Shockley's Ceiling Shawangunks I was rescued like a princesse.

I was rescued like a princess on Saturday the 22nd of July by Kirin Y. and his anonymous partner. Attempting to pull the roof on the 3rd pitch, as I was following. Where is that jug?? I fell into a blind spot away from the wall and where my partner couldn't hear my voice screaming lower me! 

However, Kirin and his partner heard me and didn't give up on us regardless the rain that rain started pouring as I was hanging by what started feeling like a thread after 40 mins of sitting on my harness.

I am forever grateful to these two strangers who went on full hero on us!!

I shall return this favor as I grow up to be a more experienced climber, they have built such delicious gear anchors and took other risk managements I have never seen. I want to climb like that!! This experience really pushed me to want to become the person that I can count on, on the mountains. 

Namaste.

This seems to happen a lot on that climb...glad you're ok!  My advice: learn some self rescue, especially how to ascend a rope.  What would you have done if they hadn't been there?  Also, communication issues are legendary at the Gunks.  Some people like to use nonverbal communication systems via rope tugs, which might be worth experimenting.

Rope tugs aren't going to help you communicate with a weighted rope. 

The simplest and safest solution to this situation is to ascend the rope. This really should be a minimum required skill before climbing anything overhanging with this type of hanging in space after a fall potential. It's great that someone nearby was able to help you out, and I'm glad you're all ok! But they really shouldn't have needed to rescue you. We all need help sometimes when unexpected accidents happen, but "I might fall following this climb" is not really an unforeseeable possibility and you should be prepared for it before beginning your next climb. 

Not trying to be harsh, I think you've already learned your lesson here - but for others reading this. Know how to ascend the rope before climbing something seriously overhanging, like many Gunks climbs! 

Ted Pinson wrote:

This seems to happen a lot on that climb...glad you're ok!  My advice: learn some self rescue, especially how to ascend a rope.  What would you have done if they hadn't been there?  Also, communication issues are legendary at the Gunks.  Some people like to use nonverbal communication systems via rope tugs, which might be worth experimenting.

Rope tugs wouldn't really work if the climber was weighting the rope (as was the case here).  Definitely learn to prusik your way up.  It's a valuable skill.

ETA: Em Cos types faster than I do :)

Em Cos wrote:

Rope tugs aren't going to help you communicate with a weighted rope. 

The simplest and safest solution to this situation is to ascend the rope. This really should be a minimum required skill before climbing anything overhanging with this type of hanging in space after a fall potential. It's great that someone nearby was able to help you out, and I'm glad you're all ok! But they really shouldn't have needed to rescue you. We all need help sometimes when unexpected accidents happen, but "I might fall following this climb" is not really an unforeseeable possibility and you should be prepared for it before beginning your next climb. 

Not trying to be harsh, I think you've already learned your lesson here - but for others reading this. Know how to ascend the rope before climbing something seriously overhanging, like many Gunks climbs! 

Yes, I totally agree with all you are saying, thank you for all the advice, lesson learned!! :)

wonderwoman wrote:

Real princesses know how to prusik.

Glad you learned from something from your experience.  Time to practice some new skills before you get in over your head again.  You are really lucky that there were other folks around.  You cannot always count on being bailed out.

Thank you Wonderwoman! Yes, I agree with all you say!!

Dana Bartlett wrote:

Place a piece above the roof and attach a long sling to it. The second can pull on the sling, stand in it, or attach another sling to the first one and use that for her/his foot. It's good to know how to prussik but this might be a bit quicker.

with rope stretch, this seems like it wouldn't be useful in almost any situation, unless they managed to get a big "take" before falling, right next to the piece. Even with a big take, rope stretch would likely take you out of range of the sling, even if it was a double length.

Can't put that just on the second.  The leader should be proficient (and you have plenty of rope from the top of the 3rd pitch) to lower themselves down to their partner, or at least far enough down to communicate.  If you're just sitting around at the anchor for 40 minutes with your seconds full weight on the rope then you have some additional skills to learn before taking a friend 300 feet off the ground.

edit: don't mean this to come off as harsh.  hard to know what you don't know, something many of us have found out the hard way - its a good thing people were around to help, and a good teaching moment for leader and partner to learn some new skills to help them out in the future.

Leman Akpinar wrote:

I fell into a blind spot away from the wall and where my partner couldn't hear my voice screaming lower me! 

Where was your partner belaying from? The top of the cliff or just below the big overhang (recommended) ? If just below the big overhang it's easier to see and hear and it's fairly trivial to drop a loop of rope to assist your second.

Any case, glad you're safe and will - no doubt - learn how to Prusik

This is almost 100% on the leader.  When climbing with a follower who even *might* fall on that move, the leader should break the last pitch up into two pitches and belay just about the roof (in the corner) so communication is not an issue.  There's a reason my partner and I used to call Shockley's "The Divorcer"--your situation is not unique.

And now we shall read from the Grey Book of Dick, chapter 142, verse 5:

"PITCH 3: 5.6 G (V2, V3) Climb the ceiling (crux) to a stance, then up the corner to a good belay stance below the roof (highly recommended to belay here so you can see and HEAR your partners). (50 ft.)"

And the Dick was met with great joy by all the people of the land, for his words were wise and true.

Good thing you weren't' going for the naked ascent.

Chuck Parks wrote:

And now we shall read from the Grey Book of Dick, chapter 142, verse 5:

"PITCH 3: 5.6 G (V2, V3) Climb the ceiling (crux) to a stance, then up the corner to a good belay stance below the roof (highly recommended to belay here so you can see and HEAR your partners). (50 ft.)"

And the Dick was met with great joy by all the people of the land, for his words were wise and true.

And all was well in the land of the Shawagunks for many years to come. But in times of prosperity, the wisdom of the great Dick slipped into the shadows and out of the minds of the people. 

Without the wisdom of old, many people meet great challenges and peril. Some were clever or lucky and were prepared and able to escape their perils but many did not have such good fortune. But now, a man of great virtue, Lord Kirin, has risen to the aid of less fortunate adventurers, and the great wisdom of old has been brought back from the shadow by the canals of the great web and into the minds of the common

Finally as is well in the great land of the Shawagunks and hopefully it will be for some time to come

Chuck Parks wrote:

And now we shall read from the Grey Book of Dick, chapter 142, verse 5:

"PITCH 3: 5.6 G (V2, V3) Climb the ceiling (crux) to a stance, then up the corner to a good belay stance below the roof (highly recommended to belay here so you can see and HEAR your partners). (50 ft.)"

And the Dick was met with great joy by all the people of the land, for his words were wise and true.

Nowadays, when it's clear that too many people never even look at the route photos in the book (I hear of folks getting off route by totally missing things like a 20 ft traverse), it wouldn't surprise me that a party starting up Shockley's would not have read that bit in the guidebook.

Gunkiemike wrote:

Nowadays, when it's clear that too many people never even look at the route photos in the book (I hear of folks getting off route by totally missing things like a 20 ft traverse), it wouldn't surprise me that a party starting up Shockley's would not have read that bit in the guidebook.

Read an actual guidebook? What is wrong with you? ;-)

Leman Akpinar wrote:

I was rescued like a princess on Saturday the 22nd of July by Kirin Y. and his anonymous partner. Attempting to pull the roof on the 3rd pitch, as I was following. Where is that jug?? I fell into a blind spot away from the wall and where my partner couldn't hear my voice screaming lower me! 

However, Kirin and his partner heard me and didn't give up on us regardless the rain that rain started pouring as I was hanging by what started feeling like a thread after 40 mins of sitting on my harness.

40 minutes is an awful long time to just leave your partner on a weighted rope.  Why did the leader not lower or attempt some other rescue before that point?  Even 5 minutes of a continuously weighted & not-moving rope is a pretty clear sign that SOMETHING has gone wrong.

Leman, it was classy of you to thank your rescuers on this site and thereby invite the flaming that you had to know was coming. Good for you.

And yeah, you should learn to prussik, and your leader should have been more on top of things, but most of us have been in similar situations and you now get to learn from it and move on. Not a huge deal. Have fun out there.

Gunkiemike wrote:

Nowadays, when it's clear that too many people never even look at the route photos in the book (I hear of folks getting off route by totally missing things like a 20 ft traverse), it wouldn't surprise me that a party starting up Shockley's would not have read that bit in the guidebook.

True. I learned that the hard way on Shockley's when my second had trouble at the roof and I was at the top. In my defense, I only had Blue Dick and Shockley's was only 5.5 then...

Dana Bartlett wrote:

  

Any suggestions about what the leader should have done once s/he was in this predicament (can't hear the second, with a weighted rope). Would hauling with a 3:1 mechanical advantage be the way to go? It seems like descending only to have to have enough Prussik loops to ascend again would be a pain, but then again gaining more information by descending would be good. I don't really see how dropping a loop would help the second. Wisedoms appreciated.

bantucaravan wrote:

Any suggestions about what the leader should have done once s/he was in this predicament (can't hear the second, with a weighted rope). Would hauling with a 3:1 mechanical advantage be the way to go? It seems like descending only to have to have enough Prussik loops to ascend again would be a pain, but then again gaining more information by descending would be good. I don't really see how dropping a loop would help the second. Wisedoms appreciated.

"It depends" of course. In this case much depends on what sort of belay the leader had going up there in the trees.  But if he were able to tie off the belay and free himself to walk to the edge, he would probably have been able to communicate with the climber to come up with a plan (lower, haul, talk through a few moves of aid or a prusik ascent etc).