Best way to take a grounder?
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Sorry if this kind of a morbid question, but here goes: Assuming a flat landing and the ability to twist in the air to fall as you want, what would be the best way to take, for example, a 30 or 40 foot grounder? |
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Best way to take a grounder, hmmm |
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one second of free fall equals 16 feet. 2 seconds of free fall equals 64 feet. Not likely you'll have much choice/time. But, if you do, legs, feet, ankles kind of dispensable. Head, heart, lungs etc, not so much. I witnessed and rescued a fifteen footer. Butt and hand contacted ground first. Two crushed vertibrae and shattered wrist. 16 hour rescue. |
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Yes, sacrifice the extremities to save your torso & squash. Fractures of the calcanei (heels), tibial plateaus (knees), and femurs are no joke and may land you in the surgical ICU for a while. However, you are more likely to survive these injuries than if you were to land in a way that directly loaded your chest, belly, pelvis, head, or neck. |
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I would agree with what is said so far on saving internals. I have been "falling" ever since learning to skateboard. One of the main things that separates the ones that go big from the other is the ability to "bail" if going big doesn't work. I think it works the same for climbing. I have been climbing for a few years and have learned to apply the same falling technique to bouldering/climbing with ground fall. It is where you land on your feet [preferably somewhat balanced] and slowly cushion the shock and roll. It worked for many years until I finally landed unbalanced and cracked my fibula. I landed unbalanced because I have always chosen to push myself off when I knew I was going to fall, this time I popped off. Now falling isn't an option. |
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Land on feet, but don't absorb the fall evenly on both legs, let one collapse at a greater rate, so you roll onto your side. Your side can absorb quite a hit and the spine is less exposed, your arm can help cushion your rib cage, and your face and back of head are more protected. |
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use a crashpad. |
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Christian, |
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Do what every other American does & take it up the |
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ALWAYS try to land on a cheerleader. |
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Well thanks for all the gallows humor but believe it or not it was actually was a serious question and no I don't intend to experiment hehe. Just a natural question that came to mind when trying harder (for me) trad routes. If it's not obvious from the ground I try to get beta on the what the pro is like first. |
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The obvious answers aside, I think it depends on your idea of best. Best survival would be to take it onto your legs and away from your vitals as best as possible. As far as most pleasant death, well, I've been given the advice "fall head first" |
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Entertaining topic. |
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Wear a haul bag full of shit. I took a 150 free fall after my rappel failed. I remember seeing green grass, blue sky, green grass, blue sky...then I landed on my back on a ledge big enough for three tents before being pitched off of that due to my momentum. I was conscious enough to see the rope dangling next to me when I landed and grabbed it and hung on for dear life. I stopped before hitting the ground again but not without a broken heel and rope burns almost to the bone on 9 fingers and my right arm. The haul bag took all the impact and since it was overhead I had no neck injury. |
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I'm with Stu on this subject. All of this speculation is a waste of time. I hit the deck from almost forty feet up, while freesoloing, and there was no time to orient anything except to push away from the wall so that I didn't snag a foot and get inverted. Beyond that, you just hope for the best. |
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Look up Parachute Landing Fall. From wikipedia, the source of all knowledge: |
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Mark McCartan wrote:Look up Parachute Landing Fall. From wikipedia, the source of all knowledge: A Parachute Landing Fall is a safety technique devised to reduce the incidence of injury for those deploying a parachute. A PLF distributes the landing shock along the five points of contact: 1) balls of feet, 2) side of calf, 3) side of thigh, 4) side of hip, and 5) side of back ("push-up muscle"). During a PLF, the jumper's chin is tucked, and the risers are grasped in an arm-bar protecting the face and throat and the elbows tucked into the sides to prevent injury. The PLF is executed in one of six directions (left front, left side, left rear, right front, right side, right rear), depending on the direction of drift of the jumper, terrain, wind, and oscillation. With repeated practice PLFs into a sawdust pit from an approximately 1-meter platform, parachutists can learn to automatically make make smooth PLFs with a reflex action. Experienced paratroopers can naturally assume a PLF position when taking an accidental fall and have reduced or prevented injuries. I have two friends who have been through military parachute training and subsequently took sizeable grounders while climbing. The first took about a 65 footer onto flat ground and cracked two vertebrae, and was climbing again in 6 months. He said as soon as he realized he would be taking the grounder he immediately set up to PLF, and says it probably saved his life. The second friend didn't believe that the first would have had his wits about him enough to PLF, as many of you say that a person wouldn't. However, he then took a 25 foot grounder onto a flat frozen river while ice climbing and said that he did the exact same thing - he performed a PLF, and he walked away and climbed later that day. Not my personal experience, but two friends who had both been trained to PLF, and who both say it saved them injury and maybe saved the life of the first. Both had practiced the PLF many times in their training, all just from a 3 foot platform, but they both said that when they were falling it's just how they naturally reacted. Food for thought...I can't speak for Stu, but I am not suggesting that you can't have your wits about you. I was aware enough to push away from the wall. Also, falling in a controlled sky jump is different than in a climbing fall. Skydivers have lots of time to prepare for their landings, and, when base jumping, it is all about the landing. When you are climbing, your attention is devoted to making movements that will keep you on the wall, so when you fall, you are likely not to be fully prepared for it and in the proper orientation. And if you are preoccupied with how you will fall, then you won't be focused on climbing. The two are very different. |
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The second friend had his tool rip unexpectedly while he was placing an ice screw, he wasn't prepared for it or oriented at all, but he says that he reacted the same way regardless, kicking out from the ice, landing on his feet and doing a PLF. |
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I will agree with you in that any preventative training is better than not having it. More technique is always better, IMO. The problem is that this type of training is expensive and extensive - maybe to the degree that most climbers wouldn't bother with it. |
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True |
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Been climbing 35 years and I believe the PLF is quite worthwhile learning, and does not take expensive training. My jump instructor had ridden a double streamer into the ground and lived to jump again. I fell off many bouldering problems without injury before the advent of pads due to the shock-absorbing fold-up & roll you do in the PLF. I am confident that the only times I injured myself bouldering was when I was unable to perform a good PLF due to weird and uncontrolled body attitudes upon returning to terra firma. Only twice: broken calcaneous and sprained ankle. I have hit the ground so hard from 20' people thought it was gunfire. It hurt but I was uninjured. |