so that's how you lose a rack....

Last Friday, my partner Bill and I climbed "Beginner's Route" on Whitehorse. As we got to the top, there was a mini traffic jam, and we decided to bail right and do some adventure climbing to the top to avoid waiting for other groups that were blocking our way. It was a fun alternate ending to the route.

The weather was uncooperative all week long, and so we didn't plan a climb again until yesterday, Sunday. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful, sunny, fall weather, and hike in to Carter Ledge to climb "Wandering I".

Carter Ledge would no doubt see more traffic if it weren't for the fact that the approach is an uphill hike of about 1 hour, and then a bushwhack of 10-15 minutes to the toe of the slab. We hike-hike-hiked up, and arrived at the base of the climb, sweaty but eager to get going. I opened the pack, and pulled out the little case that should be packed with all our pro. It looked wrong. It was wrong! A sling full of mid-sized to small cams was missing.

At first, Bill thought we'd lost the cams forever, somehow. However, upon thinking back to last Friday, I realized what had happened:

[Flashback begins] On our adventure pitch last Friday, I had started at a tree island, and led a short slab up to another tree island below the "Platinum Slab" finish of the Cormier-Magness Route. At the second tree island, I climbed a large block that was just a bit taller than me (5 feet). Using my cordelette, I secured myself to a giant tree above the block. I threw the sling of cams down on the ground. I almost never do this, but my toenails were aching, and I wanted to get some weight off my feet. The tree island was so flat that I knew the cams were not going anywhere. I hitched into the cordelette and yelled "off belay!". Then I started to set up my grigri to belay in guide mode. However, I realized it was not going to be comfortable belaying with the grigri right next to me, at my waist. So I climbed down to the base of the block. With the grigri up above me, hanging from the tree, it was a comfortable belay. When Bill arrived at my belay station, it was his turn to lead. The "Platinum Slab" has just two bolts on it for pro, so he grabbed a couple of draws and took off to the right. When it came time for me to follow him, I'd completely forgotten about the sling of cams on top of the block, and they were out of my sight. I untied the cordelette from where I was standing, and followed him off to the right. Since I never went to the top of the block again, I never noticed anything left behind. And the Platinum Slab is the last pitch that requires pro before we top out, so we never needed the missing gear.

While I'm the guilty party for leaving the gear behind, Bill shares some blame, since he put the gear back in its cases at the top of Whitehorse, and never noticed that the cams were missing.

[Flashback ends] So we're sitting at the toe of "Wandering I", wondering if we should onsight a 5.6 route (which is near our onsight limit) with only half our cams. Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided against it, although I suspect it would have worked out okay... instead, we hike-hike-hiked back out, drove up to Whitehorse, climbed "Beginner's Easy" until we were right of the first tree island, and then moved back left to retrieve the cams. Which were still there, right where I left them. A few of them had some minor rust spots, but they were in pretty good shape, all things considered.

"We're gonna die!" but I think it'll probably be Alzheimer's that gets us. I always wondered how anyone could possibly lose an entire rack. Now I know.

dragons wrote: Last Friday, my partner Bill and I climbed "Beginner's Route" on Whitehorse. As we got to the top, there was a mini traffic jam, and we decided to bail right and do some adventure climbing to the top to avoid waiting for other groups that were blocking our way. It was a fun alternate ending to the route.

The weather was uncooperative all week long, and so we didn't plan a climb again until yesterday, Sunday. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful, sunny, fall weather, and hike in to Carter Ledge to climb "Wandering I".

Carter Ledge would no doubt see more traffic if it weren't for the fact that the approach is an uphill hike of about 1 hour, and then a bushwhack of 10-15 minutes to the toe of the slab. We hike-hike-hiked up, and arrived at the base of the climb, sweaty but eager to get going. I opened the pack, and pulled out the little case that should be packed with all our pro. It looked wrong. It was wrong! A sling full of mid-sized to small cams was missing.

At first, Bill thought we'd lost the cams forever, somehow. However, upon thinking back to last Friday, I realized what had happened:

[Flashback begins] On our adventure pitch last Friday, I had started at a tree island, and led a short slab up to another tree island below the "Platinum Slab" finish of the Cormier-Magness Route. At the second tree island, I climbed a large block that was just a bit taller than me (5 feet). Using my cordelette, I secured myself to a giant tree above the block. I threw the sling of cams down on the ground. I almost never do this, but my toenails were aching, and I wanted to get some weight off my feet. The tree island was so flat that I knew the cams were not going anywhere. I hitched into the cordelette and yelled "off belay!". Then I started to set up my grigri to belay in guide mode. However, I realized it was not going to be comfortable belaying with the grigri right next to me, at my waist. So I climbed down to the base of the block. With the grigri up above me, hanging from the tree, it was a comfortable belay. When Bill arrived at my belay station, it was his turn to lead. The "Platinum Slab" has just two bolts on it for pro, so he grabbed a couple of draws and took off to the right. When it came time for me to follow him, I'd completely forgotten about the sling of cams on top of the block, and they were out of my sight. I untied the cordelette from where I was standing, and followed him off to the right. Since I never went to the top of the block again, I never noticed anything left behind. And the Platinum Slab is the last pitch that requires pro before we top out, so we never needed the missing gear.

While I'm the guilty party for leaving the gear behind, Bill shares some blame, since he put the gear back in its cases at the top of Whitehorse, and never noticed that the cams were missing.

[Flashback ends] So we're sitting at the toe of "Wandering I", wondering if we should onsight a 5.6 route (which is near our onsight limit) with only half our cams. Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided against it, although I suspect it would have worked out okay... instead, we hike-hike-hiked back out, drove up to Whitehorse, climbed "Beginner's Easy" until we were right of the first tree island, and then moved back left to retrieve the cams. Which were still there, right where I left them. A few of them had some minor rust spots, but they were in pretty good shape, all things considered.

"We're gonna die!" but I think it'll probably be Alzheimer's that gets us. I always wondered how anyone could possibly lose an entire rack. Now I know.

Lol! Glad you got your gear back! 

Decades ago, I was driving home on autopilot, about five miles. Got halfway there, stopped at a light near the top of a hill. Guy in the lane next to me honked, and once he caught my eye, laughed and was pointing up vigorously. Sheepishly, I got out and retrieved my (mostly) full coffee mug from the top of my truck. I swear I heard it chortling.....

Too bad your cams didn't make little stoppers or something while they were unsupervised.

Best, Helen

Good story! Nice to know I’m not the only human on this site. OLH, I was waiting for you to say your son was on the roof! Although sometimes coffee is a lower crux than the kids...

Old lady H wrote:
Too bad your cams didn't make little stoppers or something while they were unsupervised.

That photo does make it kinda look like a cam orgy going on there... but it was "well-protected" har-har.

That’s awesome!

But.. you should’ve posted up on lost and found after you went back for your cams. People around here would’ve blown a gasket! 

Oops!

Glad you got them back, though.

"All's well that ends well"....but to bad you missed "Wandering".  Doesn't look like your rack had a #4, which is handy at the crux.

Tomily ma wrote: Good story! Nice to know I’m not the only human on this site. OLH, I was waiting for you to say your son was on the roof! Although sometimes coffee is a lower crux than the kids...

Lol! Naw, all I ever did to him was lock.my keys in the car. With him in his babyseat. Did you know the police are rather adept at breaking into vehicles? At lease 20+ years ago, when a skipjack would do.....

My son on the roof? That would be year before last, when we had a huge snow, that turned to ice. Roofs around town were collapsing, so we sent him up to clear off our unheated garage

Didn't have my phone handy, but it was most entertaining to see someone going down a ladder in full on mountaineering crampons.....

Best, Helen

I loved "well protected", lol! Didn't see that coming, but I have the same dorky sense of humor! 

Bill Kirby wrote: That’s awesome!

But.. you should’ve posted up on lost and found after you went back for your cams. People around here would’ve blown a gasket! 

Before we went up Whitehorse, we checked to see if anyone had posted them as found in the lost and found section here, but no one had.

Robert Hall wrote: "All's well that ends well"....but to bad you missed "Wandering".  Doesn't look like your rack had a #4, which is handy at the crux.

We'll get back to "Wandering I" eventually (if the weather holds, knock on wood).  Would you like to join us? :) About the #4: We had brought a #4! Usually we don't bring that; it had been added to the pack because we'd noticed it was recommended for the route. It was actually only half our rack that we lost - we sling those in the photo around our necks. We still had all the larger BD cams in the case. Those larger pieces go on the harness loops.

Great story!

Once in a while, I’ll also set the rack down to belay up my partner.  This won’t help my anxiety about doing so.  :)

This story didn't happen to involve the man himself, Bill Neacy did it? It just has that Neacy flavor to it, haha!

1. Find a way to clip spare/extra/unneeded gear into some part of the anchor. That can really mitigate this kind of n00b mistake.

2. Wait. A "case" for your pro??? You don't just stuff it into the pack like normal climbers?

I recommend you develop a procedure or step by step at belays and switch overs.. Always do things in that order and in that way to develop the muscle memory for following that sequence every time. Always clipping your gear into something is one thing on that list, even at the base. On simple trad routes it doesn't seem like much.. but if you get to longer routes and multi-day walls its necessary for efficiency, speed and survival, especially when fatigue becomes a factor. Its all a part of that process of clipping in and calling 'off belay', etc... From there everyone does it a little different. Its a conversation I always have with a new partner so we are one the same page.

Cool you got your stuff back.. I have always found gear at belay ledges where it looks like someone was pulling a jacket or something out of their pack and that big cam (or something) they were saving for a higher pitch flipped out unnoticed. So I guess they did the move without the pro.. cause if they bailed they would have found that cam on the way down. heheh

Doug Kinsman wrote: This story didn't happen to involve the man himself, Bill Neacy did it? It just has that Neacy flavor to it, haha!

Nope it was not Bill Neacy.

Marc801 C wrote: 1. Find a way to clip spare/extra/unneeded gear into some part of the anchor. That can really mitigate this kind of n00b mistake.

2. Wait. A "case" for your pro??? You don't just stuff it into the pack like normal climbers?

1. Yes, that's what I thought I'd do next time. There's a possibility it would've been left anyway. Usually, I clip a cam's carabiner around the cordelette so there's no risk of dropping it. With the cordelette up on a shelf above my head, I might have pulled the cordelette, which might've just slipped through the carabiner without me noticing it.

2. "Normal climbers" - now there's an oxymoron! Bill uses two Eagle Creek packing cubes for the gear. I don't think they actually make the specific style anymore. But they still make a case that's the same type, mesh on one side and cloth on the other with a zipper to close it up.

We pack the pro in one case and the draws in another. Works great for organizing gear! It also helps to keep the cam heads from catching on the draws and shredding them up, which happens quite a lot when everything is thrown together.

M guzzy wrote: I recommend you develop a procedure or step by step at belays and switch overs.. Always do things in that order and in that way to develop the muscle memory for following that sequence every time. Always clipping your gear into something is one thing on that list, even at the base. On simple trad routes it doesn't seem like much.. but if you get to longer routes and multi-day walls its necessary for efficiency, speed and survival, especially when fatigue becomes a factor. Its all a part of that process of clipping in and calling 'off belay', etc... From there everyone does it a little different. Its a conversation I always have with a new partner so we are one the same page.

Cool you got your stuff back.. I have always found gear at belay ledges where it looks like someone was pulling a jacket or something out of their pack and that big cam (or something) they were saving for a higher pitch flipped out unnoticed. So I guess they did the move without the pro.. cause if they bailed they would have found that cam on the way down. heheh

There seem to be two schools of thought on the "standard procedure at belays." One is that it's better to have everything dialed in and automatic so you never accidentally forget a safety procedure. The other is that you should always be aware and alert, and that dialing things in makes you lean on the procedure too much, which leads to inattention.

Personally, I try to be aware and alert ("mindful") as much as possible. But I do have some standard procedures that I follow. For example, I always double-check tie-ins, double check my knot, my partner's knot, etc.

This is part of the standard procedure that I run through in my head. Your switch-overs and belays cannot always be the same, however, so procedure is not going to save you there, imho. For example, at one belay you'll have two rings you can easily clip into, maybe even with two draws. At another belay, you have to make the anchor, maybe using 2-5 different pieces of pro. You may use the rope in the anchor, or a cordelette, or draws. You may decide to always use a cordelette at your anchor, but then it's a waste of time when the opportunity to clip in with two draws presents itself. Or you may decide to always use the rope to clip into the anchor, but there's the one time when you're on a rope-stretching pitch, and you need to do something else.

In this case, we failed being mindful in two ways: I wasn't aware of the half-rack above me. And Bill wasn't aware when packing the gear that half of it was missing. We've done this route several times before, so possibly we were both a little bit too relaxed or distracted. In particular, we should have been more attentive on the adventure pitch that we did, since we'd never done that particular pitch before.

Since this happened, I've decided to adopt the rule to always clip the sling of gear to the anchor (if I remove it), which I hope saves me from this error again.

dragons wrote:

It also helps to keep the cam heads from catching on the draws and shredding them up, which happens quite a lot when everything is thrown together.

Hmmm, in over 40 years I've never had that issue.

Carry on.

I lost a #3 camalot in a similar way.  Taking down the anchor, it pivoted so it hid in the crack and I forgot it, couldnt see it from the stance. Went back the next day and it was gone.

I once left a set of keys on my bumper and drove 15 miles home.  Somehow they were still there when I got home.

Once left a $1000 dslr on the roof of the car (not in a bag/case) and drove a few blocks.  Somehow it stayed put.

I once drove from The Gunks to NYC with my fully loaded pack on the open tailgate of my truck.  How it didn't fall out is beyond me.

Marc801 C wrote:

Hmmm, in over 40 years I've never had that issue.

Carry on.

That's great for you! I found it an issue the first time I threw my cams in together with my draws. The cases work well to solve it, although I didn't come up with that - my partner did.