Your Worst Fall

Tradiban wrote:

A little critique never hurt anyone Ben ;)

Nothing like a good internet critique to really get to the bottom of the barrel.

In 35 years you accumulate a lot of war stories--in fact I tell people the point of climbing is to do so--and have broken bones in a couple of falls that are not that instructive (ok, there  was the time I was about 25-30' up soloing a 5.7 hand crack right at dark, and a huge hairy spider came out of the crack. I instinctively went to brush it away--with both hands. I had time on the way to the ground to think, 'That was really f--king stupid'. Instructive of something.) The fall most like what the OP asked for occurred at Rumney in '85. We only climbed ice there then, the rock looked like crap and didn't have much gear. I was leading a climb called Franky Lee. It was late in the season, mid-March I think, and the ice was punk, but we were new to the sport and if it supported our weight that was good enough. I got ~20' up and put in one of those old Chouinard screws, the shortest one, somewhere between a stubby and a gold today. I remember thinking, 'that won't hold crap' but there was a stance where I could get something better (longer) in about 15' higher and I went for it. I get there and somehow drop the tool I'd had in my right hand while going for the screw. We had leashes then (hell, I still climb with leashed Prophets), it's dangling off my hand and I crouch to get it when the other tool blows and I go over backwards. Wound up hanging upside down with my head about two feet off the ground. Damn near an F1 fall (not that we knew what that was then, just that it was a poor idea) and that short screw held in ice about the consistency of mushy styrofoam. You just never know. Wes was belaying me from the lip of the drainage at the base of the climb, so I was actually below looking up at him. Hard to tell what was bigger in diameter, the black 'O' of his mouth or his eyes. Anyway, I said as calmly as I could manage, 'I think conditions suck, we should go home.' He nodded.

Made it through the crux on the Evictor in Eldorado and was going to place the last piece. Unfortunately, when i went to remove the cam from my harness it caused my foot to pop off, causing me to ninja kick the rope. This lead me to start to spin and flip upside down, allowing me to lock eyes with my belayer. He said I had the look of someone who knew something really bad was going to happen. I flipped upside-down, narrowly hit my unexposed noggin on an arete, and swung back into the wall after 20-25 feet of falling. Made me wear a helmet every time I went trad climbing afterwards :)

Started climbing in 1966, and took quite a few 20-30 footers but never got hurt. However I did take a really long fall, 100ft+ soloing the Prow in Yosemite in 1970. I zippered an entire A4 pitch, by being sloppy and impatient, Only had a few more feet to go to the belay anchor. Real lucky on that one, didn't lose anything critical, like my jumars or hammer, and no injuries. http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1114340/2nd-ascent-of-the-prow-solo
About 10 years ago, my son and I went to Yosemite to climb the Regular Route on HD. For many reasons; including no sleep, I was climbing poorly. In hindsight it was a poor decision on my part. About 6 pitches up, I was leading and placed a bomber stopper, continued up and placed a green alien behind a flake. When I leaned back on it, it popped. There were many ledges below me, and I hit most of them. The stopper held.  I shattered a bunch of bones in my foot. Another season lost to injuries. We rapped off, and I managed to hike up the talus, (slowly).
Someone else called the chopper in, which landed in a nice open area, just below where the cables start. I got up to get on the chopper, and found that I couldn't stand on that foot. It would of been a slow 8+ miles down the back side. One of my old Camp 4 buddies was sitting right next to me on the way down.

Great thread

A few years ago climbing in Little Cottonwood Canyon I was trying a harder variation on a climb I’d done several times. I clipped a bolt and proceeded 15’ up the slab but got overzealous seeing the chains and blew a foot going for the glory jug at the end of the pitch.  Ended up cheese grating 30’ down the slab.  Bloody with torn pants I realized I was okay so I went for it again.  Got heady and Elvis legged myself off again for another 25’ foot ride only this time not so clean. When I stopped my PAS was shredded to the core and I was a bloody mess. I lowered and my friend finished the pitch. I followed and cleaned but my foot hurt really bad. We rapped back down and when I finally got my shoe off my entire foot was black/blue.  A guy starting up said he’d stashed some beers on the approach and that I needed them more than him. I hobbled down drank a few and then went to dinner at my girlfriend’s parents. When they saw my foot they insisted I go to the urgent care. I then spent the next 6 weeks in a boot due to breaking my foot.

Jaren Watson wrote: This entire thread makes me feel simultaneously like never climbing again and wanting to get out right now.

YGD™.

Harumpfster Boondoggle wrote:

YGD™.

Come on Harumpf, I mean Jaren* Let's GO!

BrokenChairs ~ wrote: Great thread

A few years ago climbing in Little Cottonwood Canyon I was trying a harder variation on a climb I’d done several times. I clipped a bolt and proceeded 15’ up the slab but got overzealous seeing the chains and blew a foot going for the glory jug at the end of the pitch.  Ended up cheese grating 30’ down the slab.  Bloody with torn pants I realized I was okay so I went for it again.  Got heady and Elvis legged myself off again for another 25’ foot ride only this time not so clean. When I stopped my PAS was shredded to the core and I was a bloody mess. I lowered and my friend finished the pitch. I followed and cleaned but my foot hurt really bad. We rapped back down and when I finally got my shoe off my entire foot was black/blue.  A guy starting up said he’d stashed some beers on the approach and that I needed them more than him. I hobbled down drank a few and then went to dinner at my girlfriend’s parents. When they saw my foot they insisted I go to the urgent care. I then spent the next 6 weeks in a boot due to breaking my foot.

Curious, what part of your foot? I just broke my 5th metatarsal, avulsion fracture. Any tips?

Tradiban wrote:

Curious, what part of your foot? I just broke my 5th metatarsal, avulsion fracture. Any tips?

All this internet sleuthing... did you break it typing?

Healyje wrote: Yep, it can be a tough call at times, particularly with small and/or marginal pro. Still, three in a row sucks, what would you do differently on it if you did it again?

Ive honestly thought about leading it again a lot, and I was already lacing it up. I would probably double lace it which would totally screw any sending...

Awesome war stories here keep em coming.  Winter is dark for rock climbing here in Seattle.

If anyone would be OK with their story being featured on the air, shoot me an email at bleat@sendersgamepodcast.com !

Hamish Malin wrote:

All this internet sleuthing... did you break it typing?

:P

Nope, just walking.

I was pushing my grade on a single pitch dihedral with finger crack, placing bad cams at the time.  Froze up halfway through the climb and started feeling uncertain and started to feel panicked.  Placed cam, hung on it, tried some moves, still scared and tired, readjusted cam that was already holding me just fine, it popped while I hung again, two more cams popped, I hit the ledge that you scramble before committing to the 10b, then got caught by the solid green C3 that I directed downward toward a constriction at the very bottom of the route.  Made sense, why that one held.  Solid 20 footer to the ledge with my lumbar, then continued to fall until the rope pulled tight.  Walked myself out in a tremendous amount of pain.  I haven't had a piece of gear rip out since.  And I sent that route a year later, with a whole new perception of crack technique and gear placement, and making use of the features that aren't huge jugs and edges, but how you can stem out and edge on nubbins and feel comfortable doing it.  Place a LOT of gear in different scenarios, but don't push the grade without balancing climbing ability and your ability to work out your fall protection situation.  Devote a LOT of time to learning how to identify features in a crack and out on the face, and learn how to connect the dots and use your joints to direct and maintain pressure so your feet don't slip while you're moving.

I’ve been climbing for+\- 20 years and have never fallen!!! LOL
Fortune has it that any of my falls have been short(<20’) and/or low fall factors. The only fall with a potential that could have approached a factor 1 was made much gentler by a very attentive belayer. 3-cheers to great belayers and good gear placement training!!! Climb-on. 

Shannon, Buddy, Greg, and I went to check on Bimini Blues sometime in the late ‘90s, a super classic 2 pitch 4+ on the north side of Rabun Bald GA (not a typo). When we got there the start was thin to non-existent and the other three start whining it’s not in and we should go to Richard Russell instead. I hate RR, a 40’ road cut, and mouth off that when I was up north we climbed shit like this all the time. They call my bluff, but I manage to teeter up the lightly frosted 40’ slab to thicker steep ice, and when it becomes clear I’m going to bag it Shannon gets agitated, since he’s supposed to be the most psycho in any group.

So he starts up a never before seen smear on a 120’ 85 degree face to a big roof with a free hanging curtain. The ice for the first 100’ is never thicker than 2”, usually less, and he only manages to get in three tied off screws about three threads deep (engineers say you only need two complete threads for full strength--oh wait, that’s in metal..). He’s only about 40’ from where I was belaying at the top of P1 on BB when he looks at me with this horrified expression and says, ‘I’m so scared.’ Always a font of human sympathy, I reply, ‘You should be you stupid f—ker’. But he finds thicker ice finally, gets in one reasonable screw and ties off a 4” diameter icicle up under the roof, then claws his way up onto the curtain. This curtain is big, at least 20’ high, 15’ wide, and about a 1’ thick. I can see everything from my vantage, and right after he gets established, one of his crampons comes off. Kind of screwed now, he keeps it together and begins climbing the vertical ice, hopping his one foot up as he goes. He’s right at the top, about to plant a tool in the ice above, and the whole thing snaps off.

He goes for about a sixty footer, fortunately riding the curtain down so that when he slams into the face below the shattering ice absorbs a lot of the impact. Buddy, who’s belaying him, isn’t anchored to anything and gets yanked into the line of fire, fortunately just getting clocked in one shoulder and a loud thwack when another chunk slams into his helmet. My big black Lab, Star, is with us, she liked to catch and chew up the ice that came off when we climbed, so when she hears the ice coming down she runs over and looks up. I’d never seen an ‘OH F__K’ look on a dog’s face before, but there it was, and the last I see is a mass of rolling white chunks of ice and a black dog tumbling down the hill side through the trees.

Shannon is moaning, hanging upside down on the face, his tools ripped from his wrists and the three lower screws swept away. The tied off icicle caught him. Buddy is lying on the ground moaning and still clutching the rope. The dog is, somewhere, and I start shouting, ‘Where’s Star? Where’s Star?’ Shannon says, ‘The dog? What about me?’ and I say, ‘You’re Shannon, you’re fine.’ Which he was, he’s famous in the SE for this kind of thing. As my friend Ben once said, ‘God keeps Shannon alive for the amusement value.’ After recovering from the adrenalin rush Shannon manages to climb back up with his third tool and put in an anchor under the roof, then belays up Buddy who dry tools out a crack to finish one of the finer FAs in the south. Over many beers back at the car we all agreed it should be called Psycho Motherf**ker. That was a fall. The really sick thing is he calls me a few years ago to tell me, ‘I topped it.’ But that’s his story.
PS  Star was fine too. It just took her an hour to slink back.

I'm a rock climber, period.  But the 3rd LIKE on your post is from me   sick fuckers.

Benjamin Pontecorvo wrote:

Ive honestly thought about leading it again a lot, and I was already lacing it up. I would probably double lace it which would totally screw any sending...

I haven't been on it, just looking a the pics in the route description, but maybe ballnuts? I find the #3 and #4 pretty damn handy and have several of each for free climbing and have fallen on both once even taking six 25-30 footers in a row from a roof onto a [well-placed] #3...

Jaren Watson wrote:

Which—go climbing or quit forever?

Go climbing. I don't plan on quitting, ever. 

Okay, I'll share mine, but it isn't as dramatic as some of the other accounts here. However, it illustrates some points that are easy to forget.

It was just over a week ago, and I was leading an easy pitch of an easy route. So, contrary to the advice I constantly give to new trad leaders-- don't run it out and remember that anyone can fall on anything-- I was running it out, passing up available pro because the climbing was just so easy.

And then I fell. It was sandstone, and I think my foot slipped off a patch of sand right when my hands were least secure, and suddenly I was tumbling, I hit a ledge and thought it was over, but then I rolled and fell some more. With luck and a good spot, I somehow landed on my feet. I banged up a knee and an ankle but was able to keep climbing. In all, I fell about 20'. I was fucking lucky; people have died or sustained major injuries in similar craters.

So some takeaways and advice:

• Wear your fucking helmet; my helmet smacked rock at least once, and that would have been my head.
• A backpack on multi-pitch is not a bad idea even if you will be returning to your starting point; my pack may have cushioned against a major spinal injury.
• Don't get complacent. The grade I fell on was one I have never fallen on even on toprope. And holds sometimes break even on easy stuff. You never know.
• Don't run it out when you don't have to.

Took a 50ft fall (on sport) while clipping the last bolt on a sandbagged 5.11d  and ended up about 2 feet off the deck