Accident in LCC 3/11/17?

Any information on the climbing accident yesterday in LCC? I saw the rescue crew. Hope everyone is stable and on the road to recovery.

Apparently the climber was on the Coffin and is expected to recover. Little else was reported.

Story on KSL
ksl.com/?sid=43465209&nid=1…

Salt Lake County Search and Rescue's Facebook page had a few more details, but not much:
facebook.com/slcosar/posts/…

Anyone heard any update on this? How he is doing or other details?

Hi all, this was me. There was a communication error and I fell from the achors of CPOD near the coffin to the ground (~50 ft). Search and rescue were in BCC, so responded relatively quickly and got me off the mountain. I ended up with 5 spinal fractures, but no other injuries. There was no neurological damage so I'm just stuck in a brace for 3 months with no bending, twisting, or lifting more than 10 lbs. Bummer, but it could have been a lot worse. Thanks for everyone's concern!

Really glad you'll be ok. Can you tell us more about your communication error? Thanks! Would love to learn about what happened.

Glad to hear you're ok! That's one heck of a fall!

Jordan, if you happen to get back on we would like to hear what happened.

If it was a communication error at the anchors I'm going to wager a guess that you were planning to be lowered and your partner thought you were rappelling. This seems to be somewhat common, with at least a few of these accidents every year.

Regardless of what happened here, everyone needs to always remember to do 2 things. Make it clear what the plan is before leaving the ground. Keep your personal anchor attached to the anchor in the rock until you are sure the rope you are being lowered on or are rapping on is secure and will hold your weight.

So what happened is a little bit complicated but I'll give the short version. I was with 3 other people, and they all decided that none of them wanted to second the route to clean the gear, so I had to clean it. Because the route veers so far right, I decided to lower and climb again on the other end of the rope to clean it. I decided against simply lowering because the rope was getting chewed up in the crack, and unfortunately I was more paranoid than I would have been because the last time I climbed on LCC granite a sharp crystal cut the sheath on my rope. So instead I though maybe I'd rappel, but the ends of the rope were so far apart and there was enough rope drag through my gear that it didn't seem like that would work out either. So finally I decided to have one my of friends tie into the end that I was belayed on and I would single rope rappel the other end to the ground and then reclimb the route. This is obviously where the problems happened. The climbers I were with were all relatively novice and weren't as familiar with systems as I assumed. Also because the route is slightly overhung and goes over a bulge at the end, it's hard to see the ground from the chains. So when my buddy was tied into the rope, I told him to weight it so that I could feel him, which he did....but I already had my rope through my belay device, and the weight that I felt was him directly under me instead of on the other end of the rope. Feeling his weight and assuming that the rope was taught and I was good to rap, I unclipped from the anchors and leaned back, obviously unaware that he had actually tied into the same end of the rope as me.
Basically, what I should have done different was 1) not be so paranoid about damaging my rope that i use a riskier descent method 2) not assumed that my partners were as familiar with systems as I was 3) explained very explicitly what I wanted my partner to do and 4) double checked everything before unclipping from the anchors.
Lesson learned, and hopefully this helps others to be careful and not make the same mistakes.
Again, thank you all for the concern, it's good to know the climbing community is rallied around you.

Jordan Gilbert wrote:but I already had my rope through my belay device, and the weight that I felt was him directly under me instead of on the other end of the rope.

[edited to remove: after reading your post one more time, I realized the biner block would not have worked with your plan. The next point is still valid though.]
2. If you felt your friend's weight directly under you, that should've alarmed you that you set up your device on the wrong strand. If this whole counterweight rappel was to work, your friend's weight should be felt ABOVE you, pulling you toward the anchor.

Oh man, Jordan. I'm glad you're OK and you were able to live through your mistake. Thanks for sharing your experience. Always good to learn from others mistakes so we don't repeat them.

Glad you're OK Jordan. Thanks for sharing your report.

aikibujin wrote: [edited to remove: after reading your post one more time, I realized the biner block would not have worked with your plan. The next point is still valid though.] 2. If you felt your friend's weight directly under you, that should've alarmed you that you set up your device on the wrong strand. If this whole counterweight rappel was to work, your friend's weight should be felt ABOVE you, pulling you toward the anchor.

I guess I'm not fully picturing it yet. Why wouldn't a biner block work?

Optimistic wrote: I guess I'm not fully picturing it yet. Why wouldn't a biner block work?

cuz he'd rap down the free hanging line. meaning the biner block would be on the "gear" side of the rope not allowing him to TR back up through that end of the rope.

^^^ what he said.

Greg G wrote: cuz he'd rap down the free hanging line. meaning the biner block would be on the "gear" side of the rope not allowing him to TR back up through that end of the rope.

Gotcha, I thought he'd scrapped the reclimbing part of the plan in favor of just cleaning but see what I missed now, thanks.

Thank you very much for sharing Jordan. Best wishes with your recovery.