Every Climber Should Read This

What happens on a bad day of climbing; eloquently reported by Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad.com.

Click here: Semi-Rad

Good, sobering read.
Be safe out there.

Well written article.

It was great to see Peter's Dad and Sister respond in the comment section. This is what community is all about.

It is reassuring to know the Climbing Community is composed of good people willing help. Let it be our common bond.

great read

My wife and I had plans to climb this route in April, cant decide if i want to show her this article or not... Either way it was a good accident report.

Danger-Russ Gordon wrote:My wife and I had plans to climb this route in April, cant decide if i want to show her this article or not... Either way it was a good accident report.

ummm...probably not.

Danger-Russ Gordon wrote:My wife and I had plans to climb this route in April, cant decide if i want to show her this article or not... Either way it was a good accident report.

bad idea! I found out my wife (who isn't registered here) occasionally reads the accidents forum here LOL

fair enough, sounds like I'll leave this article alone, and just be extra careful

Ok my head hurts from banging it on THIS wall: Get some fricken first aid training people! You don't need to become a paramedic, just the basics will carry you a loooong way. Do it for your partner if not for your own bad self. Or even better, do it for someone I hope you never get to meet.

I didn't read into anything inappropriately done as far as rescue or medical care. This isn't a situation where just one person can solve it if they had all the medical training on the planet.

Realizing the limitations of the situation at hand is probably the biggest plus someone can takeaway here.

thanks for posting this.

Rick Mix wrote:Ok my head hurts from banging it on THIS wall: Get some fricken first aid training people! You don't need to become a paramedic, just the basics will carry you a loooong way. Do it for your partner if not for your own bad self. Or even better, do it for someone I hope you never get to meet.

As a paramedic (7 years, 9 years total in EMS) I laugh at statements like this. Without any equipment there is little if anything you are going to do in terms of treatment that average person wouldn't already know- try to limit movement and control bleeding. I know people feel this way because they want to help, there just isn't much to do without the proper equipment. It'd be much better to practice rescue techniques to get the guy down faster than waiting for them to get to you.

Buff Johnson wrote:I didn't read into anything inappropriately done as far as rescue or medical care. This isn't a situation where just one person can solve it if they had all the medical training on the planet. Realizing the limitations of the situation at hand is probably the biggest plus someone can takeaway here.

I never said having med training was the end-all solution. My point is that so many of us out there climbing or whatever have no training of any kind and still pursue these activities.

NickinCo: I'm EMT-P for 25 years and I'm sorry my statement made you laugh. Certainly wasn't meant to. You ought to know that even without any gear having some basic knowledge will at the least put a rescuers mind at ease. And there's such a thing as WFA that teaches improvisation.

Rick Mix wrote: I never said having med training was the end-all solution. My point is that so many of us out there climbing or whatever have no training of any kind and still pursue these activities. NickinCo: I'm EMT-P for 25 years and I'm sorry my statement made you laugh. Certainly wasn't meant to. You ought to know that even without any gear having some basic knowledge will at the least put a rescuers mind at ease. And there's such a thing as WFA that teaches improvisation.

I don't mean to argue with you, I meant that the things you could do most people see as common sense, like when they didn't let him get up. More importantly how many people can escape a belay and lower someone off safely if the situation calls for it, etc. I believe this requires more attention then medical training and it's lacking by probably greater than 50% of people that climb multipitch. In the end both are good ideas.

Right on Man! And you're absolutely correct about rescue practice/training! And again you don't need to be HART certified, just some basics.

I guess my problem is that after a lifetime in the outdoors it continues to bug me how many people pursue 'extreme' sports with no idea of what to do when the ca-ca flies. And the present-day mind says "I'll just turn on my SPOT or whatever and help's on the way!".

Your long bones are approx 17 times harder to break horizontally then vertically so its all in the landing.

Danger-Russ Gordon wrote:My wife and I had plans to climb this route in April, cant decide if i want to show her this article or not... Either way it was a good accident report.

Just start early and don't climb under any other parties, and be well ahead of anyone riding up your asses. That way you'll be relaxed and focused and minimize the risk of rocks falling on your rope (or you) and won't feel rushed (I'm suspecting Peter experienced a pressure to move quickly and misjudged the gear placement and/or climbing moves). Better yet, climb North Chimney - way better route.

johnnyrig wrote:Thankyou for the report. Gives a little perspective to things. I haven't led anything harder than a .7, and you'd all consider me a noob; but i do practice my rescue skills including belay escape, and I do have cpr. Next on my list is learning pickoffs. Then a wilderness 1st aid class. Why stand there wondering wtf to do?

good for you, I challenge you to keep up with it throughout your climbing career then! I think a lot of newbies have their shit together, it's the 3rd-5th year climbers that scare me the most. Enough experience to feel invincible, but probably haven't reviewed any rescue stuff since learning to climb.

One of the main points I took home from WFR was that CPR is pretty useless in the wilderness.

Great read, loved the stream of consciousness stuff.

Good to see that nobody died.

That being said... he broke my RULE #1

#1... don't hang on gear if its failure will deck you.

Learn to down climb and /or place extra pieces when near the ground.

I can't count the number of deaths and serious injuries that happen this way.