Longest fall without serious injury

Just talked to someone who fell 20 feet and walked away with a bruised butt.
Got me wondering- what is the longest fall any of you have taken without injury (good stories-extra credit) or know of other climbers taking without getting hurt?

John Wilder wrote: I have a friend who took 140' zinger El Cap and never even touched the wall. That one is the biggest fall that someone I know took and didn't get injured at all.

I have loads of friends who have whipped in the 40-50' range regularly

Personally, my biggest falls have been in the 30' range.

Guess I meant groundfalls but a140' whipper is mighty impressive

I grounded out from about 35 feet once.  Hold broke unexpectedly on an obscure runout route in the Black Hills Needles before the first gear placement.  The landing was terrible too - a rocky gully.  I was and still am shocked that I walked away with nothing but bruises.  It probably helped that I was young and had been doing lots of highball bouldering so I was fairly relaxed and bounced better than I would now.

I know someone who took a 180 ft digger while ice climbing, and walked away with a minor wrist fracture. Landed in a big fluffy snow pile.

Caught buddies on 40 foot whips....never taken one much higher than 25 myself. 

I took a 40ft ground fall, landed flat on my butt and was ok, only minor bruises and a sprained ankle! I was hangover when it happened. Took a rest on a shitty piece of gear and it blew up, I don't lead when I'm hangover anymore!

I watch a guy tobbogan down a 150ft ice climb unroped once.   He somehow walked away with a tailbone fracture and hairline humerus fracture apparently.

My personal biggest outdoor fall was a 15' fall on slab.   I literally skiied backwards on my climbing shoes.  

35 feet on a low angle face and not even a scratch. I fell a significant distance outward and swung back in about 3 feet above a ledge and no problem. Actually, I think my belayer was more injured with a scratch or 2 and some pinched skin from getting pulled into the first piece. 

Multi people have fallen out of planes 1000s of ft up in the air and lived without major injury so yea... 33,333ft is guinness book of world record but there are others who have fallen I think higher but not as well documented so they didn't get in.

I’ve personally seen about half a dozen people hit the ground from 30-50 ft and walk away mostly ok. Admittedly most of those were slowed or cushioned by incompetent belayers. In the longest of those they were save by their own anchor building incompetence. They had so much friction in the system from the rope weaving around trees that it slowed them during the fall.

cragmantoo wrote:

Guess I meant groundfalls but a140" whipper is mighty impressive

Big difference... I have never hit the ground with a rope tied on. 

Just took a 40' footer on third pillar when a piece blew tumbled around a little bit and  bounced off a few features  before the next piece and rope caught me.  A few staples in my head and a bruised hip and foot.  I was able to finish the climb and hike out.  

100'.

Couple scratches.

I took a 40 or so foot fall in Mexico after attempting to climb left around wet rock skipping a couple bolts. Ended up greasing off a muddy ledge. Sprained ankle on the slab below but still climbed another 10-12 pitches.

I briefly worked for a stand up guy named John Mars who told me he took a 100 foot whipper on an A5 pitch on El Cap after he zippered a bunch of gear. Completely unharmed. 

M Jarmland wrote:

Made me think of kind of a funny story.

I was belaying my friend at a popular crag. While looking down to rest my neck for a second I felt a couple of small rocks hit my helmet. As I looked up to curse my friend I saw him, mid air, coming towards me. He hit me hard, ass first, in the chest. Impact had me sitting down with him on top of me.. Climbers from a neighboring route came running to see what happened but turned around shaking their heads when they found us laughing on the ground, my friend still sitting on my lap. We estimated the hold that broke under his foot was around 12 meters or 40 feet up. The single piece he had placed half way barely stretched the rope, if at all. We both walked away okay but my chest was partly purple for a couple of days..

great story

This guy has got to be on the list: youtube.com/watch?v=_WzYni4…

30" from a tree, landed on my back on a root and thought I was paralyzed and dying since my legs were completely numb. Nothing beats getting the feeling back in your legs and feet. No big ground falls from rock, but some embarrassing short ones.

David Kerkeslager wrote: This guy has got to be on the list: youtube.com/watch?v=_WzYni4…

Whoa. I love how gets up and brushes himself off casually...

cragmantoo wrote:

Whoa. I love how gets up and brushes himself off casually...

About the same as when I saw a guy deck from 55ft up but at least he had 4 inch pad he landed on at the base. Kinda think some of it is shock that causes the person to do that. Even some of the shorter 15ft or less decks I have seen you get the same affect from most of them when they deck and realize they can stand up unhurt.

I have friends who have pretty bad falls but this one is not really a groundfall but a terrifying and weird one.

My friend had a pretty freaky fall a long time ago. Ice climbing in a gully with a pretty heavy river in the bottom that freezes over here and there but is closed with ice on long sections. On the approach he crossed the river and started up an easy  WI3 unroped leading up to the main WI5 waterfall. The waterfall sort of caved in, broke in pieces on a big section and my friend along with it and fell behind the ice, tumbling down about 10 meters into the cold river and still underneath the ice but popped up from under the ice in a calm section of the river and was able to crawl on top of the ice unhurt. 

Once I fell off an overhang and landed right on my back onto a slab and fell 20 or 25 feet. When the piece caught the rope swing forced me to slam into another small dihedral. I was pretty banged up all over the place. Didn't climb for like a week after.