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

Sockeye Scullywrote:

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.

Apology accepted.

I think your stories are important to highlight the fact that “sketchy” is subjective. The layman probably thinks anyone rock climbing at all is sketchy.

To me “sketchy” are situations that are out of control. Is all soloing “sketchy”? I don’t think so.

Sockeye Scullywrote:

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.

What were some of the other sketchy things he did?

The route Great Escape at Shagg crag tends to be a gym noob magnet, as the only steep easy route at the most popular sport crag in Maine. However, what makes it sketchy is that

• The whole ~80' long route traverses along a jug rail at a 45 degree angle
• The base is full of sedan-sized boulders
• Because it's popular with newer groups, someone occasionally wants to TR it and doesn't think about the pendulum risk (you could probably crater from halfway up the route)

Every time I've climbed there, the crowd has shut down a TR attempt pretty much immediately, but the boulders at the base of the route still (as of a year or two ago) had blood stains from someone who took the big TR swing and suffered the consequences.

Wife and I finished YMC at Ragged Mountain in Connecticut and walked-off.  Noticed the top rope anchor for Broadway was a medium stopper (incorrect orientation to direction of load) and a girth hitched flake on fractured basalt (all non-equalized).  Mentioned our safety concern to the group of five TRing below (two large men in charge and a group of teenagers) with the response "mind your %*$#ing business a$$hole".  Well, it was towards the end of the day and we had an hour plus drive north to home.

I was at Smith one day and there was a group discussing watching someone rappel without knots, though the ends were on the ground.  They were describing the moral quandary of whether they should go over and tie knots in the end, to make sure they were safe.

I stated, “if you can reach the rope from the ground to tie knots, the knots are unnecessary for safety,” or something similar. The response was, “well, we’ve seen some things.”  

I chose not to engage beyond that but it seemed nuts to consider “helping” someone in that way. 

Certainly not the sketchiest but Ouray is your classic sketchy junk show. A moment that sticks out is when someone at a crowded area (schoolhouse?) tied 6-8 ice tools to the end of a rope and hucked the whole contraption on to the heads of those below.

*casually checking this thread to see if any of the stories are about me*

Was in boulder canyon in the early 70's and saw two guys roll up in a vw van with a ladder on top, stop and unload the ladder and put it up at the base of a climb that I can't remember, climb the ladder with a rack of pins, have the ladder slip and the guy falls a few feet, they load up the ladder and off they go. Big adventure for them.

Got to the top of an alternate finish to Bitty Buttress (Boulder Canyon), went to pull over the top, and hand jammed under this rocker. Horrified, I delicately climbed around it, warned my belayer, and let the BCC folks know/posted to MP (trundling would risk hitting cars, so not an easy solution)

https://youtu.be/8gohGSq2XbY?si=ceToQ32RAiPo8gVx

FrankPSwrote:

I routinely rap on ropes without knots in the ends.

I’m not being critical here, because I do, too, but do you do this on long descents requiring multiple rappels? There is danger either way; knots have a way of getting stuck in cracks, and (on occasion) I have forgotten to untie them for the retrieval, which lead to some truly awful moments. 

Peter Lenzwrote:

I’m not being critical here, because I do, too, but do you do this on long descents requiring multiple rappels? There is danger either way; knots have a way of getting stuck in cracks, and (on occasion) I have forgotten to untie them for the retrieval, which lead to some truly awful moments. 

I only do this on routes I am familiar with and ropes I know the length (of). I would do it on multi-pitch rappels if I had done it before and knew that an X-meter rope would work. Wouldn't do it on new rappels, unless my partner is going first and knew the rope length was adequate.

Most of my climbing is at the local crag and have done the routes dozens or hundreds of times.

Looking Glass: saw a guy deck after a 50’ solo slab fall. He was soloing up ~5.6 terrain with gear and 2 ropes in his pack to start from a higher ledge with a slightly harder 5.7 start. After watching the classic run backwards down the slab he fell right on his back, but luckily the ropes took the impact and he seemed fine. We tried to talk him into just chillin for a bit to make sure all was good. He insisted to keep climbing right away. The lady friend he was with looked freaked out as it was clear she wanted to stop climbing for the day.

GTNP: coming off of Owen and waiting for our turn to rap the Koven, we spotted 2 climbers down soloing East Prong. First guy solo’s down on some mixed hard snow/rock terrain. No pons or axe. Made it look kinda chill. Second guy gets freaked out about the solo, the hard snow and the exposure. He got really pissed at his partner, who had the rope in his pack. Dude was not having it as the expletives were echoing off the walls and valleys. After what seemed like an hour (prob 15 mins), we couldn’t watch as this guy looked like he was going for a ride. Our turn to rap and we were gone. We had just rapped that section off of East Prong with pons a few hours prior and we were glad we did.

JTNP: not sketchy but more entertaining is the classic lead Toe Jam to the Bearded Cabbage anchor bolts. I must have seen this a half dozen times. Always a weird silence in HVCG when follower is faced with the pendulum fall at the top. 

I watched someone crater in The Box at Maple once on Loser. Gri-Gri misuse. Leader fell at crux and belayer girlfriend, nearest anyone can recollect, was squeezing the Gri-Gri in “feed mode” and just kept squeezing while he fell. She ended up with rope burn on her brake hand and he miraculously landed kind of flat on his back in the only patch of flat ground in a riverbed of cobbles. Dude ended up walking out and both of them reportedly endured a very long drive back to Vegas and were no worse for wear. 35 years of climbing, and thankfully, the one and only time I watched someone crater.

@LL2 that's my worry with the Grigri, though if she were holding the brake strand it is my understanding the Grigri would lock?

I have never quite felt comfortable with holding down the cam for this reason. Human panic response is to clamp down on the cam harder, preventing exactly what needs to happen to arrest the falling climber.

It's what I feel Mammut got right with the Smart. You defeat the assisted braking by pulling up and out on the device, but if the climber falls while paying out slack, panic response would be to clamp down and bring the hands closer to the body,  instantly locking the device off.

Julian, she was squeezing the cam and holding the brake end, but due to the squeezing the brake end of the rope just burned through through her hand. Maybe more modern Gri-Gris addressed this better, but with the original design it was a problem. The release lever was never engaged. I think it was totally a function of clamping harder on the cam, to where the brake hand couldn’t possibly grip tight enough to stop the fall. Thus the burn.

Hard Is Easy did test this user error — although he was specifically testing whether the Grigri would lock if the brake strand was not held at all (spoiler alert, it did not).

LL2wrote:

I watched someone crater in The Box at Maple once on Loser. Gri-Gri misuse. Leader fell at crux and belayer girlfriend, nearest anyone can recollect, was squeezing the Gri-Gri in “feed mode” and just kept squeezing while he fell. She ended up with rope burn on her brake hand and he miraculously landed kind of flat on his back in the only patch of flat ground in a riverbed of cobbles. Dude ended up walking out and both of them reportedly endured a very long drive back to Vegas and were no worse for wear. 35 years of climbing, and thankfully, the one and only time I watched someone crater.

Saw this happen about two years ago, three young guys were top roping a few routes down from us and it was the belayer’s first time belaying. The climber fell and the belayer panicked and just stared at the climber falling. The fall was about 15-20 feet and he landed on the belayer so it was just two bruised egos.

Someone shotgunned a beer at the base of a climb, got up 10-15 feet, placed a cam, took on said cam and decked. 

I had a nineteen year old guy who had been climbing for just over a year free solo above me when I was halfway up a 10d. He was doing a 5.9 variation that veers into a chimney rather than pulling a mini roof. He was visibly shaking, sweating, his eyes wide as saucers. I was so pissed and wanted to curse him out for putting me and every one at the crag in danger, but kept quiet to not freak him out any more than he was.

Later ran into the same dude at Mungingella. He ran out the entire route on like a single rack of a #2 and below (he was oozing over his brand new shiny ultralight mastercams). Maybe stopped once? I was happy to see him roped up.

I didn't see this personally, but heard it. I was at a super popular local crag, the Trinity Aretes, and heard a bloodcurdling scream. A climber had leaned back to lower after cleaning the anchor to Gold Rush iirc, and the belayer was hands-free on a tube ATC. Climber fell like 60-70 feet and the fall was only arrested because someone was standing on the rope lying on the ground.

Some sport rappellers threw a 100m static line down the most popular multipitch in the Blue Mountains and rappelled down over the top of a couple of parties, knocking debris on everyone the whole time.

A well know local climber exchanged words in person and then shamed them on Facebook, the post exploded, the rappellers found the post and they continued arguing. Tensions are high because someone died on the route last year due to rockfall.

This sport rappeller says that he yelled "rope" so it's all OK!

PSA, don't climb Sweet Dreams on the weekend.