Eldo you most likely have), to tell your belayer to get under the roof at the belay on Slimy Spoon cause there's some loose rock up here or tell them nothing and pull on it anyway, to make a plan with your partner whether you will rap or lower off or make no plan at all, to reconfirm with your partner when on top of your route before you lower off or not at all. The list goes on and on and so do the consequences of our choices.

The bottom line. All accidents are a result of choices, directly or indirectly, by making a choice or series of choices, or making no choice at all is still a choice. The only way to make climbing safe is to remove the human element, that is, remove the humans. Then, and only then, will climbing injuries cease. And while we're at it lets remove caffeine and nicotine, alcohol, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, planes, speed boats, ski boats, fishing boats and surfing. Then we will all be "safe".

People, I've witnessed 2 serious accidents in the last 9 days and participated in one of the rescues. Sleeping has been difficult since. You can not imagine the reality of a climbing accident until you've been there. Shouting "stay with us" cause you think he is dying while his eyes are rolling up inside his head, bone sticking several inches out in space with a foot hardly attached, blood dripping from his head and neck. This is reality.

We must talk and learn from our mistakes or most likely others' mistakes cause climbing accidents don't usually give us second chances. We must not blame our gear, the rock or the rescue team. We must pay attention all the time, 100% of the time. Lets not fall victim to the most common killer of all in climbing....casualness!!!

edited: thanks for sharing this sombering reminder Greg ~

When have the power of various elements within our hands to hurt ourselves (or others) ~ We should never be complacent.

Greg- Sorry for what you're going through right now. PM sent. -Tiffany

Greg, I understand your pain as I have witnessed many violent injuries, and violent deaths in my life that I wished could have been spread out over several lifetimes.

Witnessing violent injuries/violent deaths is an unpleasant experience for most humans. These unfortunate events that usually entail awful visuals affect people differently, and in many different ways, but if the sleeplessness continues, you might want to consider talking to a professional about what you are going through.

Yes, we should all be extra careful, but if careful turns into paranoia, panic attacks, and flashbacks, that's not good, or healthy either.

Anyway, take care of yourself, and continue to enjoy the rewarding activities you love; even if it's slow going when getting back into it, "life".

G

That was well worth reading, Greg.

If the point is "climbers have the ultimately reponsibilty for their safety" I agree.

We should just leave all the loose rock alone. Just be careful. Climbing is dangerous.

Greg:

I know where you are coming from. About 18 months ago myself and several climbers in AZ were witness to a similar scenario. As we seven climbers were preparing to start climbing, a hiker across the canyon made a bad judgement call and hiked on some very loose rocks which were on a very sloping ledge. Unfortunately for him, he fell about 35 feet, landing on a large rock. We heard the fall and his very painful cry for help.

It took us 7 to 8 minutes rushing down a talus slope to get to him. He was conscious and could move his arms and legs and was coherent, albeit very seriously injured. I hiked out to bring in the rescue team while some one scrambled up a hillside to get cell phone reception. The other climbers who had some medical training did what they could to give him comfort and shade him from the sun. It took the rescue team two hours to bring in a litter, while a DPS helicopter flew overhead awaiting to make an extraction of the hiker. Everything conspired against this guy. It was too windy and the canyon too deep and narrow to make good they airlift of the injured hiker. We got to know his name, where he lived, that he had a son in Iraq. We were with him five hours. We thought sure he would survive. Ten minutes before he was moved to the litter, he cried out "Tell my wife I love her.' I had to move away at that point as his comment was like a knife in my heart. He then said 'I'm dying.' to which we responded, 'No you will live.' When he was moved, all his broken bones just collapsed, as before he had bounced off the big rock into a smaller group of rocks which had kept his internals somewhat together. Within ten minutes he was dead and all seven of us climbers just stood there in shock.

This was the first death I witnessed outdoors and it affected me and all the other six climbers. None of us went climbing the rest of the weekend. I could only think about how fleeting life could be. I'd seen the place he was attempting to cross and knew it was unsafe, whereas he didn't and paid the ultimate price. He was 40 minutes by foot from the road, but might as well have been 1000 miles from help. At least he didn't die alone.

It was a bitch slap that you really are on your own in the back country. Don't rely on anyone else to help you. And watch your step, too. You are responsible for your own actions and things can take a horrid turn in a fraction of a second. I took a wilderness responder course because of this incident. It is a good idea that climbers should take a course like this.

So, yes Greg, I can really relate to where you are coming from.

Amen Greg. My closest call to date was the result of casualness and forgetting that the hundredth time doing something was no safer than the first time.

Eloquent post, Greg. It can be difficult to remember the exquisite feeling of climbing when you are choking on a reality sandwich. Hope it comes back.

Thanks for reminding us that it's never robot city out there.

15 years ago or so I saw a block come of C'est La Vie and mangle a guys lower leg. It was a real bummer to see. The belayer was laying on his back instead of standing. Both parties might have been able to keep this from happening. Definitely, our safety is our responsibility. As a person who puts up new routes my friends and I do our best to clear the death blocks. But sooner or later someone will try going some other way and pull on something that looks like junk. When we repeat a route the second will clean the loose stuff if possible. Eldo is so busy that it is hard to do. I think that if you can organize a trundle party then do it. But I also believe that learning to spot and avoid or climb gingerly over dangerous rock is important as you cannot clear the all the routes of all the loose stuff.