What's the sketchiest thing you've seen while climbing?

Someone leading without any quickdraws or carabiners, by untying, threading the rope end through the ringbolt, then re-tying.

Then they went further and climbed under the bolt and rope, so the rope hitched itself to the bolt and was effectively tied off, and every time they tried to climb above it they couldn't pull any rope through.

Sam M wrote:

Someone leading without any quickdraws or carabiners, by untying, threading the rope end through the ringbolt, then re-tying.

Then they went further and climbed under the bolt and rope, so the rope hitched itself to the bolt and was effectively tied off, and every time they tried to climb above it they couldn't pull any rope through.

A friend of mine once bore witness to an incident much like your story, but the climber never got to the 're-tie' step, leading to the sketchiest sport climbing incident of all time.

I kind of can't believe it worked in your climber's case. Was it slab/ledgy climbing, I assume?

2 pitches up on a super ultra mega classic Colorado 5.7 (bet you cant guess which one). Dude bringing his girlfriend up on a munter off a single tipped out 0.4. Told me he knew what he was doing when I offered to help him out with an anchor. Heard they got rescued later.

Saw this guy eat a 5 year old, half opened, smashed Clif bar he found way down on the front pocket of his bpack.   

The guy was me.

A belayer was using an atc to belay. The rope was going in one side of the atc and out the other, and the racking loop (the skinny black wire) was what was clipped to the belayers harness. The leader was taking repeated whippers, about 50 feet up. When I noticed this,  all I could muster was “stop what you’re doing,” before I had the leader clip directly to a bolt and put them on belay myself.

I guess those loops are pretty tough!

MattH wrote:

First incident, we're meeting up with some friends who've been climbing at Bruise Bros and just as we get there, some dude panics, puts his finger in the bolt hole, falls, and amputates it. To make matters worse, he's there on spring break with his college group and they're his ride home, so after returning from the hospital he just sits in the basement at Miguel's for the rest of the week while his friends are all out climbing

God I cringe so hard every time I see this

Another Gunks High E story: Party of three, leader and second were on the P2 belay (the big ledge) while the third was at P1, attached to the anchor but not the rope. They only had one rope and were trying to throw the end to him. We left as quickly as we could so as to not view whatever ensued on the overhanging P3.

My partner free falling 50 feet to the ground, unroped. She was supposed to be tied in and lowered. She survived, but just barely. Situational awareness is key. Don’t get distracted. Don’t let your attention wander.

tallguy wrote:

At smith rock, saw some new, younger climbers leading an 80' 5.10 sport route with 3 quick draws, total. Only noticed them when they were about 50' up when I wondered why the leader was sketchily climbing down and removing the lowest draw, and once removed, was only in on 1 draw a long way off the ground as they climbed above their lone pro piece.. I think he was back cleaning the lower one for every 1 he placed and saving the last for a top anchor?  maybe that sort of would work, but it didn't seem super smart. I walked over, told them to stop climbing for a bit, and gave them 6 of my QDs to keep and use before someone died in front of me. 

Wow, good on you! Nice little respite to read this amid the sea of horror stories in this thread.

Kinda funny seeing a couple mentions of RRG, makes me wanna make a thread specifically about stuff like this (or maybe just general crag stories) from the Red. I'll share a couple stories though.

Was in PMRP watching a girl belay her boyfriend (probably) on an overhung sport route. He completed it without major issue, clipped mussies, lowered down, and started cleaning the draws, tramming in as he went. When he reached the first draw, instead of unclipping his tram draw, he just said "OK, you're gonna swing now" and unclipped the first draw. He swung out and pulled his belayer about 20 feet away from the wall. Luckily, it was a flat, sandy landing, but on a different route, she could've been badly hurt. I told him what he should have done and he took it pretty well. What is still shocking to me, however, is how he acted like pulling your belayer halfway across the crag is such a normal and unavoidable thing. He seemed very confident in his cleaning technique until I said something. Makes me wonder how many times he had done something like that.

Another time, at Military Wall, there was a guy climbing one of the those shitty 5.9s by the main overhang. He made it to the third bolt or so, and then was way off route, literally in the moss. He was miraculously able to downclimb back to the 3rd bolt and bailed off. I, as well as my other party members, noticed that the carabiner he left looked a little strange. After climbing another route, we talked to a party that had just finished the aforementioned 5.9, and they showed us the carabiner he left. It was a hammock carabiner.

Watched a guy attempting a “gear only ascent” on bearded cabbage in Jtree without clipping the bolt off the traverse before you get into the crack. Placed some less than bomber pro then shakily tried to pull into the jams. Fell and ripped his piece only to be caught in a large bush next to a boulder 30ft feet below, I was shocked he walked away unharmed. Learned an important lesson that day, unless you’re out soloing, do yourself a favor and clip the bolt. 

This one isn't even close to as bad as some of the others on here.  Just a tiny bit sketchy, not "someone was seconds from death."  It happened at a mostly sport crag at the Meadow River Gorge in West Virginia 

When I looked over I saw that a pair had stick clipped the first bolt of a route, but the belayer was clipped in between the climber and the stick clipped bolt.  I pointed it out to my partner and she suggested we watch for a minute and see if it was just a brain fart that they would fix before they started climbing. When they were about to start I walked over and suggested the belayer flip to the other side of the bolt.

They were very nice, as I recall they then asked me to check the rest of their setup too, which was all fine.  We kept an eye on them for a little bit.  Definitely got the impression they were brand new climbers but didn't notice anything else unusual.

Fast Australian repelling at Crowder's Mountain.

A climber placing a small (0.5) camalot perpendicular in a shallow (finger-tip depth) vertical crack on Left Up at Looking Glass Mountain NC.  Worked as well as expected resulting in a broken ankle.

Ive seen a few, but recently I saw a guy in an undisclosed location in New York with renowned trad climbing who claimed to be a guide. He was rapping a multi pitch with no friction hitch or back up knots on the end of his rope. I asked him if he climbed at this undisclosed location much and he said “not really, I mostly like to do alpine and big wall climbing.” I wanted to tell him that he probably wasn’t a very good guide given the mentioned things and a few other sketch ball things he did, but I figured its best not to challenge a guide. He was pretty old so maybe he had accepted his life and place in the cosmos and decided that back ups were not necessary. However, the sketchiest part was, he was “guiding” someone who looked a little gripped. 

Im convinced this undisclosed location in New York with great trad climbing is like the Bermuda Triangle of sketchy climbing activities on the East Coast. The amount of gumbiness, relationship quarrels, and just overall bonkers antics I see every time Im there is unreal. Ive seen crag cats, couples gettinng engaged, couples fighting, panic attacks, didgeridoo music, babies born, babies being made, and the occasional ufo sighting over High E. No other place like it. 

Sockeye Scully wrote:

Ive seen a few, but recently I saw a guy in an undisclosed location in New York with renowned trad climbing who claimed to be a guide. He was rapping a multi pitch with no friction hitch or back up knots on the end of his rope. I asked him if he climbed at this undisclosed location much and he said “not really, I mostly like to do alpine and big wall climbing.” I wanted to tell him that he probably wasn’t a very good guide given the mentioned things and a few other sketch ball things he did, but I figured its best not to challenge a guide. He was pretty old so maybe he had accepted his life and place in the cosmos and decided that back ups were not necessary. However, the sketchiest part was, he was “guiding” someone who looked a little gripped. 

Im convinced this undisclosed location in New York with great trad climbing is like the Bermuda Triangle of sketchy climbing activities on the East Coast. The amount of gumbiness, relationship quarrels, and just overall bonkers antics I see every time Im there is unreal. Ive seen crag cats, couples gettinng engaged, couples fighting, panic attacks, didgeridoo music, babies born, babies being made, and the occasional ufo sighting over High E. No other place like it. 

One man’s “sketchy” is another man’s SOP.

Tradiban wrote:

One man’s “sketchy” is another man’s SOP.

One mans SOP can be another’s DOA 

Sockeye Scully wrote:

One mans SOP can be another’s DOA 

It can but not necessarily. “Sketchy” can be in the eye of the beholder. If the situation is under control it’s probably not sketchy.

Sockeye Scully wrote:

He was rapping a multi pitch with no friction hitch or back up knots on the end of his rope. 

I didn't use a "friction hitch" for decades (now use a Gigajul), and IMO backup knots are situational, even on a multipitch route. I understand your view has become dogma these days but as Tradiban says, going without either is SOP for plenty of people. 

phylp phylp wrote:

I didn't use a "friction hitch" for decades (now use a Gigajul), and IMO backup knots are situational, even on a multipitch route. I understand your view has become dogma these days but as Tradiban says, going without either is SOP for plenty of people. 

Easy boys, I had no idea that friction hitches and stopper knots were a triggering subject for you both. My apologies, Ill do better to keep my opinions and stories to myself.