Near Miss on Cathedral Peak

So I was the guy that threw him the rope.  My partner and I were soloing up till that pitch.  I had climbed up to the alcove and my partner decided he was done soloing at the corner before the alcove. so I made a quick anchor and threw him cordelette to pull through that section then we roped up (he had the rope I had the gear).  This soloist was climbing behind us for about the last 50 feet before the corner and seemed to be fine at that point.  When my partner stopped at the corner to wait for the rope the soloist was yelling at him to "just climb" and all kinds of other unnecessary comments.  My partner repeatedly told him to wait and he would be out of the way as soon as he could do it safely.  I got my partner up and started getting everything ready for the next pitch.  Lucky there was a party just above us going up left of the chimney.  they were anchored in and had a good length of rope free.  We heard the party below the soloist start yelling that he needed help and that it was urgent.  I started to pull out the cordelette to toss to him but we had moved our anchor so it wouldn't reach.  The soloist was barley hanging on at this point. I unclipped from our anchor and the party above threw the extra rope down.  I shuffled down as low as i could get to toss the rope to him.  He literately tried biting the rope to get hold of if then his feet cut and he caught it mid air and slammed back into the rock. The party pulled him up.  We argued with him for a while to let us make him a hardness and just climb on our rope or go left to the class 4 area.  We offered him every option i could think of but he wouldn't listen. He never even said thank you to anyone involved in helping him.  He did said he would have only fell a few feet and would have been fine. He then proceed to stand about a foot away from me as I belayed my partner through the chimney.  I had to repeated tell him not to pull on my partners rope and that he could not climb until we were clear of the chimney. My partner had to tell him again not to pull on my rope as I lead the next pitch and explained to him the danger he was putting everyone else in.  He proceeded to pull this shit with every party he came across on his way up. We made it up and waited just below the summit on t he down climb side for the other party of two that we were with.  Every party that passed us had a story about him. I think I spoke with @rafael at the top about  pulling him up on his rope.  While waiting for our other party the soloist came  came around the corner.  He ended up following us most of the way back to the trail.  I had very little left to say to him at this point, but was happy to see him alive. This guy put everyone on cathedral in serious danger and had no place being up there. 

George Perkins wrote:

Sounds like some folks here on are suggesting that: (1) I shouldn't have helped them out as they got themselves there, and (2) I should have yelled at them for putting other people (me) at risk were I to downsolo past them or wait behind them until it became dark.

Come on people. Be cool and help other climbers out.  We all get in over our heads sometimes.

Sure, but there seems to be a difference between being in over your head and just being reckless. If you're soloing an easy climb like Cathedral and need to be saved it would seem prudent to gracefully exit on the 4th class terrain rather than continue to be a nuisance on a high traffic climb.

I'm quite happy to help new climbers but I would chew this guy out after helping him. 

Brian Banta wrote:

Why? And where does this responsibility begin and end? Should I help even if it significantly increases the risk to my team?  Why am I responsible and not some more experienced person there?  

Even trained rescuers first consider the safety of the rescuers before attempting a rescue. 

My primary responsibility is to keep myself and partner safe, secondary (though a close second) is to keep other climbers around me safe. If I truly had a responsibility to help, and help this climber descend, I would be taking on additional risk that may be beyond my abilities as a leader.

I am not saying I have the answers... 

Oh and to the other posters, there were no fish heads, no bold flash, and no neck meat... and it was not a prank.

Yea, people need to use their brain to make the best decision. Fancy that!

Each case is different but the assessment is the same, Step 1: Minimize death and destruction.

Step 2: Then keep climbing.

If you don't think you can change the situation for the better than go on your merry way. If you can't handle seeing someone die then you should probably help out anyway.

George Perkins wrote:

This weekend, one evening, I solo'd Great White Book (5.6) on Stately Pleasure Dome in Tuolumne.  After topping out, I start the 4th class slab descent and find 2 fairly new leaders who had just finished a 5.7 are quite uncomfortable on the descent and got their rope stuck after a short rappel, with darkness coming fairly soon.  After getting their rope for them, they set up a belay for the 1st person to downclimb, then the 2nd person follows down with basically no pro or belay.  I chose to help them out at that point, and belayed them down the rest of the way, then solo'd down behind them.  

Sounds like some folks here on are suggesting that: (1) I shouldn't have helped them out as they got themselves there, and (2) I should have yelled at them for putting other people (me) at risk were I to downsolo past them or wait behind them until it became dark.

Come on people. Be cool and help other climbers out.  We all get in over our heads sometimes.

that situation is incredibly different to this guy on cathedral, do you not see it that way? This soloist was being a complete turd as well as a giant danger to others. The people you helped got into a hairy situation and you helped them, unless you didnt mention it, there were zero reasons to be pissed at them, and they accepted the help.

The soloist guy repeatedly refused help, got in the way, tangled in peoples lead lines, and got stuck on easy slab. People offered much help, nobody was a jerk to him. Nobody yelled at him. Everyone was terrified that they would see the inside of his head, literally.

Ellis L wrote:

There is a fine line with what you say to someone when they are soloing. I've seen sketchy, questionsable shit and had to walk away. 

Do you say something, And possibly rattle their focus even further - causing the unthinkable? 

Or should you eliminate yourself from the situation and look away? 

this guy was a talker, he def was trying to interact with other climbers

Was he wearing gloves?

Did he have a go pro?

If so, I'm not sure he is ready for internet fame just yet. 

I didn't mention the fact that he was wearing a go pro cause it seemed too over the top. 

It will be up on YouTube soon.

Ryan saw him on crystal crag. I'm sure of it. 

A YouTube search may reveal the daredevil

It'd be nice to hear the solo'ist's side of the story.  Else wise, it seems his view boils down to either he didn't realize he was endangering others or just didn't care: an aberration.

Like others, my armchair reaction is to give just enough for his survival as long as it does not compromise mine or my partner's safety.  To do less would make it harder to live with myself after the fatality.  To do more seems a bit too altruistic for a stranger who either doesn't realize or doesn't care.

And in this case, there is certainly not a lot a like-minded party below can do quickly without compromising their safety - other than move out of the fall zone if possible.

He's lucky others were above and able to assist assuming a fatal fall is something he wants to avoid - he may not ... perhaps instead feeling it was a sign of weakness to have asked for help?

Is it the guy that posted the sketchy video near the end of the Crystal Crag comments? https://www.mountainproject.com/v/north-arte/106191526 The webbing haul setup seems similar.

That's him fossana.  There was a heated discussion about his tactic on summitpost.  He doesn't seem interested in hearing others opinions or accepting advice.

I'm not one to feed trolls or unnecessarily expose on-line posters, but I feel that this incident on Cathedral is ridiculous and dangerous.  Since he likes posting his Youtube vids and argue about this dangerous climbing tactic on-line, I have no qualms posting this link.

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/experiment-gloves-do-not-make-climbing-low-5s-harder-t82024.html

But his most recent video is three weeks old, and is called "Broken leg and helicopter rescue"...was he climbing Cathedral this weekend with a broken leg?

splitclimber wrote:

That's him fossana.  There was a heated discussion about his tactic on summitpost.  He doesn't seem interested in hearing others opinions or accepting advice.

I'm not one to feed trolls or unnecessarily expose on-line posters, but I feel that this incident on Cathedral is ridiculous and dangerous.  Since he likes posting his Youtube vids and argue about this dangerous climbing tactic on-line, I have no qualms posting this link.

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/experiment-gloves-do-not-make-climbing-low-5s-harder-t82024.html

Simkin has been doing this for years. https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelsimkin

He started out sitting on the edge of cliffs with a gopro and now has progressed to a solid 5.3  gopro climber. 

Yeah I didn't actually watch or even click on the video.  The one on Crystal Crag is pretty incredible though.

https://www.facebook.com/mikhail.simkin.7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4sxNF5gZ4M

This one is gold, no haulbag but the storm midway up the face is classic.  We'll read about this gent, unfortunately, if these videos/threads are any indication.  I hope he wises up.

Man, in between tasks I'm looking at some of this guy's stuff.  It's such gold!  , 

Ho man. This just keeps getting better. One of his videos is currently up on the Popular Mechanics website: popularmechanics.com/advent…

Todd Anderson wrote:

But his most recent video is three weeks old, and is called "Broken leg and helicopter rescue"...was he climbing Cathedral this weekend with a broken leg?

"A failed ascent of Picacho peak (California). Broken leg and helicopter rescue. January 2016."

Looks like he's all healed up. For now.