Emily Harrington fall on El Cap

Quinn Baker wrote: Thought this was kind of funny: "Jon Glassberg of Louder Than 11 Productions, was filming and photographing the ascent. (Glassberg shared the video with me but asked that we not publish it, fearing that it might look like Honnold had given an inattentive belay.)"

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

My thoughts are that, since they were simulclimbing, when else was he supposed to put on his shoes?
I suppose he could have gotten 100% ready to climb with Emily, so that when she was high enough he could have just hopped up and started climbing, but as many people have already stated while simulclimbing on this easy terrain the M.O is don't fall. 

I don't think Honnold did anything wrong, in fact I think he did better than most people would do in that situation and really minimized the damage possible by grabbing the rope and catching her early.

Andre Chiquito wrote:

My thoughts are that, since they were simulclimbing, when else was he supposed to put on his shoes?
I suppose he could have gotten 100% ready to climb with Emily, so that when she was high enough he could have just hopped up and started climbing, but as many people have already stated while simulclimbing on this easy terrain the M.O is don't fall. 

Kind of answered your own question there lol. He should have had his shoes on and been ready to go before Emily started climbing, IMO. But...

I don't think Honnold did anything wrong, in fact I think he did better than most people would do in that situation and really minimized the damage possible by grabbing the rope and catching her early.

Yeah, joking aside, while I do think "still putting your shoes on while your partner is climbing" is a pretty textbook example of an inattentive belay, the point is kind of moot since they were going to be simulclimbing anyway. I just thought the quote was funny.

Andre Chiquito wrote:

My thoughts are that, since they were simulclimbing, when else was he supposed to put on his shoes?
I suppose he could have gotten 100% ready to climb with Emily, so that when she was high enough he could have just hopped up and started climbing, but as many people have already stated while simulclimbing on this easy terrain the M.O is don't fall. 

I don't think Honnold did anything wrong, in fact I think he did better than most people would do in that situation and really minimized the damage possible by grabbing the rope and catching her early.

As mentioned, if he had already started up, he would not have been able to grab the rope since his hands would have been occupied.  The fall would have continued until the rope came taught on him.   If you are going for speed i.e. the route under 24 hours, you don't have Honnold belaying you up the first pitch before he starts up.   

Let's go out on a not-very-long limb and assume Honnold is a faster and more practiced climber on this particular route than Harrington. Let's also assume she's not short-fixing the rope. Wouldn't the safest way to simul-climb be for him to actively lead belay her until almost all of the rope is out, then follow while keeping pace with her? I understand she wouldn't be actively belayed while Alex is climbing, but the riskiest part is while she's climbing out to full rope length. Would giving an attentive belay during that time really slow them down significantly? It sounds like they were just assuming she could solo this section since it is so far below her normal lead ability, so they didn't really bother. If his gri-gri was on the rope at the time, he must have had a fair amount of slack out so that he wouldn't short rope her while he was putting on his shoes.

Caveat - I don't know this route and I don't simul-climb or speed climb, so I'm sure there are a lot of factors I'm unaware of. Just trying to learn here.

I'm super glad she's okay. 

Quinn Baker wrote: while I do think "still putting your shoes on while your partner is climbing" is a pretty textbook example of an inattentive belay,

How much multi-pitch do you do?

Ralph Swansen wrote:

How much multi-pitch do you do?

I do a lot of mutipitch.  I consider putting your shoes on while belaying to be an inattentive belay under normal circumstances. Honnold and Harrington simuling an El Cap route is hardly a normal circumstance.

I'm also trying to imagine the physics of the catch and subsequent lower. If Honnold caught the rope as it was falling with Harrington and gripped tight, his hands could have been stationary on the rope when she passed her last piece of pro and the rope came taut, yes? That would presumably leave him without a rope burn since the rope wouldn't have been running through his hands. But then how do you safely lower from there? Hand over hand? Or did McCandless take over the belay before lowering from her device? So many questions. 

She took a huge fall because she opted to not put in gear in the interest of speed (not because they were simuling - you can simul with a full rope out, placing gear like normal, but it would save no time), because she was very familiar with the pitch and had it dialed, not because of a loose belay.  As she fell the rope on the belay side fell back toward Alex, which would give the impression to clueless observers (like many on this thread apparently) that Alex was doing something wrong.  Nope.  Belayer has no control of the length of the fall in this scenario. If he really did a barehanded catch that's actually pretty extraordinary belaying IMO.  

L Kap wrote: I'm also trying to imagine the physics of the catch and subsequent lower. If Honnold caught the rope as it was falling with Harrington and gripped tight, his hands could have been stationary on the rope when she passed her last piece of pro and the rope came taut, yes? That would presumably leave him without a rope burn since the rope wouldn't have been running through his hands. But then how do you safely lower from there? Hand over hand? Or did McCandless take over the belay before lowering from her device? So many questions. 

Hand over hand or simply allowing the rope to slide through the hands to lower is not that outlandish. She is a light climber. 

csproul wrote:

I do a lot of mutipitch.  I consider putting your shoes on while belaying to be an inattentive belay under normal circumstances. Honnold and Harrington simuling an El Cap route is hardly a normal circumstance.

Do you actually use a GG?  If you're doing it right (maintaining proper rope orientation on the brake hand side primarily), your attentiveness has nothing to do with its effectiveness. And nobody said he was paying out more rope than necessary. What more could he have done?

I am sure a boulderer from PA has an unequivocal grasp on the intricacies of high-end simul-climbing in Yosemite..

L Kap wrote: I'm also trying to imagine the physics of the catch and subsequent lower. If Honnold caught the rope as it was falling with Harrington and gripped tight, his hands could have been stationary on the rope when she passed her last piece of pro and the rope came taut, yes? That would presumably leave him without a rope burn since the rope wouldn't have been running through his hands. But then how do you safely lower from there? Hand over hand? Or did McCandless take over the belay before lowering from her device? So many questions. 

If Honnold had the wrapped the rope around his hand once or twice before the rope came taut, that might also have helped him hold the fall without much rope slippage.

Bill Schick wrote: If she had no helmet, it's probably because of the Monster.

I don't think she fell on that pitch - the news (at least) is reporting she fell from the first few pitches (150 feet up), which also maybe makes sense why Alex was still tying his shoes, it was so dark, and things were so cold: they just started up.  If Alex was still on the ground, he could have given her a reasonable, conventional belay, but I guess he didn't want to. 

Also Emily has done this entire route before in one push, right? 

Looks like she can make it happen w/helmet.

Fan Zhang wrote:

If Honnold had the wrapped the rope around his hand once or twice before the rope came taut, that might also have helped him hold the fall without much rope slippage.

That makes sense. Do you risk breaking your hands or fingers doing this though? ...I mean, breaking a few bones is preferable to having your partner die, but not really ideal if it can be avoided. 

L Kap wrote:

That makes sense. Do you risk breaking your hands or fingers doing this though? ...I mean, breaking a few bones is preferable to having your partner die, but not really ideal if it can be avoided. 

I doubt he had time to wrap anything around his hand... 

Erroneous Publicus wrote: She took a huge fall because she opted to not put in gear in the interest of speed (not because they were simuling - you can simul with a full rope out, placing gear like normal, but it would save no time), because she was very familiar with the pitch and had it dialed, not because of a loose belay.  As she fell the rope on the belay side fell back toward Alex, which would give the impression to clueless observers (like many on this thread apparently) that Alex was doing something wrong.  Nope.  Belayer has no control of the length of the fall in this scenario. If he really did a barehanded catch that's actually pretty extraordinary belaying IMO.  

Amended: Belayer has no control over the minimum length of the fall in this scenario. An inattentive belay with a lot of slack out would of course add to the length of the fall. It's unclear if Honnold was giving a standard belay or had a lot of slack out because they both assumed Harrington would not fall where she fell. There is still a lot of data missing. If they were being kind of casual with avoidable risks on what they thought would be easy terrain, that would not be unheard of for elite climbers.

Also, I agree that his barehanded catch was pretty incredible and his quick thinking should be celebrated. 

Erroneous Publicus wrote: She took a huge fall because she opted to not put in gear in the interest of speed (not because they were simuling - you can simul with a full rope out, placing gear like normal, but it would save no time), because she was very familiar with the pitch and had it dialed, not because of a loose belay.  As she fell the rope on the belay side fell back toward Alex, which would give the impression to clueless observers (like many on this thread apparently) that Alex was doing something wrong.  Nope.  Belayer has no control of the length of the fall in this scenario. If he really did a barehanded catch that's actually pretty extraordinary belaying IMO.  

I'm curious about this assertion. If you're linking many pitches together, yes it would take the same amount of time for the leader to get out to full rope length, and for the follower to catch up at the end, but unless I'm missing something, you would save time with each anchor you don't build, and each time (pitch) the process of belaying the leader out and belaying the follower in is skipped. Even if you're not running out the pro.

ETA - good point made by Erroneous later that the leader has to belay up the follower when they run out of gear. They only save time for each pitch that the leader does not stop to build an anchor / belay up the follower, but one limiting factor is how long the leader can stretch out the pro they're willing to carry. 

Hmm, the Outside article states:

About 150 feet below, Honnold was belaying Harrington when he heard her scream. “I was sitting on the ground tying my shoes, getting ready to start simul-climbing,”

The article also mentions that they were going to do the first 12 pitches as 4, so she seems to have fallen on their first pitch, most likely ~1st/2nd guidebook pitch (if they had a 70m rope?). And also that Alex's lady friend was there, shouting encouragement.

Shit happens, I guess.

Erroneous Publicus wrote:

Do you actually use a GG?  If you're doing it right (maintaining proper rope orientation on the brake hand side primarily), your attentiveness has nothing to do with its effectiveness. And nobody said he was paying out more rope than necessary. What more could he have done?

I do often use a Grigri. I don’t care what device you’re using, I dont consider it acceptable for my belayer to be f’ing atound with their shoes while belaying me (except maybe while I’m aid climbing). I wasn’t addressing this particular accident, but was answering the question from Ralph above questioning whether it was an acceptable practice during multi pitch climbing. I dont feel that it is. You and Alex and Emily are free to choose differently.

MisterE Wolfe wrote: I am sure a boulderer from PA has an unequivocal grasp on the intricacies of high-end simul-climbing in Yosemite..

Kapow Kazing!  That'll learn 'em!