Epic on Solar Slab led to Avulsion Fracture (11/9/2025)

Hi everyone,

I posted this on the Vegas Climbers Facebook page already. But, I felt as though it is important to share with the general climbing community about what happened, how you can avoid doing what I did, and how I am going to change my decision making in the future. As a young climber who has aspirations to be a life-long climber, my goal with this post is to honest and humble with this community which has given so much to me so others can learn from my mistakes and not repeat what I did. My partner and I left our ropes on the walk off of Solar Slab, so if anyone does the walk off and finds them, I would be very appreciative if you returned them to me. I will reward you handsomely with your choice of: beverages, a cash prize, or a bunch of bolts.

TLDR: we ran out of water, daylight, stoke, and just wanted to go home, I ended up breaking my ankle 3 miles from the car and had to hike out.

My partner and I started hiking in from Middle Oak Creek Trailhead at 5am, we made it to the base of Solar Slab Gulley at 615am, and we started climbing at 620am. On the climb we took a total of 3 liters of water, 2 in a bladder and 1 liter in a bottle with an electrolyte mix. Two parties with a total of 5 people started after us, we all climbed together. The party of 3 was led by a climber named Tad (shout out, you were really cool) and was climbing faster than my partner and I, so we let them pass. The second party of two simuled the gulley and passed us there, however we caught up to them at the intermediate anchor on pitch two where the leader at the time took a bit of time getting to the next anchor. THIS IS NOT TO BLAME ANYONE ELSE FOR MY POOR DECISION MAKING AFTER THIS POINT, I believe it is important context for what happened. My partner and I made it to the top of the 7th pitch around 3pm, we were out of water and I was convinced that we should have rappelled down but my partner convinced me we should top out the route. This was a critical mistake, we topped out the climb at 3:45pm, and we went for the painted bowl descent. We made it down with two raps as we brought double ropes, where it became dark. My partners headlamp died as soon as it became dark, this made traversing across the painted bowl difficult and slowed us down as we both had not done it before. 

We were both incredibly dehydrated and after finding ourselves further down on the walk off, we came to a ledge that to us looked that it requiring rapping, so we did. By that time it was 730pm, we both hadn’t had water in multiple hours. After rapping to our horror the rope was stuck, this didn’t seem like a problem at the time as we both just wanted to go home. We likely got off route on the walk off and came to a serious downclimb where we found a fixed nut that another party had likely rapped off, this was one of the most nerve wracking and dangerous moments of my climbing career and I was lucky to make it down safely. However while hiking through the main wash I broke my right ankle by rolling it after not seeing an obvious rock in the wash from my lack of hydration, this made hiking up to get to my pack where I had 3L of water at the base of solar slab gulley difficult. I was able to get my pack and water which gave us the much needed hydration to hike back to the car. We ended up getting back at 10:30pm. I am very lucky with me being able to get out of my situation without needing to call SAR.

So what did I walk away with? I walked away with an avulsion fracture on my right ankle, it could have been far worse and I am incredibly lucky. I no longer own a rope but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make as I felt my life was worth more than what I paid for my rope. My goal is to be humble about this experience and learn from it to hopefully never find myself in this situation again. I am going to be out of climbing for a minimum of 8 weeks but it's certainly better being alive. I plan on writing this incident up for the annual accident report in american mountaineering when submissions are called for. Please be kind to my partner for wanting to top out the formation, I was the more experienced climber in my party and I should have made the call to take the normal rap route, this was 100% my decision making. Thank you for reading and happy sending for everyone in Red Rock this season!

Telling your story was a wonderful act of courage. Sorry to hear about your ankle injury and I hope you heal quickly. Thanks for sharing. Who knows who you might have helped by doing so. 

Some guys get to have all the fun! Good job getting out of there on your own two feet man. The decision to top out may have kept you from dieing on the previous raps you avoided by topping out; who the hell knows? 

I'd say, from reading your post, that you did a great job of keeping it together and getting yourself out, in the dark (dead headlamp of course) no less. The ropes will come out in the wash.

"The fight is all."

Run out of water…I have done that.
Dead head lamp in the dark and unknown…done that too.

Sucks to lose a rope but it’s a minimal expense relative to medical care or in certain cases the rescue you avoided.

You don’t mention cutting the stuck rope.

You and your partner did well enough and for what it’s worth, good story well told. 

Declan Westwrote:

 I plan on writing this incident up for the annual accident report in american mountaineering when submissions are called for. 

I'm not sure if "broke an ankle hiking out on class 2" is really a significant, teachable accident.

Jack Kellywrote:

I'm not sure if "broke an ankle hiking out on class 2" is really a significant, teachable accident.

"brought headlamp without spare batteries" and "didn't turn around in time" (along with "didn't bring enough water"), though they might be repetitive lessons, do seem teachable and, in this case, led directly to a somewhat significant incident for the OP.

Glad you made it out and I hope the ankle heals up quickly, and seamlessly! A few things struck me: 

• Did you guys only have 1 single headlamp or did both of you have a headlamp and one of the headlamps died? 
• 3L of water this time of year for a 5 pitch climb should be plenty. Was there any awareness of how low you were getting on water or any effort to be mindful to ration it? I'm guessing the answer is no but in the future, communicating when 1L is gone, when 2L is gone, and for sure when you're getting down to a half liter remaining is important. Knowing when you can't afford to guzzle water is important for those unplanned epics. Blindly drinking without a thought of how much is left is a dangerous game to play, especially in hot weather.
• Had you both studied the descent ahead of time? Rapping from an unknown ledge, especially relying on a single fixed nut that somebody else left, is a mega high risk move. Whenever possible, back up the rappel with another piece of gear/sling a tree/etc. Additionally, whoever goes down the exploratory rappel first absolutely must know how to ascend a rope in the event that the rappel goes nowhere. Hopefully you both know how to ascend a rope but if not - time to learn and practice when you're back on your feet

Learn from the experience, don't be too hard on yourself, and carry these lessons with you in the future. Stay safe out there

Welcome to the club.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.  

Declan,

First off, I applaud you for staying calm enough to self-rescue, reflecting on where you may have made mistakes, and having the courage and generosity to post about your epic and injury. It's easy to retreat into oneself and shy away from sharing embarrassing stories.

Here's an article about backing up rappels on marginal gear. I do a couple additional things as well: carry your chalk bag on 6mm cord, learn how to build clove/girth hitch focal point anchors, use the rope to back up the anchor with gear/trees/boulders/stances from extremely far away from the bail anchor. Your life is worth more than a nut or a cam, so throw that second piece in! Mark Smiley might still be providing a free piece to the young folks, but I'm not sure.

The headlamp dying is a real game changer. I carry a Petzl Bindi with me at all times in addition to my primary headlamp.

You can submit an AAC accident report right now! Do it while the incident is fresh in your mind.

All in all, y'all did good. While your injury is painful and limiting it is not life-changing or life-ending. You've learned some stuff and were able to share your story so others can learn as well. Thanks for the report. We're all wishing you the best! 

I use a petzl headlamp with the rechargable core battery pack. Before any multipitch, I charge the battery fully, then store it in my pack/snack bag not installed to the headlamp, so there is no chance of turning it on accidentally. For any really big or committing days, I’ll bring a second battery.

Been there done that. Sort of. But not on Solar Slab but the DNB in Yosemite. Topped out in the dark, ran out water. Decided to bivy at the top and do the Cat Walk in the morning. Made it down without any issues other than my partner forgetting to pull some backup gear for a rappel.

I posted this in another thread but headlamps these days suck because they are too easy to accidentally turn on. Carry extra batteries. Think of finishing the route as a forward retreat. That is, it is often much better to complete the route with a reasonable descent than bail, especially when the alternative is a series of rappels. As for the ropes getting stuck, more details are in order. Assuming you had the skills could you reascending them? Given the descent and lacking water, it might have been better to cuddle for the night and resume the descent in daylight.

At the end of the day, you got out and did not need help. That is good. Heal well.

@Wezzer and Allen, the best place for your spare battery is in your spare headlamp. Doesn't do much good to have a battery without a working lamp (dropped, smashed, partner uses different brand). A Bindi is 35g and a Petzl Core battery is 23g; that difference is less than a single carabiner. 

Adam Flemingwrote:

@Wezzer and Allen, the best place for your spare battery is in your spare headlamp. Doesn't do much good to have a battery without a working lamp (dropped, smashed, partner uses different brand). A Bindi is 35g and a Petzl Core battery is 23g; that difference is less than a single carabiner. 

Point taken Adam, but the issue is I run into is the !@#$% lamp accidentally being turned on. So a spare headlamp does no good if the batteries are dead. 

Declan, I am very sorry you got hurt, but I am happy that neither you nor your partner had a worse accident or a fatality doing a first time descent in the dark while exhausted and dehydrated. There are a lot of things you can learn from this and your writing it up will help others. Here are some of my thoughts:

Some good points have been made about headlamp management and back up batteries, but as a learning point, I would like to add that as a newer climber (?) you should not be doing a route where the timing predicts that part of the climb or descent requires that you use a headlamp. By continuing past the top of pitch 7 and not rapping, you were pretty much guaranteeing that you would be doing part of an unknown descent in the dark. Even walking a rocky trail by headlamp has its dangers, as you have discovered. I try to time things such that I am getting back to the car by dark.

How does this timing work in practice? A common strategy to avoid darkness dangers is to agree with your partner a head of time on a turn around time. You picked a good objective in that at any point in the Gulley or Solar Slab itself, with 2 ropes, you could stop and retreat. 

Part of planning for big routes is being able to predict how long each part of the day is going to take: approach trail to base, climb, descent, trail back to car. Sometimes a reconnoiter day combined with a shorter objective in the same area can be so valuable to save time on the day of your long climb. Then obviously the most important aspect of predicting timing is knowing how fast you and your partner climb per pitch (or per 100 feet) at a particular grade. For shorter routes you can be casual and not watch the clock but for big routes you have to know you have the ability to move fast without rushing. I would say that from the base of the Gulley to the top of pitch 7 in 6.5 hours with pitches of those ratings is a bit too slow of a pitch time (once the time changes and it gets dark so much earlier). If you have never timed yourself, and you don't have a sense of how long it takes you to lead 150 feet of 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9 etc., this could be a valuable observation for you to make.

Good luck, heal quickly!

Since the 90s I simply turn one battery the wrong way while it's in the headlamp, so it can't accidentally turn on. Does nobody else do that? I also carry extra batteries, their extra weight is miniscule

...

• 3L of water this time of year for a 5 pitch climb should be plenty. ...

It was crazy hot for mid-November that day. Easy to imagine running low on water in the sun.

dave custerwrote:

It was crazy hot for mid-November that day. Easy to imagine running low on water in the sun.

For sure. I think that supports my point that you selectively cut off even further though - it's critical to be aware of how much water you have remaining. Beyond that, knowing how much water to bring is important too and comes with experience. When in doubt and it's a hot day, bring more. 

bryanswrote:

Since the 90s I simply turn one battery the wrong way while it's in the headlamp, so it can't accidentally turn on. Does nobody else do that? I also carry extra batteries, their extra weight is miniscule

Same here. 

Adam Flemingwrote:

@Wezzer and Allen, the best place for your spare battery is in your spare headlamp. Doesn't do much good to have a battery without a working lamp (dropped, smashed, partner uses different brand). A Bindi is 35g and a Petzl Core battery is 23g; that difference is less than a single carabiner. 

Or just buy a headlamp with a lock mode. My Swift RL takes a simple 5sec hold to activate or deactivate the lock, with a red flash to indicate it's locked. Never have to worry about it accidentally turning on. Nor do I have to carry an extra battery to protect against the possibility.

OP, if one of you had a working headlamp, was it just not strong enough to illuminate the way for the headlampless climber in front? I've been in that exact position before and with me and my working headlamp in the rear, my partner had no problem seeing her way down.

dave custerwrote:

It was crazy hot for mid-November that day. Easy to imagine running low on water in the sun.

Water so important !
1-2% = Slight decrease in alertness, increased reaction time
3% dehydration = Significant reduction in attention, impaired working memory 

And what is unfortunate, a lot of people are ready to bring less water just because of weight !