Scariest moments/mistakes when climbing not resulting in injury

Anthony McCarty wrote:

Years ago, when I first got into trad, a partner and I started driving to the Whites for a day trip, it started sprinkling, so we turned around. We, mostly he, decided to do a route in smugglers notch. Doing no preparation for this climb, and being young and stupid, we never checked for peregrine closures, and hiked to the cliff from the wrong direction so we missed the “cliff closed” signs.  On The last belay (pitch 5?), just as he started leading the pitch I was dive bombed for probably five minutes, with the bird coming only a few feet from me multiple times. It all ended well, and the last pitch was exposed and amazing, but I was stressed for quite some time at the belay. Although probably not the scariest thing that has ever happened to me, it was the most prolonged feeling of fear I have ever had while climbing.
Now I always check for cliff closures. 

Add to that the impact it can have on the birds...I rapped past an unknown horned owl nest many years ago in the back country. The young were super cute--three little owlets staring out at me--so I stopped and snapped a photo. I spent maybe 30 sec max. The next day I brought my wife out with some binoculars to see the cute little family only to find the nest destroyed and no sign of the little family. 

Bumpety bump. Scariest recent moment was being locked out of my account for months due to onx shenanigans. Won’t discuss here and please stay safe!

Stoked Weekend Warrior wrote:

TRS ice with fixed line and 2 microtrax. Found out the top microtrax was not engaging coz the teeth are all iced over, so I was just relying on one microtrax the whole time, which might also get iced over time

Happened to me recently doing some TRS in colorado... except I use a microtrax on top as primary and a CT Roll N Lock on bottom as backup. Microtrax just has less room inside for ice to scrape off the rope, so it gets packed with shavings pretty quickly and wasn't biting consistently. Roll N Lock however is a fully open design so the ice scrapings just fall out the bottom and it keeps working. 

Made it to Yosemite for the first time last fall and wandered around wide eyed with my mentor and their his before going solo. I went to the King Tut boulder on a day I couldn't find a partner to practice solo aid climbing and did laps on Hooker to dial myself in before trying Kor. It's probably lap four or five now and I'm still feeling clumsy. I moved past the first bolt and then fixed my rope to it. Probably a figure 8 but immaterial to this story. I merrily made my way up to the anchor bolts, and attach my double length sling girth hitched to my harness to the anchor as a tether and then weight it to make sure it's got me. I've got a knot in the middle for a rap extension.

I ponder how to proceed, as I have one end of the rope (the very end) fixed to the first bolt, then it goes through the draws to the anchor and then my harness where I've got it attached with a clove hitch on two opposite and opposed lockers, and then the vast majority of it trailing down to the ground in a heap. I untie from the rope since I've got my tether and decide to pull up a bunch of rope from the ground heap end and pass a bight through the chains and send that bight down to the ground 40 feet below. I wanted all that rope so I could avoid rapping the rope end I led on, so I could clean easier. So now I've got four strands in my face. The one I led on going through the anchor and back to the heap on the ground, and the bight I've pulled up and passed through the anchor to send back to the ground. I pick two strands, attach my third hand, thread my rap device lean into the anchor, take out slack, sit back down, and find myself fully weighting my tether and my rap device doing jack shit. I threaded the wrong strands to rap on. Both were coming out the same side of the anchor, and the only reason I didn't take a 40 foot drop onto the boulder below is because I have made it muscle memory to weight the new system before I leave the old system.

Weight the new system before leaving the old system. I've never been happier to be a faithful practitioner of that axiom. I had too many rope ends up there, doing a thing I'm not familiar with yet, and I thought I had it under control. I did not. Prudent habits provided me a failsafe. 

Orion Belt wrote:

Weight the new system before leaving the old system.

I think that's one of three lessons in your story.  The other two are:

2) Don't bite off more than you're ready to chew.

3) Have a plan before leaving the ground.

A partner sent me this picture a few days ago, and asked "Do you remember this climb?"  

I do.  

It was about ten years ago. 

I led the climb and got to the top where I found a nice piece of webbing wrapped around that prominent tree on the right.  I clipped in and was about to lean back when, I don't know why, I hesitated and looked more carefully.  

The webbing was not tied or hitched around the tree, just draped around the branch and stuck on the back in such a way that is looked like it fixed.  

That's not us in the picture, just another team on a different day. 

Check all those pieces of sling and webbing, count your blessings, and stay safe out there. 

Bruno Schull wrote:

The webbing was not tied or hitched around the tree, just draped around the branch and stuck on the back in such a way that is looked like it fixed.  

That's not us in the picture, just another team on a different day. 

Check all those pieces of sling and webbing, count your blessings, and stay safe out there. 

A guide in VT was not so lucky a couple years ago. Fell 50 feet and was terribly injured in an identical situation.  

My close call : My partner and I were at the top of a 5 pitch route about 10 years ago. We were climbing with double ropes and I tied them together with a stressed and dressed EDK for the rappell. For whatever reason, I left extra long tails , like 2 feet (usually I do about 16") . My partner rigged his rappell and leaned back to rap , and just as he did so I noticed he had set up on the tails of the rope, not the main strands. I grabbed him by the harness right when he was starting to rap. Another half second and he would have been dead. 

I did then, and I do now, observe my partners when setting up stuff like that. And I'm sure to not leave long tails like that, and put them out of the way when setting up to avoid any potential confusion. 

I am pretty good about checking the entire cord that goes around a tree for rodent chews or anything else.. We were rapping Mt Willard a few years ago and Isa clipped into a new looking sling on a tree and was just about to lean back on it when she realized it was not actually attached to the tree. somehow just hanging there... 

We were rap’n down Electric Lundyland and it was one of those scenarios where we should have saddle bagged the rope while repelling. Windy, all kinds of ledges and cracks for the rope to get into all kinds of tom foolery, as well as a bad rope toss on both ends. As I was rapping down trying to clean up the spaghetti mess of rope I decided to just pull up both rope ends and go for a cleaner toss. When I brought up one of the ends I noticed one of the barrel knots had come untied. First time I had ever seen that and glad it was caught as the rap down we just barely made it to the anchors. Have put a critical eye on the barrel knots from that day forward

Tried to lead Mr Misty Kiss when I was just breaking into the grade. Thought the crack looked pretty straight forward until I got on it. Then everything went wrong. I was having a hard time placing gear in the flared crack, after about 20ft of panicking I fidgeted in a questionable .2. Now I’m pumped and not trusting the small cam, went up another 10ft found a perfect placement for a .4, dropped it, freaked out and kept going up. Seriously pumped I stopped to place a #2. Now about 40ft off the deck with just a .2 halfway between me and the ground. I was so pumped that I was having a hard time clipping the rope. Feeling like I wasn’t going be be able to hold on any longer, I just took off for the hand crack another 15ft up. Didn’t even clip the #2. Made the hand crack, placed a #3, clipped it, topped out right after.

Seriously close call and I still think of that day often. I felt bad for putting myself, my partner, and everyone at the crag in that position. 

In this situation just grab the sling and make the clip.

Agreed. In hindsight there were so many things I could have done. I was just scared and not thinking straight. I learned a lot that day and from all the reflection after.

Two weeks ago I was rapping off a route and my partner had me on a fireman belay (this is usually how we do it, either one of us goes down first with a leg loop backup and then backs up the next person so that they don’t need to set up a third hand).

Anyways, I get to the anchor and rap past my partner so that the fireman belay is no longer affective!! I whizzed down a luckily short distance of five feet before coming to rest on a branch sticking out from a nearby ledge!!

Needless to say, next time I’ll just take a few extra second to backup my rappel, or at least remember not to rap past the person who has me on a fireman belay. Seriously glad to have another chance to try again!

Alejandro, a simple and efficient way to prevent this is for the first person down to fix the rope to the anchor (see the 2:50 mark for an example: https://youtu.be/6Xb0ajjlTis?si=4zZkZdvVVnOJ107H). This makes it impossible for the second to rappel past the anchor. It has secondary benefits of making it harder to accidentally let a knotted end of rope swing out of reach while at the anchor, and even safeguards against the second accidentally loading only one strand into their rappel device

Another trick (which only works if you use a third hand) is that the person who rapelled first keeps their third hand attached to the rope until their partner arrives. This is extremely simple and mitigates many problems.

Had a bit of a spooky one yesterday on a single pitch bolted route of all places.
The route follows a left-angling arete, and due to the length of the pitch, to reach the ground you must lower down to the left to reach a higher stance, giving the TR rope an A-shape. My partner led, clipped two extra-long quickdraws in the anchor bolts as usual, and then lowered down to the left, reaching the high ground with ~1' of rope to spare on our 80m. All good. Given the rope length (can't clean on lower), I followed to clean the gear on TR. 

I'm not sure precisely what happened or at what point things got weird, but just after cleaning the last bolt before the anchors I looked up to see the rope running to me over both anchor draws' gates in the exact 'backclip danger scenario' they make you demonstrate before a lead test. The quickdraws were also spun/stuck together in a way that I can't quite recall/recreate (one carabiner was somehow spun and passed through the gate of the other one). 

In any event, it was perfectly poised to unclip itself if I'd weighted the rope in a fall, but I scampered up the last of the route uneventfully, still shaken at the situation. 

I'm not quite sure what happened/how it was possible in the first place even with non-locking draws. My theories on the contributing factors:

• I think my partner clipped the left bolt before the right (with the route coming to the anchors from the right, and descending to the left) which added torque to the draws given the wide rope angle.
• We were using a stiff new rope that is still a bit loop/twist prone, which could've caused weirdly-angled (due to the twisty-ness) and strong (due to the stiffness) torque on the anchors
• To minimize rope drag were using long (22cm), floppy quickdraws that lacked the rigidity of stiff sport quickdraws, which probably allowed the torque to do weird things (I find those ultralight skinny quickdraws bump/twist themselves into weird situations way more often than my normal sport draws)
• The anchor bolts were uneven in height, so the tension on the bottom draw was low, allowing it to flop around (which is probably how it wedged itself into the upper draw).

Regardless of the ultimate cause, be careful out there and consider adding a locking draw to your sport repertoire if it isn't already. Climb enough and those 1-in-10,000 situations stop seeming so rare.

MattH wrote:

Had a bit of a spooky one yesterday on a single pitch bolted route of all places.
The route follows a left-angling arete, and due to the length of the pitch, to reach the ground you must lower down to the left to reach a higher stance, giving the TR rope an A-shape. My partner led, clipped two extra-long quickdraws in the anchor bolts as usual, and then lowered down to the left, reaching the high ground with ~1' of rope to spare on our 80m. All good. Given the rope length (can't clean on lower), I followed to clean the gear on TR. 

I'm not sure precisely what happened or at what point things got weird, but just after cleaning the last bolt before the anchors I looked up to see the rope running to me over both anchor draws' gates in the exact 'backclip danger scenario' they make you demonstrate before a lead test. The quickdraws were also spun/stuck together in a way that I can't quite recall/recreate (one carabiner was somehow spun and passed through the gate of the other one). 

In any event, it was perfectly poised to unclip itself if I'd weighted the rope in a fall, but I scampered up the last of the route uneventfully, still shaken at the situation. 

I'm not quite sure what happened/how it was possible in the first place even with non-locking draws. My theories on the contributing factors:

• I think my partner clipped the left bolt before the right (with the route coming to the anchors from the right, and descending to the left) which added torque to the draws given the wide rope angle.
• We were using a stiff new rope that is still a bit loop/twist prone, which could've caused weirdly-angled (due to the twisty-ness) and strong (due to the stiffness) torque on the anchors
• To minimize rope drag were using long (22cm), floppy quickdraws that lacked the rigidity of stiff sport quickdraws, which probably allowed the torque to do weird things (I find those ultralight skinny quickdraws bump/twist themselves into weird situations way more often than my normal sport draws)
• The anchor bolts were uneven in height, so the tension on the bottom draw was low, allowing it to flop around (which is probably how it wedged itself into the upper draw).

Regardless of the ultimate cause, be careful out there and consider adding a locking draw to your sport repertoire if it isn't already. Climb enough and those 1-in-10,000 situations stop seeming so rare.

Sounds scary for sure. But you could have mitigated the risk by one simple trick. When you get to the very last draw, clip the belayer’s side of the rope to the draw, then unclip your side. That way, while you’re on your way up to the anchor, you still have one draw as a backup.

This is a good practice to do all the time. It could’ve saved that woman from the mussy accident a few years back.

I think I borrowed this trick from Mark Dixon.

Greg D wrote:

Sounds scary for sure. But you could have mitigated the risk by one simple trick. When you get to the very last draw, clip the belayer’s side of the rope to the draw, then unclip your side. That way, while you’re on your way up to the anchor, you still have one draw as a backup.

This is a good practice to do all the time. It could’ve saved that woman from the mussy accident a few years back.

I think I borrowed this trick from Mark Dixon.

Good point! 

I contemplated downclimbing and doing exactly this once I saw the situation at the anchors, but I was already 5' above the bolt by the time I noticed. Further, the traversing nature of the climb's finish and the left-angling lowering/belaying position meant the belayer-side rope was out of reach ~15' left of me at that point, so it would've been a bit tricky to execute.

There was only one real move between me and the easy slabby traverse to the anchors, so I just pushed on after finding good holds to make the move, but that would've been the safer thing to do if I'd planned that from the get go.

MattH wrote:

Had a bit of a spooky one yesterday on a single pitch bolted route of all places.
The route follows a left-angling arete, and due to the length of the pitch, to reach the ground you must lower down to the left to reach a higher stance, giving the TR rope an A-shape. My partner led, clipped two extra-long quickdraws in the anchor bolts as usual, and then lowered down to the left, reaching the high ground with ~1' of rope to spare on our 80m. All good. Given the rope length (can't clean on lower), I followed to clean the gear on TR. 

I'm not sure precisely what happened or at what point things got weird, but just after cleaning the last bolt before the anchors I looked up to see the rope running to me over both anchor draws' gates in the exact 'backclip danger scenario' they make you demonstrate before a lead test. The quickdraws were also spun/stuck together in a way that I can't quite recall/recreate (one carabiner was somehow spun and passed through the gate of the other one). 

In any event, it was perfectly poised to unclip itself if I'd weighted the rope in a fall, but I scampered up the last of the route uneventfully, still shaken at the situation. 

I'm not quite sure what happened/how it was possible in the first place even with non-locking draws. My theories on the contributing factors:

• I think my partner clipped the left bolt before the right (with the route coming to the anchors from the right, and descending to the left) which added torque to the draws given the wide rope angle.
• We were using a stiff new rope that is still a bit loop/twist prone, which could've caused weirdly-angled (due to the twisty-ness) and strong (due to the stiffness) torque on the anchors
• To minimize rope drag were using long (22cm), floppy quickdraws that lacked the rigidity of stiff sport quickdraws, which probably allowed the torque to do weird things (I find those ultralight skinny quickdraws bump/twist themselves into weird situations way more often than my normal sport draws)
• The anchor bolts were uneven in height, so the tension on the bottom draw was low, allowing it to flop around (which is probably how it wedged itself into the upper draw).

Regardless of the ultimate cause, be careful out there and consider adding a locking draw to your sport repertoire if it isn't already. Climb enough and those 1-in-10,000 situations stop seeming so rare.

In response to your very last sentence, I always give my partner an alpine sling with a locker on one end and say "I don't care exactly what anchor you use, but make sure the rope goes through this locker." Sometimes i give them two alpines that each have a locker, but having at least one locker involved lets me feel OK about the anchor while I'm following. If the leader gives you shit, they may not have climbed long enough to judge the risks, no matter how strong they lead

Greg D wrote:

Sounds scary for sure. But you could have mitigated the risk by one simple trick. When you get to the very last draw, clip the belayer’s side of the rope to the draw, then unclip your side. That way, while you’re on your way up to the anchor, you still have one draw as a backup.

This is a good practice to do all the time. It could’ve saved that woman from the mussy accident a few years back.

I think I borrowed this trick from Mark Dixon.

Good idea, but this may not be an option if there’s some horizontal distance between the last bolt and anchor. OP described the top rope as an “A” shape, which makes me think maybe this good idea mightn’t be an option.