Head injury at Red River Gorge

Sounds like maybe a trad fall from the description. I can think of many places to get tangled in a tree in the Red. Hope he gets well soon.

Climber was on There Goes the Neighborhood.  He flipped upside down and hit his head.  Search and Rescue and people at the crag did a great job of getting him stabilized and carried out.

M Santisi wrote:

Climber was on There Goes the Neighborhood.  He flipped upside down and hit his head.  Search and Rescue and people at the crag did a great job of getting him stabilized and carried out.

Looks like it’s a sport route? Did he go badly off route? If not, could someone with the relevant knowledge update it to an R rating given the tree risk? I can see a tree in the route picture too.

Interesting that the report reads, "not wearing a helmet." 

Andrew C wrote:

Interesting that the report reads, "not wearing a helmet." 

How so?

Garry Reiss wrote:

How so?

Because it took so long for a MP poster to point it out.

Climber involved in the incident suffered a serious head injury but is going to make a full recovery. Watch that tree and wear a helmet. We learned our lesson...

Big shout out to Wolfe County Search and Rescue, who helped get the climber to safety and receive appropriate medical help as quickly as possible. They are entirely volunteer-based. Consider donating to a great group of guys (https://wcsart.com/donate/). 

Thanks to all the climbers who helped get my friend out of there. I ended up with someone's green Wrangler button-down, shoot me a DM if it's yours!

Glad everyone will be okay. I think as a community we should try to get away from the “helmets are only for threats from above” mentality and mantras. They aren’t. It would be nice if manufacturers also embraced the same.

Tone Loc wrote:

Glad everyone will be okay. I think as a community we should try to get away from the “helmets are only for threats from above” mentality and mantras. They aren’t. It would be nice if manufacturers also embraced the same.

TLDR:  if you have any intention of lead climbing outdoors, use a lead climbing helmet with MIPS technology.

I'm sure it has been discussed elsewhere, but it is worth repeating, especially on a thread about a head injury. The less-expensive climbing helmets are only meant to protect against impacts from above, i.e., rockfall. They do not have foam on the sides and back, only in the top part of the helmet. Helmets made for lead climbing have foam all around the helmet. I did not know this the first few years I was climbing, including lead climbing. More recently, technology has become available to reduce the severity of rotational decelerations that cause concussions. MIPS is the most common, but I've seen other anti-concussion technologies in bike helmets. I've had two rock-climbing accidents, both resulting in concussions. I make sure that every helmet I buy now, for any sport, has MIPS or equivalent.

My suggestion for this route to upgraded to an R rating has been approved, feel free to argue it if it’s wrong. I’ve never done this climb, so on the one hand I don’t quite have a right to argue the point, but on the other hand based on this incident and the route picture, it seems the tree is a genuine risk. Hopefully future climbers heed the movie rating, and who knows, maybe if it was there prior it could have turned the climber away and prevented this accident. Despite what might be lacking beta, the final burden is on the climber to make out assessments of their fall zone, and consequently make good decisions.

Not trying to offend, but in principle I feel like it’s not your place to propose a rating if you haven’t done the route. From my perspective the tree in the photo looks plenty far away, but I also haven’t done the route. I have seen one person hit a tree at the RRG, there are trees abound. The person I saw kicked off the rock while falling, had they not done that, they wouldn’t have hit the tree.

Also from my reading of it, the tree doesn’t seem to have caused the severity of this accident, it sounds like going inverted did. I did not read it as the tree caused him to go inverted, but rather “he hit a tree, then went inverted, and then hit his head”. I don’t see how hitting a tree mid fall would cause you to flip upside down, but again physics does weird stuff and I could be wrong. My gut tells me most likely it was from getting his leg caught behind the rope. That could happen on any sport route.

But, I wasn’t there, that’s just how I read the report. I would appreciate anyone else who was there to chime in if/how the tree played a role in him going inverted. I am also open to being wrong about the rating, but I just don’t see how the tree being next to a climb justifies an R rating. Seems like a freak accident if the tree did cause him to flip.

I haven’t seen the climb either, but not a single one of the 38 ratings for this climb suggests a safety rating (even a PG-13) and none of the 338 ticks mentions the tree. Probably not a great precedent to add that R to this route just because there was an unlikely accident unless/until people who have actually climbed it suggest the change.

Ben Silver wrote:

I haven’t seen the climb either, but not a single one of the 38 ratings for this climb suggests a safety rating (even a PG-13) and none of the 338 ticks mentions the tree. Probably not a great precedent to add that R to this route just because there was an unlikely accident unless/until people who have actually climbed it suggest the change.

Did you look at the comments? 

1/338 is pretty high in the world of risk. So how many more tree impacts do you need before you think it’s R?

I can thrust my body off the wall and not worry about where the rope is at when I fall and get injured ten times out of ten.  That doesn't make the route R.

Jake Jones wrote:

I can thrust my body off the wall and not worry about where the rope is at when I fall and get injured ten times out of ten.  That doesn't make the route R.

Agreed, but irrelevant? The question here is about a tree. Based on the comment, and the multiple reports above, the tree was the player in this accident.

Redacted Redactberg wrote:

Agreed, but irrelevant? The question here is about a tree. Based on the comment, and the multiple reports above, the tree was the player in this accident.

Seen you around a lot this past year on oh so many threads. Jumping in to white knight and R rate a route you've never done indicates some serious grandiosity with respect to the importance of your opinions and your influence. No bad vibes intended, just some unsolicited feedback, and I am also aware of that irony but I feel I speak for many.

it’s not your place to propose a rating if you haven’t done the route

Hard stop.

Redacted Redactberg wrote:

Agreed, but irrelevant? The question here is about a tree. Based on the comment, and the multiple reports above, the tree was the player in this accident.

If you agree, then it can't be irrelevant.  If it's irrelevant, you shouldn't agree.

Here is link to route There Goes the Neighborhood

Warning about the tree in beta page was posted ~4 days AFTER the accident

Beta blurb -

Start by climbing over some dirty ledges to reach the first bolt. From here, climb straight up with some thin moves to reach until the 3rd bolt (crux). After the crux, all of the holds are very positive, but the wall remains slightly overhung, so move quickly!

Here is link to youtube video of someone climbing the route, the tree is prominently featured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deERQ_RxwKM
Sequence around 3rd bolt looks a bit challenging, the rest appears to be about pump management. The climber did not take any falls making it a bit difficult to judge the line of fall - congrats for the send

Video was posted a week after reported accident, hence the tree is likely to be in the same place. It is close to the wall, but with some separation.

Redacted Redactberg wrote:

Did you look at the comments? 

1/338 is pretty high in the world of risk. So how many more tree impacts do you need before you think it’s R?

I did look at the comments. Sam is not among the ticks or suggested grade ratings. Maybe he’s climbed it or observed this accident, but considering his comment just repeats what we know from Wolfe County Search and Rescue and adds no detail, it’s more likely he just made a comment after reading the news. Notably, he didn’t suggest an R rating in that comment either.

From that video, it seems like the tree is plenty far away. I’ve done routes with trees closer, the one I mentioned above had a tree closer (I hate to mention it or it’ll get an R rating) and still the climber had to kick away from the wall to hit it.

I can’t imagine any climber hitting this tree without pushing off the rock, or maybe they went inverted and the rotation of them inverting caused them to flip and hit the tree. Just my 2c.