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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 5, 2009 - 04:57pm PT
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Preface for the idly curious:
The Friday after the accident my wife decided I had to get out of the house and we went out to dinner with friends. She’d told them what had happened. Linda’s 92 year old mother was there with her new “boyfriend”. He had a Marine Corps hat on and I started up a conversation. Turns out he is one of, “The Old Breed” a member of the First Division and a veteran of Peleliu, Guadalcanal, and Okinawa. I told him I now knew why combat vets never spoke much. No more words were spoken. None were needed. We both understood that we were unwilling members of the same club, we’d watched a friend die.
So when you ask “what happened?” either out of a genuine desire to learn something or for the titillation of an exciting story, remember this; you are forcing merely by asking, someone to again relive the worst seconds of their life. I only “owe” answers to Tia, Woody Jr, Karen, Marye, and Al no one else.
Why did it happen?
It was clear to me immediately after the incident that what had happened was that Al was only anchored by the knot that was pulled up to tie off the slack on the trail rope, with sixty feet of slack, not the six feet he assumed. Why this happened is the seminal question. Discussing the details, mechanics and timeline will only obscure the lesson to be learned. There will be other accidents like this one and the mechanics will be completely different. Dwelling on them is a pointless distraction useful only for titillation. Don’t bother asking!
Every event like this involves the dynamic between two or more people. It doesn’t just happen to us. The air transport industry has spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars studying accidents with a similar pattern. Two people each with decades of experience did a whole series of things wrong. Analyzing in detail what went down up there, how the personalities jived and communication broke down would be a futile exercise also other than to say this; This was the kind of mix up that you’d expect in the dark, in a storm on a big mountain not on a sunny afternoon in Joshua Tree. The need to rush was self imposed and unnecessary, but that was only one initiating factor. Also the details of what happened up there can never be accurately known. The trauma played with Al’s memory and he clearly has no memory of things I know he saw, heard and spoke so his recounting of any details can not be relied upon until at some point he recovers completely, if that ever happens.
Woody died and Al got hurt and will have to live with the consequences because they both lost their religion. Here’s what I mean; When we climb we have a whole liturgy of little rituals that we follow to stay safe. With most of us these eventually become so instinctive that they are almost a nervous tic. None of us were sticking to the ritual that day.
Woody’s liturgy was old school, based on the stance, he didn’t make Al sit down. He was also rushing things and never checked the anchor.
Al was likely was confused by the pile of rope and the rush. He also never load checked his anchor point or his harness tie in.
I had my own contribution, I didn’t insist like I normally would that Al tie into the trail rope instead of clipping it to the trail loop, lulled into a false sense of security by a full strength trail loop. (The only reason Al isn’t dead also!) He might have noticed what was going on if it had been in front instead of out of sight out of mind.
There’s an old saying “Familiarity breeds contempt.”
It also fathers complacency.
Complacency kills.
The lesson is simple!
Make a religion out of ALL those little rituals keep us alive like aircrews make a religion of their check lists.
Check your knot and your partners, load check that anchor before committing, hold the same reverence for standard commands and procedures that you would for a prayer, and if something is making you uncomfortable don’t let age, experience or status keep you from speaking up.
The Park Service and the aftermath;
The handling of the accident scene by Melanie was the height of professionalism and sensitivity as was Michelle’s from the SB coroners office. The performance of the office staff something altogether different. The press release was clearly something fabricated from whole cloth. There was no ripped gear, no pulled bolts, no one leading. This initial false report was re-quoted, embellished and re-reported several times compounding the damage. Melanie took written statements from both me, and Matt Spohn, who went up to cut down Al. Evidently no one bothered to read them before going public. To compound maters the investigating officer would not return calls from those, (including myself) trying to correct the record. To my knowledge, Al as never been interviewed. In other words, the bureaucracy apparently went into CYA mode. As a mater of policy, the Park Service should adopt the same protocol as the Coroners Office. Press releases should only state names, times and locations until a review by experienced competent investigators in full position of all the facts. The rumors never needed to start.
There was also some confusion due to the rope and gear that belonged to Mark that was used to get Al down being left up. Several first responders insisted that it be left as “evidence” even though it wasn’t. People were taking notes, but again these notes evidently didn’t end up in the right hands. This led to the JSAR preliminary report also being wrong. They were notified via back channels of this error, but again no one has contacted either Al or myself in an official capacity for correction of the record.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing..
Out, out brief candle! 10 a/b X 2005
This is one of Woody’s routes only a few feet from where he died.
Why did I bring it up?
Only because it will be too easily become a misinterpreted legend given the events and no one else has heard the story. You see Woody gave it the name because he thought it was one of the, “dumbest things I ever did”. A route he would never repeat or suggest to others. He thought that route a “tale told by an idiot”.
When I reflect on the game we play it is “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”! a selfish addiction. We will remember Woody as a pioneer, local legend and hard ass climber. His true legacy is Tia and Woody Jr., the thousands of now adults that either remember him as the best teacher or the toughest that shaped their lives, and the hundreds of friends whose lives he enriched. Woody was a big rock tossed in the pond of life. He didn’t make ripples, he made waves. Those waves will slowly become ripples will continue to reflect far into the future.
The other speculations:
No one was drinking or smoking that day. My beer was in the cooler in the truck next to Woody’s diet Pepsi.
© Wendell Smith or Tia Stark all rights reserved.
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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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Thanks and let it be in peace
Peace
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
Nowhere
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Thanks for posting it, but for me it raises more questions than answers.
"There was no ripped gear, no pulled bolts, no one leading."
If Woody was not leading, where was his tie-in? Did he fall from the top of the route, after completing his lead? If so, what happened to his gear and anchor?
Why did one of the responders report that Woody was not tied into the rope?
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 5, 2009 - 05:26pm PT
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Go write your own then!
Because I untied Woody to get Al on the rock and keep him from strangling.
All these details are in my official written statement.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Wendell,
Are you saying that you don't mind discussing "Why it happened", but it bothers you to describe "What happened"?
One problem with this is that most of us can't understand the Why part without a good description of What.
From previous posts, it sounds like you wrote a report, and perhaps reviewed it with Tia and Woody Jr., but Al is unable to verify parts of it. Is this correct? Does this make you reluctant to release it?
[Edit: ] There's no need for you to answer the above questions. Given your description and locker's further details in this thread, I understand the details now.
I'm sorry this has been such a source of pain for you, and I appreciate your efforts to help us with The Lesson.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Thank you TGT!
can we leave it at that? move along folks, nothing else to see...
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dmalloy
Trad climber
eastside
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thank you, Wendell, for sharing what you have taken away from this unbelievably painful time. I hope that being forced to think back over, and share, the events of that day will in the end be cathartic, and a part of the healing process. I feel certain that it does not feel that way right now.
On one of the other overposted threads, someone mentioned that incident reports of this type are not normally written by those who are emotionally involved in the incident. Those of us who wish to understand the causes of this incident - and I will not even attempt to sort out whether that wish comes from a desire for titillation, or a desire to avoid similar mistakes in our own climbing - will need to wait for a more objective and complete analysis. Until that analysis is produced, we all ought to stop pushing.
EDIT - "can we leave it at that?" Frankly, and with all due respect, no, we cannot. While we can appreciate Wendell's effort, he does not attempt to lay out any details of the situation beyond what occurred with Al's anchor. But that does not mean we have a right to demand details from any particular source or on any particular schedule.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Amen Jay!
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TYeary
climber
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Thanks Wendell.
RIP Woody
Time to let it go, my friends.
Tony
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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You don't get this, do you Onyx, the official report is long gone. The most succinct description is just above, okay? can we let it go?
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Mimi
climber
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TGT, very sorry for your loss. Best of luck in the ensuing fracas.
I'm busy crosschecking the code in your text for the subliminal messages about the grassy knoll.
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Anastasia
climber
Not here
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I understand. No one chooses to make a mistake that ends with such tragedy. Neither will playing a blame game make things right. Living with tragedy is hard enough without other's getting involved.
I feel for everyone...
Sending Love,
AF
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Mimi
climber
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Thanks Locker. God bless.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Group hug
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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you have to ask?
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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> they BOTH fell because Al was LOWERING Woody and NEITHER was ATTACHED to the ANCHOR...
>
> Woodys weight took Al over...
>
> Get it???...
Yes. This is the last of the missing pieces of the puzzle - thank you for telling us.
Thank you, locker. - For answering the questions that are painful for Wendell to answer.
And thank you Wendell, too - for sharing what you are able to.
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darod
Big Wall climber
South Side Billburg
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thanks locker.
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Mimi
climber
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No point taking that on, Locker. That's being pretty hard and unfair to yourself.
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Russ Walling
Social climber
Upper Fupa, North Dakota
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Thanks Locker.... Completely plausible and understandable.
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