Whats the longest fall you took wearing a Swami Belt?

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john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 13, 2007 - 09:54pm PT

Whats the longest fall you took ,or witnessed , and what were the results?

Any stories?

Nohea

Trad climber

Aiea,Hi

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:01pm PT

No school for you tomorrow! Or are you not on the BI?

Yea Would love to hear some good swami tales.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:11pm PT

As Russ Walling would say:
"long enough to know better"

Jeepers, maybe 30-40 feet.
I took some pretty good whippers in the Needles of California doing new routes. Might be some stories there...

klk

Trad climber

cali

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:30pm PT

Freewheelin, June 81 [?] really cool route, it had t-stormed the day before so was entirely chalk free, but the storms had washed down a fine layer of gravel that collected on the ledges. I was finishing the last pitch before it rejoins Quicksilver. I got through the five.ten wearing my Paragots that i'd bought off a French guy the week before (10 bucks--awesome shoes). I'm pulling up to the belay ledge and there's ball bearings on everything, so very carefully I step out right onto a big edge and crank up.

The edge breaks and I pitch, grabbing at the ball bearings. I go ten feet. Then fifteen. Then twenty. And it hits me--my belayer, Karl, thought I was on the ledge so he took me off belay. I was sure I was dropped.

Funny thing is, it didn't seem like a big deal. I twisted around and picked out the first ledge I was going to grab and then, because I figured I was going to fast too stop with one try, the next three or four or five ledges that I would grab in turn, calculating how I'd bounce. If that failed, I was even picking out where I was going to land in the talus and how I would aim for which pieces. It all seemed like it was under control.

Then the rope grabbed and I boinged up and down like a yo-yo after maybe fifty feet. Nice catch on a body belay. No pain, no panic.

We finished the route w/o problems. But I have had two bad falls on a swami and both (not surprisingly) were short, nasty, and brutish. They don't make good stories.

WBraun

climber

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:31pm PT

I saw Warbler catch Dale on catchy with rope around his waist.

Let me see? Dale flies far and Warbler gets nice long red tattoo around him.

john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2007 - 10:34pm PT

Good thing I stay on the north end of da Big Island,, looks like south end might get it pretty good. Hope it dosent hook north like Iniki did.

Largo

Sport climber

Venice, Ca

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:37pm PT

Fifty feet. Aid fall on a new route (The Watchtower, Sequoa). I put in a bolt after that. Longest fall I ever took. Scrapped my arm but no problem otherwise. Bummer I had to beat all that mank back into the crack to reach the high point.

JL

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:46pm PT

I suspect Yvon Chouinard has the record; 160 feet, as I recall, on the North Face of the Crooked Thumb, Teewinot, 1959. Belayed by Bob Kamps (a hip belay, of course). The route was finally completed in 1966 by Pete Cleveland and Don Storjohann, who I'm sure were both equipped with swami belts but had the good sense not to fall on them.

john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2007 - 10:51pm PT

I had a friend who always used a swami into the mid 80's, had the white pants and the long sleeved red and white striped polo shirt with a pair of RR's and everything. But I never saw him fall. He always said it was a good incentive to not get yourself into a position where you might plummet.

When did swami's fade out.,,I cant imagine you guys used em on the first 'Nose in a Day'.. how about it largo?

And just to beat somebody to it..

"I saw a guy fall twenty feet once , while I was wearing a swami"

nature

climber

Flagstaff, AZ

Aug 13, 2007 - 10:51pm PT

klk - whoa! my palms are sweating.

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Aug 13, 2007 - 11:13pm PT

The trick, by the way, for swami belts was to wrap them around your hips just above the hip bone. In the iron age, everyone had a hammer holster on their dominant side and the swami belt went right under that and was held down by it. Fall impacts to the hip area were not bad at all. Having a swami belt around your waist and falling on it was a totally different experience.

Karl Baba

Trad climber

Yosemite, Ca

Aug 13, 2007 - 11:26pm PT

KLK wrote
"..Freewheelin, June 81 [?] really cool route, it had t-stormed the day before so was entirely chalk free, but the storms had washed down a fine layer of gravel that collected on the ledges. I was finishing the last pitch before it rejoins Quicksilver. I got through the five.ten wearing my Paragots that i'd bought off a French guy the week before (10 bucks--awesome shoes). I'm pulling up to the belay ledge and there's ball bearings on everything, so very carefully I step out right onto a big edge and crank up.

The edge breaks and I pitch, grabbing at the ball bearings. I go ten feet. Then fifteen. Then twenty. And it hits me--my belayer, Karl, thought I was on the ledge so he took me off belay. I was sure I was dropped... "

Dang, funny, I feel within 3 feet of that exact spot a few years later. Knocked out half of one of my front teeth. (my worst climbing injury thank God) 35 feet upside down and backwards.

Ballbearings, They suck on runout routes!

I went back for revenge many years later but when I got to clip the bolt that caught that fall, it was gone. If found the broken off rusted stump of it after looking very carefully. Guess we weren't the only one's pitching off that one.

Like you, I was one move away from thinking "the hard stuff's done on this climb"

Peace

Karl

Largo

Sport climber

Venice, Ca

Aug 13, 2007 - 11:35pm PT

"When did swami's fade out.,,I cant imagine you guys used em on the first 'Nose in a Day'.. how about it largo?"

Sure did. No leg loops, even. On some of those pitches up high (jugging a free line) I was hanging out in space and totally on my waiste/swami. That fricking blew. I got leg loops, basically the next day, and never went back.

I think most all the early ascents of El Cap and other walls were done using swaimi belts (1" webbing - I used the thicker 2"), possibly using a "Swiss Seat" here and there. I suspect (don't know) on the first ascent of both Half Dome and the Nose, guys tied straight into the goldline. That's pretty rugged.

JL

john hansen

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 13, 2007 - 11:45pm PT

Now that,, is cool.

I'm sure Chicken Skinner would love to have that for the museum someday, Mr Largo. You still got that thing stashed away somewhere?

Roger Breedlove

climber

Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Aug 13, 2007 - 11:47pm PT

Probably 8 feet, on a Bates route. Enough to scare the sh#t out of me. Oh, and on a stunt fall for a movie--hurt like hell.

klk

Trad climber

cali

Aug 13, 2007 - 11:49pm PT

Karl--That bolt is gone? Guess I won't head back up this fall!

Rgold--Back in the early 20th c, most technical manuals told folks that the key to a safe swami was wearing it high on the chest, just under the armpits-- that way, if you fell and hung, you were less likely to suffocate.

I did all my trs in a swami, as well as leads. I suspect a lot of folks on this site did. Everyone thought that they were safer than harnesses, because they attached above the cog and therefore were less likely to tip you upside down (and induce massive head injuries) in a fall.

Tarbuster

climber

right here, right now

Aug 13, 2007 - 11:49pm PT

I was still using a 2 inch Swami all the way through 1987.
Super comfy!

Here's Lechlinski showing how it's done:

It was a good look:

Last photo, the best in the series by far, by Chiloe