100 Foot Club

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Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

the secret topout on the Chockstone Chimney

Jan 3, 2012 - 08:53am PT

There are some horrendous stories in here. Palms are sweating for sure!

The one time I really tried for membership the ground came up way too soon and ended my bid. If I'd have made the club it would've been the last thing I ever did.

Keith Leaman

Trad climber

Seattle

Jan 3, 2012 - 09:42am PT

A fellow climber (Hoxie Smith) survived about a 300' slide/plunge off the top of the peak on the right - Kagevah - about 12 miles into the Winds after we (along with Pete Nichols) had summited a probable FA. On our descent, Hoxie slipped on the summits' nearly flat hardening snow late in the afternoon, slid about 50' and launched off a ridge top rock outcrop. After at least 100' of air time, he crashed onto a steeply sloped snowfield below, tumbled another 200' and finally came to rest wedged chest-deep, unconscious with broken bones and severe facial lacerations in a crevasse precariously perched (thankfully) on the lip of another 300' of vertical rock. The resultant rescue, and all-night hike out for air support, made for a long 30+ hr day.

ß Î Ø T Ç H

Boulder climber

bouldering

Dec 19, 2012 - 04:08pm PT

luh dis sh#t

Fossil climber

Trad climber

Atlin, B. C.

Dec 19, 2012 - 04:18pm PT

Snow counts? Okay. Fell about 150' on Glittertind in Norway in '49, stopped by some rocks. Superficial damage. Decided right then that if I was going to climb mountains I better learn how to do it right.

You never know the ultimate consequences of a mis-step.

jogill

climber

Colorado

Dec 19, 2012 - 06:19pm PT

Chouinard certainly belongs. He took a terrific free fall off the north face of the Crooked Thumb in the Tetons in the late 50s or early 60s. Can't remember exactly, other than Bob Kamps telling me Yvon fell through space past him in a swan dive and that he didn't even feel the rope pull tight, Yvon had so many pieces in.

;>)

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Dec 19, 2012 - 07:08pm PT

A couple I can think of-

One, on Down East on Cannon Cliff as one of my first 5.10 leads back in 1978-- from the nearly last move to the top of the pitch, all the way back down to the belay. Maybe not quite 100', but it sure seemed it!

Another on Sheep Ranch where it joins the Sea of Dreams, an A4 pitch. The Sea pitches, having been climbed more often, seemed quite easy in comparison to the pitches we had just done, so I was climbing fast trying to make the natural ledges below Cyclops Eye by dusk--it was our fifth pitch of the day. I put a big claw hook on a flake, looked solid, jumped up on it, and the whole dinner-plate size flake, about 2" thick, broke off. Ripped a couple rivets and definitely went for a 100'er stopping only metres above a slab, well below the belay. Thanks to my topheavy rack, I was fully upside down the whole way, then the rope came taught, and I recall grabbing the rack with one hand as it continued accelerating from my upside-down body into the abyss below. If another rivet had popped, my skull would have been cracked like an egg and toast. No helmets back in those days. Fired back up and finished the pitch in an hour, doing some real A4 to get around the broken flake (above which I would definitely hit the sloping ledge had I fallen). There was no time for fear.

Then there's the 400-footer off the bridge near Lee's Ferry, but that's another story...

BASE104

Social climber

An Oil Field

Dec 19, 2012 - 07:58pm PT

I'm famous for my huge whippers.

Oh yeah. On a slab. I lost about a yard of skin. One side of my ass and thigh skinned, my EB's worn through, every pad of my fingers and palms a scabby mess for days. You can read about it here:

http://wichitamountains.org/exposure1.html#anchor470997

It was awful. What saved me from total breakage was the belayer realing in fifty feet of rope while I was on the way down. The advantage of old hip belays.

mechrist

Gym climber

South of Heaven

Dec 19, 2012 - 08:02pm PT

I've fallen doing the last move of an epic proj and tapped the ground... but the route was only 40' tall... okay, it was 30' tall... but it had 6 bolts on it, so it seemed long...

Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Dec 20, 2012 - 01:36am PT

Down East on Cannon Cliff

Cool. I led to the same spot in 1976 or 77, but for some reason didn't whip. Very glad I didn't, as it was so far out from the gear. As I recall my partner fell following?

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Dec 20, 2012 - 02:32am PT

Mark (Base104)--that one certainly doesn't count as your longest whipper if you've jumped the big ones...

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Dec 20, 2012 - 04:42am PT

I seem to remember the Swan Slab slide in slow motion, the figure of JC floating out there above the tree limbs as I dropped, the ground flying up to almost meet me.

Broken left ankle, six or so weeks of cast and crutches, torn down jacket, that was a drop in the bucket compaared to that reckless Cochrane.

Shiite, Tom, you are sooooo lucky the Gong Flake co-operated! As it is, that particular one is a great "gee ain't climbing fun" story.

Gunkie

Trad climber

East Coast US

Dec 20, 2012 - 05:24am PT

"Hey, it's only 5.8."

Yeah, I told myself the exact same thing on the 2nd pitch of the Free Blast around 1990. I had a Gunks rack with the biggest piec a ..5 Friend placed 10 feet above the belay. My partner says "when in doubt, run it out." So I proceed to run the 5.8 pitch out until I mantle onto some small holds out right of the steadily widening crack. I was probably 60 feet out from my gear, had three ropes attached ("Hey, it's only 5.8."), and a water bottle because we were trying to fix a bunch of pitches right near the end of the day.

Fortunately, I finished the pitch without incident. Otherwise, I'd either have a story or not be able to tell it.

steveA

Trad climber

bedford,massachusetts

Dec 20, 2012 - 08:20am PT

Yes John,

While climbing with Ivon and T.M. in the Tetons in 1971, Ivon told me the fall was at least 100'.
Ivon introduced me to you as well, at the climbers ranch, but I'm sure you don't remember it- good times!