Scariest moments/mistakes when climbing not resulting in injury

I had a new fear unlocked last weekend in Red Rocks. My middle son (adult) struggles with oppositional defiance and attentiveness but he really wants to be included in our climbing adventures. He has scared the bejeezus out of everyone climbing with him because he argues about your climbing and his technique *while he belays you* and he hasn't been attentive on the belay. He's been working on these issues and has improved enough that most of the family will let him TR belay us indoors. My wife talked me into taking him with us to Vegas....and then into letting him lead belay me outdoors. That was the scariest 5.7 sport route I've ever climbed in my life! I only got short-roped a couple times, he listened (mostly), and he didn't do a terrible job, particularly compared to before. However, I got more grey hairs from those 7 bolts than I think I've gotten in the last 15 years! 

On D7 on The Diamond, there is a block that is "wedged" that looked just like a jug. It's huge. I'm leading, grabbing it, and then it starts to rotate out. Killing my belayer flashes through my mind. Oh S__T! Then it wedges and stops. It was back in the day when I didn't get much detailed info on routes...duh...like the mid-1990s, I think. Oh my freakin' goodness!

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

I have also almost died because I did not have knotted ends. …..I see out of the corner of my eye the anchor off to my right.. look down and see about 8 inches of rope left...  sometimes its better to be lucky than good... 

It’s always nice to have luck on your side.
But it isn’t as reliable as being good. Clipping the end of the rope to your harness or saddle  bagging 5-10 meters of rope (more if it’s very windy) takes very little time. When it's very windy, not having knots in the end doesn’t guarantee a good outcome. 

Honky Tonk Woman, Near Trapps.

Beta says clip a bolt, then there’s a possible micro nut above to keep the crux move only R rated.

The bolt turned out to be an crappy old spinner.

The micro placement was non-existent.
I mean, there’s a flared seam there off to one side that you can get a small aid piece to stick in for a sec, but not what you’d call a “nut placement”. At least not the three smallest size BD micro nuts, which are what I had at the time. But I doubt anything could be made to work there that would hold a good sized swinging lead fall.

So now I’m run out, about 50’ up, last piece being the shite spinner bolt, on this insecure Gunks 5.9 face. Downclimbing was not an option for me. Figured the only way was up. Within a couple moves I was in ground fall territory. A move or so later, light at the end of the tunnel - a good horizontal rail. 

On the last move before a jug rail a tiny 1/2 pad one-finger pebble hold breaks off in my hand as I’m moving up. As I barn door and my feet blow, I just shot my other hand up and somehow caught the rail. My buddy climbing White Pillar next door said he saw me completely all points off the rock for a split second. Would have been a big mess if I hadn’t caught that rail. That was around 10 years ago and was my last R rated lead. Friable rock is scary. 

Cut my teeth in outdoor climbing at a beloved crag in Northeast Ohio. I’ve seen more sketchy sh*t there than all of my climbing since. I’ll include a short collection of stories but there are many many more…

Stopped a guy from rappelling off an island about 50’ off the deck. I happened to look up and notice he had both stands loaded in his ATC but neither through the carabiner. He was one step from committing to the edge. Pretty sure I might have saved him from a bad ground fall.

Highschool kids in the preserve to smoke chucking several softball sized rocks over the edge. Thankfully missed about 20 climbers in the gully below.

Couple guys trying out their new trad gear with seemingly no experience. Couldn’t find a placement so continued climbing 3-4’ at a time. Eventually placed one cam about 4’ below the chains, 30’ off the deck. He was shaking the whole time.

Again, high school kids… group of 6-7 hiked on top of a large separated flake and convinced their buddy to take a running leap to join them rather than the 2 minute hike to go the way they went up. To his credit he did make the jump but in doing so he had to clear a nearly 12’ wide gully which is about 20-30’ deep. I puckered.

Local guy (60+) would be free soloing every time we saw him. Only wore a harness to carry his flask of fireball.

Unseasonably warm day in late February got me out to climb. Girl belaying in the party next to us got clipped in the bicep by a 12’ tall icicle which had separated from the cliff edge. Never heard it fall but sounded like a gunshot when it hit the ground. Credit to her that her hand never came off the rope  

Guy rappelling got his curly bangs sucked into the extended ATC. Hung by his hair for 20+ minutes screaming until someone got him a knife. Cut off all the hair in the ATC but was otherwise unharmed.

Non climbing school kids soloing in tennis shoes and crocs because they saw everyone else climbing. Happened constantly and always got yelled at by someone.

Anchors made of hardware store rope… not even good stuff.  

People commonly down climbed the cliff edge with no protection to set their TR anchors. It’s not hard but the risk/reward isn’t there.

I’m sure I’ll think of more. Climbing in Ohio is an experience! 

@ Mike C -- All good stories but it has to be a scary moment or mistake that you experienced to count. 

The most important lesson of the thread is humility.

Back before winter came, I got in a day with a new-to-me partner who was getting into trad after sport climbing. Stronger than me on grades, working on improving gear placements and that sorta thing. I'm always down to offer advice I can, so along we go one cold morning. I lead a few, he of course follows fine. Doesn't seem to have trouble cleaning gear. Swap leads, his placements are fine. Takes more time than I expected setting up on bolt anchors, but ok. I'm slowly gaining confidence in him, not that I won't abandon my "easy trad, do not fucking falll" mentality. He's game to lead harder, so he goes up Son of Easy O, making it through sheer force of strength and ability because he went left onto Easy O at the end and made horrendous rope drag. I struggle up, my fingers frozen from the rock, hidden from the sun by clouds most of the day, hanging on pieces with a tether or yarding. I can't hear him well, and while I think I'm on belay (I have to wait for him to pull up rope, but it does go up) I still don't want to fall on principle with a new partner. 

The coup de grace is when I get to the anchor, clove in with one of my lockers and say well done. Hell of a climb. We chat about the route finding, the Elvis leg, gear options, the lack of more slings/ or a few doubles which made drag worse. We have to rap. I'm taking a moment to collect myself sitting at the belay as he tidies up before we rap, and I hear "what's this?" and the sound of a carabiner gate snap "oh shit im so so sorry". He had taken my clove off the chains because "I was cleaning the mess and that wasn't something I put on making the anchor so I just took it off." and that's why I was suddenly sitting on that little ledge free as the birds below. Because my partner took off gear that wasn't his from the anchor. It's one thing if I have a lapse of sanity and do something affecting me, but when my partner does it, and on a simple 3-piton-next-to-eachother anchor? Not my favorite. 

@ Orion Belt, I had a partner do that to me once on a long, steep, multi pitch ice climb.  He was a great climber technically, and very, very experienced on rock, ice and alpine.  He just made a simple mistake, as any of us could.

@4433407 k, the value of this thread is recognizing that we all make mistakes, and acknowledging the fact that if you climb long enough you will make critical mistakes, and find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the only thing that will prevent you from dying is luck. 

It's easy to critcize, point out mistakes others make, and this thread could devolve into a rant about gym-to-crag noobies and so forth.  But that wouldn't accomplish anything meaningful. 

Hearing about the mistakes of others can so easily make one feel superior in some way.  Talking about one's own mistakes is the first step to real learning.  

Do you disagree or are you just trolling?

I’m with Bruno. I’ve made my share of mistakes and still do so every now and then (I like to think less often and much smaller ones compared to noobie days). Luckily, to date, none have resulted in anything catastrophic. To repeat what I posted in another thread (even though I’m not particularly “religious”): 

“But for the grace of God go I”. 

Mike Cwrote:

Cut my teeth in outdoor climbing at a beloved crag in Northeast Ohio. I’ve seen more sketchy sh*t there than all of my climbing since. I’ll include a short collection of stories but there are many many more…

Stopped a guy from rappelling off an island about 50’ off the deck. I happened to look up and notice he had both stands loaded in his ATC but neither through the carabiner. He was one step from committing to the edge. Pretty sure I might have saved him from a bad ground fall.

Highschool kids in the preserve to smoke chucking several softball sized rocks over the edge. Thankfully missed about 20 climbers in the gully below.

Couple guys trying out their new trad gear with seemingly no experience. Couldn’t find a placement so continued climbing 3-4’ at a time. Eventually placed one cam about 4’ below the chains, 30’ off the deck. He was shaking the whole time.

Again, high school kids… group of 6-7 hiked on top of a large separated flake and convinced their buddy to take a running leap to join them rather than the 2 minute hike to go the way they went up. To his credit he did make the jump but in doing so he had to clear a nearly 12’ wide gully which is about 20-30’ deep. I puckered.

Local guy (60+) would be free soloing every time we saw him. Only wore a harness to carry his flask of fireball.

Unseasonably warm day in late February got me out to climb. Girl belaying in the party next to us got clipped in the bicep by a 12’ tall icicle which had separated from the cliff edge. Never heard it fall but sounded like a gunshot when it hit the ground. Credit to her that her hand never came off the rope  

Guy rappelling got his curly bangs sucked into the extended ATC. Hung by his hair for 20+ minutes screaming until someone got him a knife. Cut off all the hair in the ATC but was otherwise unharmed.

Non climbing school kids soloing in tennis shoes and crocs because they saw everyone else climbing. Happened constantly and always got yelled at by someone.

Anchors made of hardware store rope… not even good stuff.  

People commonly down climbed the cliff edge with no protection to set their TR anchors. It’s not hard but the risk/reward isn’t there.

I’m sure I’ll think of more. Climbing in Ohio is an experience! 

 

Let me guess, Whipp's Ledges?

rgoldwrote:

After the rumbling of the big pieces and the rattling of the small ones, all was silent.  Barbara traversed back to the belay, re-anchored, and we finished up the climb.

Just finding this thread and Rich's story reads like the climax of an adventure movie scene but for me, the casual "mic drop" here at the end is priceless, and no doubt, very true!

Damn!

Thomas Worshamwrote:

Let me guess, Whipp's Ledges?

Yup   

friend of mine just had a close call yesterday trying to climb Le Promenade a 3 pitch 5+ @ The Lake he had a good 3 screw belay out of the bomb zone for pitch two and one good protection screw in before the hanger .

he tried to climb that pillar on the left but  had not touched down yet. about 8 ft up the hanger he committed the cardinal sin of putting a screw in a hanger below the attachment point. it was a 10cm screw . when the hanger broke off a move or so later he took a big ride. the hanger  that was attached to his rope with a 10cm screw hit a ledge and exploded. either his screw ripped out or the ice broke in the right spot because his  first screw held and the belay held...  and that big hunk of ice that he rode was no longer attached to his rope...  not seriously injured just a little banged up. 

This photo is Not from this incident.  its just to give you an idea of the location. 

Bruno Schullwrote:

@ Orion Belt, I had a partner do that to me once on a long, steep, multi pitch ice climb.  He was a great climber technically, and very, very experienced on rock, ice and alpine.  He just made a simple mistake, as any of us could.

Absolutely. I could have thrown in a "lessons learned" tidbit above. I consider that story partly my fault for getting complacent. I was cold, it was a tough climb mentally that wore me down. It was a new partner that I didn't have a rapport with. I want to be more vigilant in the future and make sure I'm not relying on a new person 1000% when I don't have to be, like at an anchor. I could have watched the anchor while he tidied up. I could have set up my rap tether immediately to have a second attachment. I share that story so others don't get complacent with new partners, or even old partners, who may make a mistake that affects not them but you. 

Im with you on not letting this divulge to meaningless insults.  I do see you're replying to 4433407 on that, but because my post is about a mistake of someone else I feel partly included. The thread is scariest mistakes and moments. That was a scary moment for me. It must of been scary to have that friend unclip you too. 

It's definitely on all of us commenting to make sure we don't engage in petty "if I were there",  "if I were in your shoes",  "kids these days..." and I think we've done pretty good so far. Just here's what happened, here are some things it made me think. Take heed.

I recently did a whole route bolted with carrot bolts. I'd placed every bolt plate the wrong was around.  

Regarding unclipping a partner from an anchor: I'm guilty as charged. 

I was out last season with someone who is working as a guide. I've climbed with him maybe 20 days, so we have our sequences nailed down and move fairly efficiently. I lead climb a lot at my home crag and he is only here seasonally, so I let him do all the leading. I arrive at a belay station where he had built an anchor with a combination of sling and rope. I quickly indentify the key points of the anchor and tie into two with my end of the rope, call "off belay", and hand over the sling with gear I had cleaned from the previous pitch. He starts reracking and I undo the gri-gri that he had clipped to the anchor and used in "guide mode" to bring me up. So far, this follows our standard procedure. As I unclip the gri-gri and its biner from the anchor, I see a sling "detaching" from the biner. I was thinking: "Hey, what's that thing?" and realize he had clipped himself with a sling to that same biner. Luckily, this was only the second tie-in point for him, so he was still tied in with the rope. This was NOT our standard procedure as he had never used the "guide-mode biner" for anything else than his guide-mode gri-gri before. 

Lesson learned: Don't turn off your (or rather my) brain and go on "muscle memory". Muscle memory only works for the EXACT same sequence as it was trained for. There are more than enough variations in trad climbing that one day, a small deviation from standard procedure will throw the muscle memory a curve-ball.

I was rappelling a route using a tube style device with a 70m rope, first member in the party down. I reached the next anchor after a 37-38m rappel and thought "I'm going to increase efficiency here and untie the knots and start threading the rings" (before my partner reaches the station). I got the knots undone before remembering that there were only a couple meters of rope left when I arrived at the station, and that they needed to be there, just in case. I put knots back in before my partner had their rappel set up.

Beepity boppity lump this is now back in the toppitty bump

Thanks for bringing attention back to this thread--it's important.

I had a close call/near miss this season that raises a bunch of larger questions.

I was ice climbing, starting up very low angle ice, the kind of ice many people including myself would just walk up in crampons.  I was feeling good, psyched to climb the steeper ice above, singing to myself, having fun.  When I reached the point where the climb actually began, I placed my tools, reached for an ice screw, and somehow lost balance or slipped.  I turned around facing downhill on my butt, and slid about four or five meters, went over a small step, and landed in soft snow.  I also pulled my partner off, and we both stopped together, completely unhurt but shaken.  On the short ride down, I remember thinking, "Keep your feet up!"  With the short distance traveled, and the low angle of the ice, it was would have been unlikely for one of us to be seriously injured (head, spine, torso) but we could easily have fractured our lower legs/ankles.  

Lessons?  The terrain was so low angle that I would not have put in a screw sooner; even with a long runner it would have made the rope drag terrible on the transition to the steeper ice.  I probably wouldn't put in an ice screw there if I did the climb again today, but I'd have to see the pitch to be sure.  What's clear is that I should have been more deliberate and carefull on easy ground.  As I often say to myself, "Respect low angle ice."  I always place screws on low angle sections of ice climbs at the top of pitches, even when it feels uncecessary, and I should have taken the first meters of this climb more seriously.  We also could have put in a screw or anchor for the belayer, but as the terrain was comfortable for both of us, we didn't really talk about it, although we should have.  It's a classic case of familiarity and complacency.

Zooming out, I had a solid ice climbing season and I felt good that day, but many people might not have been climbing in the mental state that I've been in for the last few years.  Death of my father.  Burnout at work and reduced work load.  Divorce after twenty years of marriage.  A terriblly painful breakup with a woman after a two-year relationship, the most profound love I've even felt, now gone.  Real depression.  Crying multiple times every day.  Barely able to function.  Holding it together for my daughter. Psychiatrist strongly recommending weeks to months off work, and some kind of acute intervention, like a hospital stay or ketamine treatments, in addition to the regular psychological medication that I take.  

Did all that factor into this accident?  On one hand, it seems hard to believe that it did not in some way.  On the other hand, it was a simple slip, and in a lifetime of climbing, mistakes happen.  I don't know whether it's a strength or a weakness, but I have a strong ability to compartmentalize.  When I tie into the rope, all that stuff dissappears, which of course is part of the reason I climb. I have tried to regularly check in with myself and ask, "Are you making good decisions?"  or, "Is it safe for you to be climbing?"  In general, I think I've climbed in a conservative way, which is my approach, and apart from that slip, there haven't been any serious red flags.  But I'm still processing.

After a quick check, we started climbing again.  I lead the next pitches, first a grade 4 pitch of some cool, three-dimensional cauliflower ice, with an awkward side-step section that was engaging and fun to climb, like solving a puzzle.  Then a grade 5 pillar.  I've climbed at this place for over a decade.  There are many routes, and I've climbed them all, except this pillar. I've always wanted to climb it, but I never felt ready.  A few years ago, I looked at it, and I thought, "You know, you can climb that, you just have to do it."  Anybody who's been climbing for a while knows the feeling of gradually realizing that you are ready to climb something you previously felt was too difficult or frightening.  This year, the conditions, partner, and everything felt right.  In the end, it all went smoothly.  I placed protection regularly, rested, shook out my hands, took deep breaths, and stayed completely in control.  It was near my limit, but I felt calm and relaxed. It almost felt easy, which is how I think hard ice climbing should feel.  

And this followed the slip at the start.  

Was it adrenalin from the slip that fueled the climb?  Was it the desperation of the last months that made me so determined?  If so, is that wrong?  I don't have the answers to these questions.

I joked with my partner that I wanted to write this up for MP, but I didn't know where to place it, in the "Scariest moments/mistakes" thread, in the "Climbers and mental illness thread," in a "Relationships and heartbreak thread," or in a, "Why do we climb?" thread. 

So that's my story.  I hope somebody can take something useful away from it.

Low angle ice sucks.  I literally hate grade 2 ice. 2+ is almost tolerable.. If its really warm and wet you can stand up and hike it comfortably as long as theres no gusty wind but if its cold , dry bullet proof concrete you pretty much have to get a tool in it and fckn crawl. hate that shit.   Your mistake was not under protecting the low angle ice but falling while placing the screw at the top of it.  Sounds like you were hands free and not holding either tool. Don't do that shit and don't fall. Otherwise great job on the rest of the day.    We were soloing Odels gully in Hunnington Ravine  1986. My partner was standing on the top of a bulge fucking around taking this picture of me.  Single digit temps, bulletproof ice, gusty winds. 

He put the camera away, pulled both tools out of the ice and took a step.. 500ft ride and a broken back,etc.etc.  happened in the next few seconds..   Got to have one tool in all the time and be holding on to it unless it's soft  super hero ice..