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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Jun 30, 2012 - 11:25am PT
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Mr. Harder, glad you are getting stronger. Do have Nurse Ratchet or Nurse Jane taking care of you?
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Heloise Pendagrast
Trad climber
Tahoe City
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 1, 2012 - 10:21am PT
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Don, where are you? I have something for you.
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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I'll bet you do.... I'm at my Mariposa house. Call me.
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tom Carter
Social climber
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He is "home alone" (actually with Dave Hitchcock visiting in Mariposa).
Well enough that Jane drove to their cabin in Tahoe to get things in order as they may be down south for a number of weeks.
Don is doing fine although his ribs are quite painful as you would expect.
Good news!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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so, is he well enough to tell the tale?
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Was he ever? ;-)
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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I'll be back............
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oh so glad that you ARE back Don!
That was a very rough patch of life you bounced through.
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dickcilley
Social climber
Wisteria Ln.
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Wow!Just saw this.Been in the mountains the last month.Glad you´re getting better Don.Can´t remember all the times you´ve helped me with my car or when you rescued me from Squamish.You and Jane are the greatest.
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mastadon
Trad climber
crack addict
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It’s been a long strange journey.
I’m a firm believer in cause and effect. Small events can cause something random to happen which can cause other random things to happen and start a chain of events that are totally unforeseeable. In 45 years of climbing, I’ve never hurt myself. Can’t say that today.
Ernie Milan and I planned a day of free climbing in the valley. It was hot so I thought we could do something on Middle Cathedral. Knowing that the trade routes could be crowded, I thought we could do something more obscure-something that neither of us had ever done. The Kor-Beck. Perfect.
Ernie was staying at his cousin’s house up Hite Canyon. I was at my Mariposa house. We decided to meet at the parking area below Middle Cathedral at a certain time. I arrived before Ernie and was loading stuff in my pack with the door open on my van. There was another VW Westfalia parked in front of mine with a guy and his young daughter. They were loading gear into packs also. I talked to them and found out that they were going to do the Central Pillar. They asked me what I was getting ready for and I told them the Kor-Beck. They got ready and headed up.
Ernie showed up and after a few minutes of sorting gear, we headed up.
That area is so beautiful and the temps in the dappled shade were perfect. We were in for a great day.
There was a line up at the base of the Central Pillar and the guy and his daughter weren’t there. I figured they went somewhere else. We headed up left to our destination. After a few minutes of herfing up the hill, the Kor-Beck came into view. The guy and his daughter were on it. Oh well, change of plans. We turned around and started back down. I was trying to come up with an alternative climb and thought about Quicksilver, a great route on the slabs on the right side of Middle Cathedral. It had been almost 40 years since I’d done Quicksilver. We were brash, young and invincible back then and I remembered the route as a great slab/face climb-not too hard and not too serious.
It had been a while since I’d been to the MC slabs and I’d forgotten how far it is up there. We got to the base and there wasn’t a soul around. The sun was just peeking over the top and lighting up all the holds in bold relief. Perfect.
We didn’t really have the right rack for Quicksilver but it wasn’t a big deal, we would make do with what we had. I don’t really remember being able to get that much gear in anyway. When I did it in the early 70’s, we probably used pitons and hammers. I couldn’t remember.
We racked up, booted up, and roped up and I headed up the first pitch which is straightforward and easy. I stopped at about 180 feet and set up an anchor which consisted of three cams. This comes into play later so pay attention. I had a bomber blue #3 cam out left and a couple smaller cams to the right. I used a cordalette to equalize the load that wasn’t quite long enough to reach all three so I used it on the two the left and had a runner on the upper piece to the right. I belayed Ernie up and we swapped ends so I could lead the second pitch.
This is where things get a little foggy. I remember climbing around Ernie and putting a runner on the upper piece and clipping the rope in but I don’t remember anything else till I was on the ground about 50 years later. Ernie said that I was totally calm and casual and solid leading up. I didn’t stop to put anything in till my feet were about 12’ above his head. He said it looked like my feet were on good holds and I was fishing for something on the rack. My left hand was in the corner with my right hand fishing. We were talking about dinner. I guess we decided that we were going to eat at the Happy Burger in Mariposa. I was probably so excited about the prospect of dinner that I got distracted from the business at hand. He said that I took my left hand from the corner to assist fiddling with the rack. According to Ernie, I tilted my head back and suddenly started a slow motion fall backwards with my feet still on their holds.
So I’m falling over backwards and my head is about to hit. Did I forget to mention we weren’t wearing helmets? Yah, I know. I don’t want to hear about it. I hate wearing helmets and only started doing so in the last few years for big wall climbing after starting that game again after a 30 year big wall hiatus.
Right before my head smacked the rock, I put both hands behind my head. I’m guessing this was the first event that saved my life.
So I’m flying past Ernie upside down and facing out. The rope hit the upper anchor which immediately blew. Ernie said at this point he thought we were dead. For him, things were going in slow motion and all he could envision were the other two pieces blowing and the two of us headed to the dirt 180’ below. I came to a stop about 25’ below him and was totally on his belay device which meant he was holding my weight on his waist. The rope was no longer going through the belay.
I was hanging upside down and facing out and unconscious. He yelled down to me and didn’t get any response. He thought I was dead. After 5 to 10 minutes which seemed like 5 hours to him, I started to stir. Apparently, after some gyrations, I got myself upright. Ernie was stoked. He realized I wasn’t completely dead but maybe only partially dead. I still wasn’t able to respond to him for another 5 to 10 minutes. I finally looked up at Ernie and said, “Ernie, you’re going to have to lower me” and he lowered me to the ground. Once I was down, he set himself up and rapped off as quickly as he could. When he got down, I was nowhere to be found. Apparently I had untied myself and crawled to the trees and was laying on my right side, the uninjured side. As I found out later, my left side had sustained four broken ribs, a broken clavicle, broken scapula, cracked C7, punctured lung, bruised liver, concussion and some other wonderful violations. Ernie talked me into moving back to the base of the wall where there weren’t so many rocks and I could get more comfortable. This is where my memory starts to return.
I remember laying on my side and talking to Ernie for a while. I finally told him, “Ernie, I’m not walking out of here, you’re going to have to get help”.
Ernie said that one of the most difficult decisions he’s ever made was to leave me there. He wasn’t sure if I’d still be alive when he got back. He was closer to the mark than he thought. What I hadn’t told him was that I was having increasing difficulty breathing. From my EMT days, I knew this was a pneumo-thorax which is a life threatening circumstance. The sack around my left lung was filling up with blood making it more and more difficult to breathe.
When Ernie ran off, the silence of the place enveloped me. All I could hear was the wind whispering through the trees. An occasional bird went screeching overhead. I could faintly hear car traffic in the distance. I remember laying on my side repeating over and over, “Hurry. Please hurry. Hurry. Please hurry”. That was my mantra.
It might have been 40 or so minutes later that I heard faint sirens echoing off the valley walls in the far distance. I was hoping it was for me and wasn’t a ranger pulling over some gumby for throwing dirty diapers out their car window. The sirens got louder and louder and finally stopped in the Bridalveil Falls parking lot. I was still repeating my mantra, “Hurry. Please hurry”.
I heard voices low in the trees. I guess the way the SAR guys do it these days is they send a couple of paramedic runners with a trauma bag out front and the rest of the crew comes later with a litter and all the other stuff. Two guys showed up and did a quick assessment. I was pretty wrecked and they realized the seriousness of my condition. The rest of the SAR crew showed up just a few minutes later. Somewhere during this process I said the magic words to one of the paramedics, that I was having increasing difficulty breathing. This set off a few alarms and they exposed my chest and ventilated my lung by punching a needle through my ribs. It felt like they pounded a snow stake through my chest but the pressure on my lung began to lessen. This was the second thing that saved my life.
They decided that carrying me down was not an option and I could hear them summon a helicopter on the radio to long-line me from the base of the wall. A few minutes later I could hear the whump-whump of a bird heading our way. They clipped my litter in to the cable along with one of the paramedics and off we went.
Somewhere around the time the helicopter showed up an amazing thing happened. I just let go. I distinctly remember the feeling of immense relief as I realized that I didn’t have to hold on so tight any more. I could let go. I was in some else’s hands and I had no control over what was happening or whatever was going to happen. This was very empowering and took me to a totally peaceful place. When we were lifted off the ground I remember slowly spinning in the litter a hundred feet below the bird. I remember the sound of the turbines and the feel of the prop wash blowing over me. I’ve spent far too much time in and around helicopters in my past working life. I’ve used up my nine helicopter lives but I wasn’t worried. I was safe.
We arrived in El Cap meadow a few minutes later where they had another opportunity to jostle my broken ribs and other broken parts when they transferred me to the other helicopter that would take me to Modesto. I remember hearing somewhere that pain is just weakness leaving your body. I had lots of weakness leaving my body right then.
Things become a little hazy about this time. I don’t remember if they gave me more drugs or what but the next thing I remember was waking up five days later in the Modesto General ICU. They had me in an induced coma and on a breathing machine for four days.
I spent nine days total in ICU. They had me on an epidural, a morphine drip, and I had a super squitter button (to give me that little extra blast). I really hate using that crap but it was welcome relief from the pain of my injuries. Something that really stands out in my mind were the incredible hallucinations from all the pain meds. OMFG-I was seeing 3” by 4” colored wire spiders chasing colored paper clips up and down the drapes. I watched armies of tiny colored stars migrating up and down the walls and across the ceiling. People would come in to talk to me and columns of tiny colored stars would climb up one side of their bodies across their face to the top of their heads and head down the other side like ants. There was a grey cat in the light fixture over my head. These were the hallucinations I had with my eyes open. When I closed my eyes or went to sleep, the hallucinations got very dark. I visited places that haven’t been seen by man in a very long time. Fortunately, having survived the 70’s, I had some experience with these types of visions and I mostly laughed it off. What I hadn’t experienced is what they call “ICU psychosis”. This is a real phenomenon that people can experience in trauma care facilities involving lots of pain medications. I was sure people were whispering about me in the hallways and at one point I was convinced that I was going to be arrested by the Rangers. Go figure.
I was released after 12 days in the hospital. Can’t wait to see that bill. The hospital staff was great-nurses, doctors, everyone. The food was pretty good, too although I didn’t have much of an appetite from all the drugs.
Ernie saved my life. His level-headed actions after the initial fall got me to the ground without more injuries or drama.
I’d like to thank the SAR guys and girls that saved me. They really came through. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d be SAR meat but there you have it. Never say never.
The list goes on and on of people to thank: The heli crew. All my friends that came to visit. All the people from my past that called or tried to call. The hospital volunteers. The other people in ICU that were even more messed up then I was-they made me realize that things could have been much worse.
My sweetie deserves special notice. Can you imagine the phone call she received? “Your husband is in critical condition and is on a care-flight helicopter to Modesto. What is his medical history and is he on any meds.” She’s been taking VERY GOOD care of me and I’m sure I haven’t been easy.
Big thanks to my friend Tom Carter, who helped get my wife get to the hospital after she heard the news and helped paint my toenails when I was unconscious. Your day is coming, brother.
It was good to get back on the net and visit the Supertaco and see that the world is still round: The republicans are still wrong about everything. Old short guys are still climbing El Cap and posting move by move descriptions and videos. People are posting TR’s on one-pitch routes. It’s all good. Everything’s normal.
l
Thanks to all you Supertaco folks for your kind words and support. Thanks to Werner for just being Werner. He truly is THE MAN!
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Mike Bolte
Trad climber
Planet Earth
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Bump for a great story and mastadon's being only *mostly* dead!
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murcy
Gym climber
sanfrancisco
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Fantastic post. Horrible accident, but your reaction to it is what I want to learn from.
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Grampa
Trad climber
OC in So Cal
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Excellent detailed report. Best wishes for a full recovery.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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shit oh dear. take care.
We overlapped in the Valley in the early 70's or at least with one-degree of separation (Haan and the Pollocks). Thanks for posting. It's edifying if upsetting. Glad you're coming around.
And yeah, to your sweetie, SAR, Tom and Ernie.
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Tobia
Social climber
Denial
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Don,
Your memories of the ICU (the lighter side) remind me of my dad's last 3 weeks of life that were spent in ICU after having a bad fall (playing bridge). He spent half his life, as an MD. When laying in bed and all the pain meds flowing full tilt, he would sit up and 'play" out the action of writing prescriptions out on a pad and handing them to a imaginary patient. He was delirious most of the time, until his doctors would enter the room. He would sit up, become quite lucid, and converse with them as if discussing some patient besides himself. Once they left the room he would return to la-la land.
Glad you are well enough to write up your experiences!
Edit: It would be interesting to read Ernie's take on this; especially if it is as well written as yours.
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Holy Buckets!
That is an amazing and beautiful write up Don. After having a "small" accident a couple years ago, I can totally relate. After 35 years of hardcore and no serious accidents, I realize how, that day, all those little events led, one to another.
Two holds broke and I went close to 35 feet and also ended up upside down. Somehow we only ended up with a smashed ring finger and broken forearm between the two of us.
So incredibly glad that you're coming through the tunnel now.
Thank you for sharing that experience through your post. That's the beauty of Supertopo right there.
I will now continue to haunt you with TR's from one pitch routes.....HA!
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Thanks, Don, for your beautiful and haunting post.
You have wonderful friends.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Don, good to see your sense of humor survived without a scratch - great post-
er-pitchoff!
healingly yours,
fellow-multiple-SAR-meatloaf
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Footloose
Trad climber
Lake Tahoe
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Wow, an amazing account.
Somewhere around the time the helicopter showed up an amazing thing happened. I just let go. I distinctly remember the feeling of immense relief as I realized that I didn’t have to hold on so tight any more. I could let go. I was in some else’s hands and I had no control over what was happening or whatever was going to happen. This was very empowering and took me to a totally peaceful place.
Don, glad you're on your way via all the cause n effect to a full recovery. Lots to think about from your post, to internalize, and to learn from, see you out there!
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Carolyn C
Trad climber
the long, long trailer
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Gee, Don, you kinda made me cry a little bit with that story. Really glad you are doing so well, considering what happened. Sending you good vibes for an uneventful and rapid recovery. And special kudos to Jane, your awesome friend and companion in life. Also thanks to Carter for all the updates. Wow. Glad you are still around.
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