Decking (not that I'm planning on it)

powhound84 wrote: Damn, when was that? Is there a story to go with this picture?

I came off 15 or 20 feet off the ground and the cam blew. It could have been worse I guess.

Brad G wrote: I came off 15 or 20 feet off the ground and the cam blew. It could have been worse I guess.

Yeah, could have been worse for sure. Like if it happened on a 5.9! Your ego may have never made a full recovery.

Shelton Hatfield wrote:Yeah, could have been worse for sure. Like if it happened on a 5.9! Your ego may have never made a full recovery.

The humour was not lost on me but most people I know who have decked are usually climbing well below their limit.

This is also the the statistic for resort skier deaths in Colorado, Black run skier on a Blue hits a tree. Though in the case of skiing, just because you can get down a black run does not necessarily mean anything regarding ability.

Complacency = danger.

I'll ad avy deaths to this as well, probably even more so.

What amazes me about Brad G's fall is that when it happened, somebody thought "I've gotta take a photo of this!" I'm guessing they even went through the effort of climbing up with their phone to get a better shot. I hope that at least they called for medical services first.

A decade ago, I zippered out of San Juan choss from 25 feet up and hit the deck. I walked away with a stiff back but 2 things saved my ass:
1. Luck. Flat dirt LZ surrounded by pointy rocks.
2. Shart (just a little). That impact energy had to go somewhere.

Take it or leave it. Maybe my techniques will work for you and maybe not. Now my rule of thumb is that I always get the 2ND pitch in the Cimarrons.

Brad you must've done something right in that fall because you're back crushing in Eldo already, right?

Brad G ..... I am really curious about the accident you had and without sounding rude or condescending I would like to ask this question, I do see a lot of your type of accident more and more now days, two fatal at Josh.

Why only ONE piece of gear????

no spot for more? ( I have been their done that )

Looks/ is easy and a hold broke.... A good friend of mine had that go down and we almost lost him.

I hope you have healed up 100%

Guy Keesee wrote:Brad G ..... I am really curious about the accident you had and without sounding rude or condescending I would like to ask this question, I do see a lot of your type of accident more and more now days, two fatal at Josh. Why only ONE piece of gear???? no spot for more? ( I have been their done that ) Looks/ is easy and a hold broke.... A good friend of mine had that go down and we almost lost him. I hope you have healed up 100%

Hey Guy, the climb only offered one spot for a cam in the first 20 feet. I ended up not sticking the first crux move about 15 feet off the ground. I'm feeling about 95% healed after 3 months.

Mark lewin wrote:So you see news stories, reports, and of course stories from MP of people decking indoors and out. I'm never planning on decking but has there been a consensus of proper techniques if it ever came to it?

It doesent really matter as you wont be able to pull it off without extensive training. In a real scenario, you will have virtually no time to react. This is especially true considering you would expect your gear to hold--after all, no one whips and expects to rip the entire pitch.

The only way you would likely be able to move into any special stance would be if you always fell in that position so it was muscle memory. People who work in positions that require they act correctly solely on reflex train to react a specific way, and they train through repetition continuously for their entire career as it's a perishable skill.

In short, there is almost no chance you're going to fall off, rip the pitch, recall this thread, then assume a special position. In reality, you would likely be on the deck before you even knew what happened.

Brad.... thank you.

Not to much one can do in that situation except put on your free solo hat.