Falling on gear success stories! (Where the rock didn't completely blow out)

mostly aliens. I know, shock and awe, they work.

I fell 42 feet onto a half-placed #12 BD stopper in a shallow crack on the North Side of Looking Glass. It held 2 in a row before I figured out the crux section.

Terry Price wrote: This became my lead rope for many more years - until its retirement to a third career as multiple, 12-foot long, llama lead ropes which I still use today.

FYI, the UIAA officially recommends retiring a rope from lead llama use after 20 years. You can still use it for all following llama's though.

Mike: Humorous catch on the double entendre of "lead rope." I am still in the lead, on the "sharp end" of the rope so to speak, going down mountain paths with my pack string. UIAA and PETA will be happy to know that I never make my llamas "lead;" they only follow.

My first REAL falls onto gear were on the same route, two separate pieces, about 20 feet and 5 minutes apart.

I was climbing a tough 5.9 w/ an undercling roof traverse and friction feet. In hindsight I should have cruised it but that's always the case afterwards isn't it?

I placed a purple c4 into the undercling roof and went. I fell with the gear right in front of me but I had to sling it out w/ a double length sling since it was at the beginning of the roof so I fell quite a ways. Not much force on the gear but that's not what was going through my mind at the time. I popped with no warning, and before I knew it I was looking up at the piece still in the crack. No harm done.

I got back up, climbed the traverse on the second attempt, but once out of the roof I was in a steep dihedral w/ no jams. I got pumped took a half second look at a crack to the left, slammed in an orange TCU, clipped it and I was immediately airborne. Again, small forces involved, but if I had picked the wrong size, made a bad placement or popped a half second earlier I would have taken a huge whipper w/ potentially bad consequences.

Looking back I was not at my physical limit, but I WAS at the limit of my experience leading on gear. Good confidence builder, but I guess it could have gone the other way.

Since then I've fallen on a purple TCU in Wingate sandstone that broke, but still held my fall.

I recently took quite a whipper on the Grit stone up in the UK. Again, a .5 Camalot. It was bomber, but if it had ripped I would have gone splat and really bad. I knew it was ggood and went for it and I'm glad I did. Trust your gear.

Last project my buddy Geir and I worked we jumped off on to a 00 TCU multiple times to convince ourselves it was good. We would climb up to the next good hold and placement then jump. We both went 20-25 feet. After that we could climb to that next placement with no fear. We still fell on it some more but we were not scared.

Of course we had bomber pro between us and the ground. I rarely ever push my limit if I don't have 2 good pieces between me and the ground.

When my buddy Jesse got into trad he got on a bolted crack, put in a lot cams some that looked good and a lot that looked like they would never hold. Then he jumped with bolts as backup and they all held. He is still scared of trad but he at least knows what can be a good placement.

I've taken two falls on gear. The first close to a 1 FF on my first piece a #1 mastercam, the second on a #4 C4 that was placed at my feet. Not big falls but still scared me pretty good. I try not to fall while trad climbing. The first was a slip due to wet rock that I wasn't expecting and the second was a broken foot hold.

I seen my first piece of gear rip this weekend while I was belaying. The climber was caught by the same #1 mastercam on the same route in the same placement where my fall was. The gear that ripped was a poorly placed #2 C3 in a flaring crack.

Took 5 falls on a purple Omega Pacific Link Cam in an ockward placement. It held, good thing seeing as it was the only pro between me and the ground!

Took two 15 footer on a 0 Master Cam, the first time the piece pulled, I replaced it only 1/4" to the right of its previous placement, fell on it again and it held. Damn micro cams are so finicky.

Took a 15-20 foot 'surprise fall' on a 3.5 forged friend yesterday. God damn I love forged friends.

I'm of the point of view that this thread is silly. Of course it holds, unless the rock completely explodes out (ie: solft sandstone), it holds pretty well holds pretty good whippers.

I belayed a guy who is 180lbs on a pretty good whipper on Shotgun at Paradise Forks when he whipped onto the metolius equivelent of the BD purple 00 C3 (whiich is the piece I place there). I also belayed him when he took a 25fter on Paradise Lost at Paradise Forks on a Metolius (placed where I place a purple BD 0.5 C4.

While doing Terminator at the Waterfall I kept missing a key footchip at the upper crux and took enough whippers to be embarressed about it (I am officially trying out for the NFL as a punter). This entailed 15-20fters onto a blindly placed green BD 0 C3 (since I was using a 9.1mm, the stretch made it feel like 25ft.

I find the thread silly because if a piece fails it was either the rock failed (ie: soft sandstone) or most likely driver error (the vast majority of the cases).

Perfect argumentative essay format.

Intro w/ thesis -> specific example in body paragraphs -> conclusion with restatement of thesis.

your english teacher would be proud!

Placed a #5 sized older nut off my partner's rack as my first piece, whipped on it. When I got back to the ground he responded "wow, I booty'd that a while ago, did you see how messed up the swage is?" Pretty sure I got the first fall in 10+ years on it. It worked.

chuck claude wrote:I'm of the point of view that this thread is silly. Of course it holds, unless the rock completely explodes out

I think you're silly...I revised the name of the thread to suit your taste.

Had one cam rip on me at poohs corner in vedauwoo. As I climbed past it stood on it accidentally witch of course made a bomber placement turn into a big? So I kept climbing and while I was placing my next cam my hand blew and I went sailing. The peice I stood on blew and my first cam (that I thank god placed high) a #3 c4 caught my inverted fall just before my head hit the ground. I hen stood up on tiptoes and said off belay completely unhurt. That #3 is my favorite cam ever. And that was probably like. 15 to 20 foot whip

check out this video. Ron takes a fall on a 000 C3. The placement is not ideal but it still holds.

karstendelap.com/karstendel…

jamesellis wrote:Took a 15-20 foot 'surprise fall' on a 3.5 forged friend yesterday. God damn I love forged friends.

AMEN

I love the idea of this post. Most often we're hearing all the negative stuff. Sometimes it gets to the point that you hear so much negative stuff that one would start to think that that is all that happens.

Anyway years ago I fell on a #2 BD nut. A short fall but there wasn't much rope out. Solid.

I took two 30 footers. One onto an undercammed #1 Mastercam, and one onto a small DMM offset nut. The nut I expected to hold, but not that cam.

I've probably taken 10-12 falls on gear so far, and haven't popped any pieces (not including those that got "back-cleaned" by rope drag!) Place well, then climb with confidence!

1Eric Rhicard wrote:Last project my buddy Geir and I worked we jumped off on to a 00 TCU multiple times to convince ourselves it was good. We would climb up to the next good hold and placement then jump. We both went 20-25 feet. After that we could climb to that next placement with no fear. We still fell on it some more but we were not scared. Of course we had bomber pro between us and the ground. I rarely ever push my limit if I don't have 2 good pieces between me and the ground. When my buddy Jesse got into trad he got on a bolted crack, put in a lot cams some that looked good and a lot that looked like they would never hold. Then he jumped with bolts as backup and they all held. He is still scared of trad but he at least knows what can be a good placement.

Eric speaks the truth. :)

I love pushing my limit over solid gear. Sometimes I'll push my limit over not-so-good gear if I have a good piece somewhere below me to prevent really bad fall. I've yet to see a good placement pull in a fall.