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dogtown
Trad climber
Cheyenne, Wyoming and Marshall Islands atoll.
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Oct 14, 2014 - 05:37pm PT
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Forty foot or so maybe? over and over and over agian as I layed Siege to Something You're Not. Suicide Rock. Maybe not the longest ever but for sure the most falls.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Oct 14, 2014 - 05:39pm PT
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Not my fall but you might enjoy this.
THE GUILLOTINE
I was 16 or 17 (1974) and still in high school when this took place. We were up at Suicide, I was there with Randy V. and Spencer L, We were over on the North side and somehow Randy ended up belaying this guy "Bill" on the Guillotine. I'm not sure how they hooked up but back then we would just troll around and get belays from anyone and everyone at the crags. The scene was small and we knew most everyone .Anywho, Bill was on the lead with RV belaying. Bill was not solid but he was driven to advance his climbing skills. It could have been the first time we met Bill.
Spencer and I were sitting down and to the right slightly from the belay ledge which is a bit above the talus, as you guys know. Bill was shaky but kept advancing up the climb in spurts. He was having trouble placing pro and a couple pieces were placed blindly from a lieback position. At some point he started running it out, he was a ways up at that point. We watched with increasing nervousness as he got farther and farther out there. At one point he came to a fixed pin and was so sketched that he put his finger through the eye while trying to compose himself. By now, those of us on the ground were starting to freak out a bit. Randy was standing in the most ready hip belay position possible and Bill had everyone’s attention for 50 yards in both direction with his panicked moans, whimpering and yelps.
RV [He had a hex or other piece of gear about 15 feet below the roof (deep behind the "flake"). The fall Bill was facing would be long and likely cause him to swing into the flake, risking (at least it seemed to me) being sliced by the flake. Fortunately(?!), this piece pulled when he fell and he headed pretty much down the clean slab to the right of the flake. The next piece -- the one you mention next...]
It was clear that his last piece was dangerously near his halfway point, rendering a ground fall a distinct probability or worse. Spencer and I moved over to Randy’s position to assist with the belay if possible. The plan was to fling off the ledge and run downhill if Bill blew. It seemed like the only way to prevent the catastrophic event which seemed inevitable. Bill couldn’t clip the pin and just decided to go for it. You know how there are some sucker flakes that tempt the leader to abandon the main flake and go right? Well, that’s what he did, he launched out right into no-man’s land.
He made a several completely desperate undercling moves and BOOM, he was off! I looked up to see his body silhouetted against the sky and lazy coils of rope drifting down with him. Randy was yarding in rope like a madman, like someone’s life depended on it because, well…….it did! I can’t remember if they went with the fling and run, Randy would.
The sound was horrendous. He screamed and he hit the rock several times emptying his lungs. There were the ugly sounds of an accelerating mass ripping through the air like a rock falling and people screaming in the background. I might have been one of them.
(RV- he screamed and fell, stopped screaming and realized he was still falling and screamed again)
RV- (We all later joked that Bill had fallen so far, he had time to scream twice -- funny, yet true).
When he stopped he was inches from the ground.
RV-(absolutely true -- but it may have been 18-24 inches. What was amazing was that his fall line and where he stopped were free of ledges and boulders at the base).
The Riverside Mtn. Rescue Group was there practicing and before we knew it they had him strapped into the Stokes litter and he was out of there.
RV-(I recall that we may have quipped -- probably before the fall (MHU), but I'd like to think that it was after -- that Bill had picked the perfect day to die in complete safety).
He was basically unhurt and I think he was even back in Humber that evening.
RV-(Absolutely true -- and drank more than a couple beers too).
He went on to have several more famous big ones. Years later he told me about soloing the East Face of
Whitney and getting off route on 5.9 and almost dying again. The sad thing was he died soloing the Nose in bad conditions years later. He dropped the bag with his bivvy gear, sleeping bag etc. from near El Cap Tower but continued anyway. A bad storm came in and he died of hypothermia just below the top.
My memory of the famous day may not be 100% accurate but it’s pretty close. Randy and I reminisced about it fairly recently.
Footnote: When I soloed the South Face of the Column later the same year the only rope I could find around Camp 4 to borrow was the rope Bill fell on. Due to a mistake I made high on the South Face at one point I was facing a 300 foot fall with Bill’s rope clipped to the back of my harness! I was linking two pitches and was trying to stretch the rope to the stance, I untied the backup knot and unbeknownst to me it slipped through my Robbin’s style self belay setup. I was climbing the last 15-20 feet to the stance and looked down to see no lead rope, just a few lonely pieces of pro and the haul rope dangling below me. I was very careful on those last moves to the stance.
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rmuir
Social climber
From the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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Oct 15, 2014 - 06:55am PT
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The "omitted" photo from up-thread taken during the first ascent of The Muir Trail on Flying Circus.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
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Dave, I'm kinda wondering how your memory is doing or how history get's reshaped through the years (consider Figures on a Landscape)?
As I corrected in another recent thread, I (Not RV) was belaying Acapulco Bill (Houghton) after the Emerson's drove us all out to the crags. Randy showed up at the base and sat with me during the increasingly nervewracking belay.
Bill was obviously confused, scared and disoriented during his epic lead and ended up grabbing several pieces of gear while completely failing to clip them. He was moving further and further off route.
Predictibly Bill skidded into space while Randy and I urgently yarded huge amounts of rope around my hip belay. By the time bill had stopped, RV and I had pulled at least 50 feet around my back, and Bill had taken only a meager 120 footer (before stopping inches above an ugly ledge).
Luckily the Riverside Search and Rescue team were practicing nearby and immediately came up, cut his rope and ambulatad him to the hospital.
RV and went off to climb another route.
I guess you were there too Dave (according to your earlier post).
My longest fall: 40 footer, pulling all three pieces between myself and the belayer and both of us ended up hanging on only two fixed pins (the only pieces we had left).....on Pinky Paralysis in Yosemite
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covelocos
Trad climber
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I took a 30' upside down, eyes wide open ride from the last half move of the elephants butt on Illusion Dweller. New leader, nothing in the roof (a shiny #3 that I was told 'would go in somewhere...'out right of the jug) and my brother belaying and unable to see. He thought I was clipping and yarded out two armloads of rope!
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MikeL
Social climber
Seattle, WA
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I suppose you have to be alive to answer this question.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona
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Once upon a time, my partner and I decided that fear of falling was a limiting factor to our climbing, so we decided to do practice falls using a top rope anchored to a tree branch. We got out our oldest, most trashed rope, and started jumping. We worked up to some pretty good falls. It's a pretty effective exercise, IMO.
The funny part was that some of my longest falls were taken intentionally on the worst rope I could find. The were low impact, though.
Longest fall on a route must have been around 20 feet. No problemo, it was into the air.
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Ugh - probably a sport climbing fall gunning for chainz, lol.
Actually, real talk, I fell almost the whole distance at Mesa Rim early on using a thin rope. So yeah, my longest fall is probably 25-30 feet in a gym. bwahaha.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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On MC-1 on Dali Dome at Christmas Tree Pass. I was past the second bolt some good distance, all those slabs are run out there. I came off and started sliding down. Watched the second bolt go by, which was expected, then saw the first bolt go by. Oh, oh. Something had gone wrong on the belay. Somehow the belay came under control again. It was 30-40 feet.
That started the downward spiral in my climbing.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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30ish feet on the crux of Nosedive in the Gunks. Wacked my heel hard on the ledge on rope stretch.
Critical piece - a blue Alien with a Yates screamer which blew about 1/2 of it. Apparently a "good" Alien(not the headless variety that was en vogue at the time)...
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steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
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Perhaps 150 ft. on an early ascent of the Prow-solo, April, 1971.
I thought it was he 2nd ascent, but perhaps not.
I zippered an entire A4 pitch, to the single 1/4 belay bolt, Robbins placed.
It was a very steep section which was lucky for me, since I didn't hit anything.
John Dill, ( before becoming involved with Yosar),), was watching me in a spotting scope, and when I fell, he yelled to others, and Donini and Mark Clemens came running over to take a look.
The reason I fell so far was due to my stupidity. I had tied many nest of stacked pitons off with nylon shoe-lace cord. I wanted to reduce the leverage, by tying them off real close, but wasn't thinking of the shoe-lace cord limited strength.
When I pulled a pin, in an expanding flake, (stupid me),
just before reaching the bolted belay, all the shoe-lace cord failed, leaving most of the stacked pins behind.
When I went back up, most of the nested pitons were still in place. I still remember that fall, 43 years ago.
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Fogarty
climber
BITD
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This was posted on an old topic.
What was your longest whipper !
260+ Feet on pitch 14 Tangerine Trip in 1984 With Tracy Dorton, This was a earlier ascent of this now trade route. This pitch starts very simple I back cleaned to The first rivet, I forgot The 1/4 inch nuts at my tent, I thought no big deal, I remember flying up this pitch the 1/4 rivets some faced down, again no dig deal I then saw above me the only rivet on that pitch with a old short tie on it I thought wow A-0 As I went to reach to clip it all I remember is falling out in space and all my short ties just floating with me in space not popping off or slowing me down! I remember just screaming as I flew by Tracy belaying me in his curry Ledge laying down then I recall a big jolt then dropping a little more I was upside down and 30 feet from The wall I remember Tracy yelling are you ok as I flipped over and balanced in space I looked up to see Tracy flipped out of his ledge and Both of us in space,Tracy was out of rope, I some how gained The courage to jug back up to The anchors. I remember wile I was jugging all The gear at my waist. When I got to The top I remember thanking my bro, he then said that he would lead the pitch I remember my response, This is my Horse and I'm getting back on this mother f*#ker!
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steveA
Trad climber
Wolfeboro, NH
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Fogarty,
That is the longest fall I've ever heard of on a rock climb. WOW! Lucky it was overhanging.
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Vitaliy M.
Mountain climber
San Francisco
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45 ft or so I guess...
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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I wrote about this in one of the Black Canyon threads. In 2007 I think, I took back-to-back falls on a relatively new climb in the Black Canyon called Sistine Reality. The first one was 50 feet. The second was 75 feet. I was climbing with Mike Pennings. We bailed after the second fall.
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life is a bivouac
Trad climber
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Well, I'm old school and a chicken $^1t... always fearful of falling. My longest fall was about 8 ft. on Tis-sa-ack an expando flake let me down.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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The sad thing was he died soloing the Nose in bad conditions years later. He dropped the bag with his bivvy gear, sleeping bag etc. from near El Cap Tower but continued anyway. A bad storm came in and he died of hypothermia just below the top. This person was:
David Kays, Nose, April 1980 (ANAM 1981).
Was soloing the route, got to 250' from the top when a storm hit. He died of hypothermia.
According to the threads here, apparently he was also known as Acapulco Bill.
(It's possible the list I'm looking at is incomplete and there is a second person who died from hypothermia a Camp 6, other than the Japanese folks who died there more recently).
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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This is a great thread! Fun to look back on older reports of people who are more conservative now but have great stories from before they got that way :)
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Chris Oakes
climber
Hayward
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Bushman - had a similar fall on the Kangaroo off width two years ago. Somehow squeaked to the bolts before my partner refused to follow the pitch. Limped out.
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F
climber
away from the ground
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150' roped.
1800' unroped.
Oopsie!
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