Perceived ability misjudged

This past weekend I took my girlfriend (who is new to climbing) to looking glass rock near Moab. It was a good experience to give her a basic intro to easy multi pitch and we got to top it off with a free hanging rappel. I know we looked like total dufus'es with helmets and shoes on, all roped up for a climb with maybe one 5.4 move. Anyways, during the climb at the top of the second pitch, we were passed by a party of 3 solo'ers (if I had to guess they were in their early 20's). Since we were anchored in with plenty of slack, we moved way out of the way so they could safely pass. While passing we had the normal hello how ya doing exchange and they asked if we were doing the face swing, I said, 'no, we're going to do the window rappel' and they were like 'cool, we'll be on the face doing the swing so no worries of interference', we all wished each other well and on they went. 

Just after reaching the summit we noticed the last solo'er rappelling off the face. We took a couple of summit pics, wandered around up top for a couple of minutes or so and then started scooting down into the window rappel, we anchored into the rap station and began setting up for rappel. Looking thru the window it appeared that the party of 3 was getting ready to swing cause the ropes were pulled back where you would anticipate a launch from. While I was pulling our rope through the rap rings I hear the sound of a rope whooshing (like you'd expect from a swing in action) but immediately followed by the sound of a thud and some rock scatter. I looked down thru the window only to see a cloud of dust rising where one of them had hit the ground with the ropes just barely stretched out. He didn't make a sound, then he sort of got up all wobbly like and his friends came over to him. I was speechless, they untied him and walked him back to the car. 

After witnessing that, I went into triple check safety mode, making sure we'd be ok, my heart was really pumping. While we were rapping, one of the solo'ers climbed back up and retrieved all their gear and then down climbed the route. They were long gone by the time we got back to our car. 

Looking back on this, I realize how I misjudged or mistook ability as comprehension. I thought that if they possessed the ability to confidently climb an easy route without protection, then they would probably posses the ability to comprehend static elongation of a dynamic rope used for a swing or dynamic elongation if you introduce slack for a jump scenario.....of the three, one would have thought that maybe at least one of them would know some of the properties of the equipment they were using.....obviously I don't know, I mean the whole thing just seem so odd. 

let's be honest though, that climb requires very little ability. it's no harder than something like freeway (or the commonly solo'd  flatiron  routes), but somehow gets a 5.4 rating. it is more of a scramble IMO, so i guess my point is...there wasn't any ability there in the fist place.

Something something Dunning-Kruger.

curt86irocwrote:

...... but somehow gets a 5.4 rating. 

I'd rate it at 5.6 just for the rattlesnake hazard at the start.

John B.wrote:

I'd rate it at 5.6 just for the rattlesnake hazard at the start.

5.4R

That is tough to see something like that, kind of a miracle that he walked away! I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was young and learning how to climb, I’m lucky nothing ever went too seriously south.

I thought this was going to be about the weak looking guy that everyone assumes is going to clog up the classic sport route with a big queue, and after patiently waiting for his turn, turns out to be the only guy to do the route that day, haha.

John B.wrote:

I'd rate it at 5.6 just for the rattlesnake hazard at the start.

If you’re under 6’ - 0” tall I’d say it has one 5.7 move.  Being 6’ - 3” tall I like the route. Being over 200 pounds I don’t like the free hanging rap.

Not Hobo Greg wrote:

I’ve seen elite pro climbers build shitty anchors too. Pure climbing skill does not necessarily equate to safe practices.

This. And with more people coming into roped climbing via bouldering, there are more people coming into roped climbing with lots of strength and little rope skills.

The inverse is also true: just because someone doesn't climb hard, doesn't mean they can't know their rope systems well.

Not Hobo Greg wrote:

That’s me in a nutshell. Most people with my experience and competency have moved on to 5.11 or 5.12, but not me! I’m quite happy with 5.9 and under.

5.9 Jtree is 5.10...