Tahquitz Injured Climber at Fingertrip Today (SAT 6/12)

While at Tahquitz Saturday (6/12), witnessed the moments after what was probably a bad sprain/break after climber fell onto a ledge at Fingertrip.

Mid/late afternoon, it was sunny and hot on the West Face. My friends and I had just finished Fingertrip and had rappelled down Left Ski Track. Walking back, we saw a party going up on Fingertrip. I was chatted with the belayer at the base and was informed his partner just whipped. His partner ended up being lowered off a single purple cam and was in extreme pain. My friend jumped in with our rope to help with the lower-- since their single rope didn't get the injured climber to the ground. I watched from a distance while another pair of climbers--- one with EMT training-- assisted in helping patch up the injured climber. They also tried helping carry the injured climber a few steps, but injured climber was in extreme pain, and they stopped.

My friend remember seeing a litter at Lunch Rock some years back, so we looked for it as we were hiking down-- the litter was nowhere to be found.

On the hike down we heard a large truck driving in and then backing up in the Humber Park parking lot. Farther down the trail, we could hear sirens and see red fire trucks turning into the parking lot. A the trailhead we saw four fire fighters and directed them to the area of the injured climber. (One firefighter was familiar with "Traitor Horn"-- he must be a climber!). We chatted with the folks at the fire engine, the guys there were glad that their firefighters were heading up the right trail toward the right area of the wall.

As we were leaving the parking lot, we could hear a helicopter flying nearby.

-------------

Some thoughts:

- Why isn't there a litter at Tahquitz Rock!? There are several at Suicide Rock-- my friend was carried out of one at Suicide when he broke his ankle decking on run-out slab at the Suicide weeping wall. (Under similar conditions as this-- hot, sunny, friction-climbing)

- Fingertrip is hazardous-- especially in the sun! Last week, I chatted with a guy who peeled off and sprained his ankle on pitch #1. I suppose things can be said about protecting falls to ledges, not lowering off of one piece, etc.-- but I'm glad no one was more seriously hurt. Sometimes, these are necessary painful lessons toward becoming good, safe trad climbers.

- Firefighters showed up fast! Within an hour or so. They were mostly clueless about names of climbs and where they were (except for the one guy who knew where Traitor Horn was).

- Injured climber was lucky EMT was nearby. EMT had a beefy first aid kit and provided speedy competent treatment. For me, this brings to bear the poverty of my own first aid kit (I looked in my climbing bag, it was pathetically close to useless) and my own lack of training for these common climber-injury-scenarios. It would have been nice if we had some idea of how a carry litter may be improvised (among the three parties there, we had 5 people, two hiking sticks and four ropes. I'm sure MacGyver would have come up with something).

There are two reasons that Fingertrip gets more injuries than other climbs.  Like Double Cross in Joshua Tree, it gets a lot of use by low time leaders and the protections isn't straight forward.  Although, they both protect well.  Fingertrip is a layback and to protect it means that you have to balance on your feet and pull into the wall.  When a new leader starts getting gripped one of two things happen.  Either they just slam a cam in without seeing its placement or forgo protection altogether. Hoping that they can make it to where it gets easier up higher.  Most of the time we don't hear about it, but sometimes we do, when the helicopter flies over.

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1824504&tn=80

James Robertsonwrote:

There are two reasons that Fingertrip gets more injuries than other climbs.  Like Double Cross in Joshua Tree, it gets a lot of use by low time leaders and the protections isn't straight forward.  Although, they both protect well.  Fingertrip is a layback and to protect it means that you have to balance on your feet and pull into the wall.  When a new leader starts getting gripped one of two things happen.  Either they just slam a cam in without seeing its placement or forgo protection altogether. Hoping that they can make it to where it gets easier up higher.  Most of the time we don't hear about it, but sometimes we do, when the helicopter flies over.

Yes, I agree.  There was one case where a guy fell a year or two ago.  Apparently protected most of the route with nuts (didn't extend them) and skipped the pitons.  When he fell the gear popped and he got injured really badly.
--
To add, the layback section of Fingertrip protects well but the cam ranges aren't in what many people may call a "standard rack" which can trip up newer trad leaders.
But, the leader, in this case, might have few notches on his/her belt and accidents do happen :-/
--
-Based on the OP, this is why you should close the system. Makes lowering less stressful in the case of an accident.
-Wow, firefighters showed up fast! This can't be a normal response time... James, any additional insight?
-I thought there used to be a litter up there but maybe it's been used and hasn't been replaced?

Gumby Kingwrote:

-Wow, firefighters showed up fast! This can't be a normal response time... James, any additional insight?

Maybe its closer to 2 hours. We were super-slow hiking down the trail-- so our time sense might have been warped.

But one hypothesis is that maybe the climber-with-EMT-training knew who to call? We did notice a few bars of AT&T cell service around the top of the lunch rock area.

-I thought there used to be a litter up there but maybe it's been used and hasn't been replaced?

That was one of our theories. One of the linked SuperTopo forum threads referenced the SCMA maybe having helped with this in the past-- asking around. If the SCMA helped out with this in the past, it'd be cool if they can continue pitching in the human-effort to get another litter up there.

James Jenwrote:

ed the SCMA maybe having helped with this in the past-- asking around. If the SCMA helped out with this in the past, it'd be cool if they can continue pitching in the human-effort to get another litter up there.

True

Though, I wonder if there are opportunities for local climbers (paging Trevor: The Puppy Lover), the shuttle the litter to a place to relieve the burden on others.  I realize this could be a can of worms...

Fire trucks etc always show up fairly quickly but they aren't the ones to go get the climber and few of them know the trails or routes anyway. Local SAR will hike up and litter a climber down but 9/10 the victim will have to get heli'd anyway. 

Stabilize the victim and wait for the helicopter, it's free. 

DON'T FALL IN IDYLLWILD! It's just that easy.

It’s time for another litter at Lunch Rock. Would anyone be willing to pitch in for one? Crowd sourcing for one wouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure folks would help donate. 

J Vergwrote:

It’s time for another litter at Lunch Rock. Would anyone be willing to pitch in for one? Crowd sourcing for one wouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure folks would help donate. 

I'd be down. I have it on my to-do to ping the Idyllwild Fire Department and the SCMA safety committee to try to track down the old litter.

One of my friends got carried down one of the Suicide Rock litters and he mentioned them being as heavy AF. Assuming durability isn't sacrificed, a lighter/more-modern litter may also be good. :)

Re the litters,

In the past, there were three litters on Tahquitz. The SCMA paid and provided them for years. After a rescue which included the litter, SCMA people would pick up the litter at the local Fire Department and carry it back to the rock.

 What I'm describing is something that happened infrequently, because the accidents on Tahquitz Rock were very few. Lately, there seems to be accident a week kind of situation. I think the litters are left (most likely) at the Idyllwild Fire Department and unless someone volunteers to take them back up the rock, that's were they will stay. I have carried my share of litters up there over the years, maybe someone else needs to step up, I'm getting old for that hard work..

There used to be litter at the start of the friction descent and another at (more or less) Lunch Rock. Third one was at the base of the North Face. 

Interesting...  I may be down to carrying a litter up but it would likely be after June.  How heavy are they?  I assume it would probably be a two-person job?

I remember four people carrying it up, especially the one to the friction descent. The Lunch rock one wasn't bad, nor was the North Face one.

BTW They are pretty heavy. It takes some work to get them up.

Gumby Kingwrote:

Interesting...  I may be down to carrying a litter up but it would likely be after June.  How heavy are they?  I assume it would probably be a two-person job?

I asked that very question to the SCMA FB group. This was the answer I got:

One person... has been known to carry it by himself (more than once). Two people can readily carry a litter up the approach, climbing pack and all. Drop your packs at Lunch Rock if you're taking the litter to the top of the friction descent (unless you really want the extra training weight).

Beyond that, the more, the merrier, though trying to coordinate that could be akin to herding cats.

Very interesting comments. I have carried the litter up there several times and it not only ruins your climbing day, it is one hell of a work out. But I'm just a lightweight...The litter has four handles, so for balance, it really is best to have four people. There might be light litters available these days but in the 90s and early 2000s, the litters were steel and heavy.

Do you just show up at the fire station and ask for a litter to carry?

I’d be down to throw a few bucks towards one, unless there are multiples just sitting at the fire station like mentioned up thread.

I’d also be down to help carry one up. But that would need to be in late July for me. I’ll follow this thread and check back in around then to see if we can get a posse together. (If it hasn’t already happened) 

4 people sounds more chill than 2. if we are putting it at the base of friction no biggie. Top of Lily, that’s another story. Might be good to haul it on that last bit of friction?

what other service does Tahquitz need? I’d like to at least put one day in this summer.  Asking earnestly, no need for anyone to jump in with jokes or trolls about trundling and retro bolting, unless you’re bored.

If the station has a litter or litters I would be more than happy to donate some time to haul it up with another helping hand. I work within shouting distance from the station. I can check this week with them if they are there.

Also, the Idyllwild climbers alliance is meeting this fall. I’m working with the town hall for the date. A few hours of trail maintenance, a raffle and bbq on a Saturday. I will post when the details are finalized.

There is still one up in Hinterland. A little mangled and twisted from being pummeled with avalanche debris over the years, but it might still carry the injured. Someone willing could go up and drag it down to lunch rock...

x15x15wrote:

There is still one up in Hinterland. A little mangled and twisted from being pummeled with avalanche debris over the years, but it might still carry the injured. Someone willing could go up and drag it down to lunch rock...

I was just going to post this. Probably get a lot more use at lunch rock than hinterland. I was kind of surprised to see it there.

IMO., what needs to be done, is some kind of action that can be repeated couple times a year. 

 I see most people on MP have the AAC membership. Isn't there AAC chapter in So Cal? Could you, the AAC members create a situation that manages this issue? The Idyllwild Climbers Alliance is another organization that could/should get involved. The need to get the litters up there fairly frequently should be addressed by groups that can muster more "power" than just individuals...The SCMA might still want to renew/continue their involvement in this as well...Thoughts?

Alois Smrzwrote:

IMO., what needs to be done, is some kind of action that can be repeated couple times a year. 

 I see most people on MP have the AAC membership. Isn't there AAC chapter in So Cal? Could you, the AAC members create a situation that manages this issue? The Idyllwild Climbers Alliance is another organization that could/should get involved. The need to get the litters up there fairly frequently should be addressed by groups that can muster more "power" than just individuals...The SCMA might still want to renew/continue their involvement in this as well...Thoughts?

Thoughts:

There's been a lot of talk over the years about doing trail maintenance etc but not much ever happens, probably because it doesn't need to, the trails are natural and can stay that way, various people replace tat anchors and the litters are obsolete now that there's free helicopter rides, litters included.

If climbers want to make a difference they should do something for the community, to bring goodwill, like clean up all the trash in Humber Park. 

The climbing area itself doesn't need any more development or clean up, it's fine how it is, except some bolt replacement of course.