Safety on Slabby Sport Climbs
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My friend and I took a trip out to Rushmore a few weeks ago to enjoy an extended weekend of climbing in a new area, and unfortunately I took a fall on our second day that cut our trip short. Thankfully, I came away with just a severe ankle sprain, and a little over a month later I've been able to return to some mild athletic activity, and still improving daily. |
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Friends dont let friends fall on slab. |
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Kicking off introduced the swing and slam that probably resulted in your busted ankle, but it likely also reduced the grater effect you get by sliding. Kind of a toss up, but I prefer to kick and swing rather than slide/grate. Split-second decision, either way. |
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If you had been wearing a helmet you wouldn't have sprained your ankle. |
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"Run" backwards and pad with your hands. |
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I'm guessing that this slab was not that low angle ? maybe 70-80 degrees ? |
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Seriously though, the "slabs" at Rushmore are quite a bit steeper than NC slabs. |
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The definition of slab seems to vary widely depending on who you talk to. But if a climb is considerably less than vertical kicking off is usually a bad idea IMO. Because it's less than vertical you will come back to it at some point and be moving faster than you would if you had slid. (I'm sure people can find cases where kicking off would be the best option though). |
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Emil Briggs wrote:On a pure friction slab like Stone Mountain NC just sliding on your shoes seems to work pretty well.Not a good option at Rushmore. The faces (slabs) there are covered in crystals of various sizes. The thought of cheese grating down those faces is terrifying. |
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If you can kick-off..you shouldn't have fallen. |
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I probably shouldn't have chimed in since I haven't climbed at Rushmore. However, I have climbed on low angle climbs that would be considered slab with face features. With a fall on this kind of terrain I'd say take a natural fall, don't jump out from the wall, and be prepared to back pedal on the way down. I think jumping out could add a pendulum movement into the wall and increase the force on your feet/ankles. |
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In my head, I thought I took Jsimpson's approach and attempted to fall naturally, but who knows what I may have inadvertently done in the moment. To be clear, all I meant by slab was less than vertical - this route is definitely not pure friction slab, involves mostly edging on crystals, and is reasonably steep as the pictures show. Still a bit curious on the frequency of injury in this type of scenario. Any thoughts? In 2 days of climbing, this was my only lead fall of the trip, so 100% of my falls ended poorly :) |
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I must say that I am fascinated by this kicking out talk. |
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So, you might notice that a lot of sport climbers hate slabs...this is why. The risk for injury is much greater, for the very reasons you experienced. While there are strategies for minimizing injury, it's still likely that you will get at least a bit scraped up. Slab climbing is also very different in terms of technique, so most people find it hard for the grade compared to vertical/overhang. You might want to start with some topropes to get really comfortable with the technique, as falling on slab generally sucks. |
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NC climbers tip for falling on slab: don't fall |
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Don't fall on 7s and 8s, Skip 5.9, by the time you're climbing 5.10s and .11s the slab is steep enough to minimize the fall danger |
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On risk calibration: |
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Barrett Pauer wrote:Don't fall on 7s and 8s, Skip 5.9, by the time you're climbing 5.10s and .11s the slab is steep enough to minimize the fall dangerThis is probably the best advice but unfortunately stuff happens. Try to make the falls short, try to absorb the fall. If you don't fall a lot, go fall a lot in the gym (even though it is usually more over hung it will still get you in the right catching mindset for how you absorb and impact a wall). I would say it is more of a bummer accident that happened to the OP then something he did wrong. |
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Barrett Pauer wrote:NC climbers tip for falling on slab: don't fallbest advice yet. |
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Agree with falls being nastier on easier terrain, especially slab. I don't think anyone has said this yet but.. One habit that can decrease the severity of falls on easy slab is to have your belayer take in slack rapidly, as in run away from the base of the climb. You can take in several meters quickly this way and sometimes thats just what you need to stay off that ankle sprainer ledge, just keep that brake hand on the whole time. You do not want to do this on steep routes, however, when a soft catch is supposed to keep you from slamming back into the wall. |