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mouse from merced
Trad climber
merced, california
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Aug 22, 2012 - 01:58pm PT
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Not to quibble, and not to deny anyone's tales of terror, but I just looked at "near-death experiences" onthe net.
From Wiki we get "NDE refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations, including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of total dissolution; and the presence of a light."
It usually involves a pronouncement of clinical death.
So...
Never happened to me yet.
I did get to pull my brother-in-law up from the bottom after he got conked by his surfboard when an outside wave ruined our afternoon. He was semi-conscious, though.
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limpingcrab
Trad climber
the middle of CA
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Aug 22, 2012 - 02:04pm PT
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Sounds like Ron's had some extreme fear followed by levitation
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nutjob
Gym climber
Berkeley, CA
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Aug 22, 2012 - 02:18pm PT
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I've just read a few so far, but damn Ron did you need a clean pair of underwear? Maybe you were too busy trying to figure stuff out to have time to fill the trousers?
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zBrown
Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
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Aug 22, 2012 - 02:43pm PT
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and the presence of a light
Or the absence?
My sister died in her bed at night from a heart attack.
So, one night about 20 years ago in the middle of the night I went into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet. Quite suddenly everything began to go very dark black and I thought to myself "man this is exactly what happened to Diane, but there so much I never got to do". I slipped over onto the floor and proned out and gradually the world came back into focus.
Mentioned the episode to my doctor a while later and he informed me that it was vasovagal syncope and it's pretty common.
All in all, I guess I didn't have a near death experience, just a feeling of being near death experience.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 22, 2012 - 02:48pm PT
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Mr E, move to Kansas, please. Oh, wait, you're already in the Valley; you're good there.
Ron A, what planet was yer pilot from? Anybody from this planet coulda
told you that shizz was gonna happen! Especially anybody who has tried
to scatter ashes from a plane. :-)
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splitter
Trad climber
Hodad, surfing the galactic plane
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Aug 22, 2012 - 03:44pm PT
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here is an example of a real n00b mistake that nearly cost me my life!!
around 1990 the starter went out in my half ton chevie van. i bought a new one and was going to switch it myself, and did. i lay down in front and tried to scoot back towards the starter but my head would not fit under the front axle (twin I beam) so i had to go to the side of the van and go under that way. i finished switching them, and as an after thought i notice this linkage to my transmission an wiggle it a little because i notice it is loose. all of a sudden i hear this klunk. i lived at the top of this grade/hill and suddenly the van starts rolling with me under it. I grab a hold of the exhaust pipe and try and stop it from rolling. it starts moving faster.I had to wrap my legs around the pipe/muffler the best i could cause if i let go the axle would hit my head and crush it.
the next thing i know i am rolling down the street picking up speed hanging onto the bottom of my dang van. pretty soon i am hauling ass headed toward this really busy street/inner-section. i must have been going 30-35 miles an hour or faster and picking up speed. i started yelling at the top of my lungs "HEEEEEELLLLLPPP" but there was no one to hear me. i had to do something. i was either going to crash into cars going 45-50 miles an hour or into a building on the other side of the damn street/intersection. i new if i waited to long i would exceed 45mi an hour because i use to get it going that fast trying to jump start it (automatic) but i new if i let go the axle would crush my head.
i didn't know what to do, i just couldn't makeup my mind. i had a death grip on that muffler/exhaust pipe. then i did the only thing i could think of doing under the circumstances cuz i didn't know what the hell to do, I yelled out "Jesus, please help me" (LOUD) instantly, my hold was ripped off the muffler, and my head twisted/jerked to the side to give it a flatter angle. the next thing i know i was seeing stars for a fraction of a second and i came to screaming at the top of my lungs "AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" my head had made it under the axle (had two big ol bumps the size of ping pong balls on either side of it that were bleeding big time though) but the pain i was screaming about as i came to was my left hip pinned by the axle that was dragging against the blacktop.
i was drug tell it actually stopped my van. there was a hole in my levis and underwear and the meat on my hip was ground down to the bone. i just lay there as the van came to a stop. i wiggled a little and the van popped off my hip and slowly starting rolling again. i didn't even know if anything was broken because the pain was so intense, but suddenly and instinctively hopped up and started running beside the van and opened the door and then i had to run as fast as i could down towards the tail of the van turn around and as it passed jump in and hit the brakes.
i was evidently in shock because i felt very weird/light headed & qweezy, etc.! but i drove to the hospital and they told me i was white as a ghost. they did a cat scan of my brain and hip and kept me overnight for observation/and to watch for swelling of the brain. i was okay though. i was very lucky.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Aug 22, 2012 - 03:56pm PT
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If I was a cat then I'd have been killed a long time ago. But I seem to have more than 9 lives.
My friends say that the injury that ended my rock-climbing career was the injury that saved my life. My old climbing partners didn't think that I was going to live for very long if I continued to climb as hardcore as I was doing BITD.
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frank wyman
Mountain climber
helena montana
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Aug 22, 2012 - 04:25pm PT
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Having survived four helicopter crashes, some with fatalitys, we always had the attitude of "You think I'm F%#ked up you should see the other guys" The one that stands out most is when we did not crash but dipped in and out of the water for miles durring a storm in Alaska, I think I got what they call "Gallows humor" as we were making jokes and laughing all the time. No 15-minute suits and miles from shore. Once we landed the pilot quit and we drank ourselves stupid...
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Aug 22, 2012 - 07:49pm PT
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whooooo man.
I couldn't think of any NDE's for me until zBrown's post.
That vasovagal response...from venipuncture......gives you enough time to really believe yer gunna die!
it was like fainting, but it consumed my entire body except my consciousness. I watched myself collapse and then watched myself recover.
It's very seldom a fatal condition......fortunately. And I've never experienced it again.
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WBraun
climber
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Aug 22, 2012 - 07:50pm PT
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Everyone dies every day.
You're not the same person as yesterday ......
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Sredni Vashtar
Social climber
LA CA via UK
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Aug 22, 2012 - 07:52pm PT
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my dad (as witnessed by all of us at the breakfast table) had a great one.
He is old school and leaves his (manual geared) car in 1st gear when its parked, its an old habit he has and he always does it. his car is parked behind my mums new car and they are both
behind some wrought iron gates. so he gets into his car for work, realises he needs something from the boot/trunk and gets out to go get it. gets back in and forgets he hasnt put the car
in neutral. infact he isnt fully in car when he turns the key, hes half in talking to his neighbour. his car jumps forward and the V6 pushes both cars through the gates and beyond at a good rate of knots, as his door hits the gate it pins him under
the car and both cars head towards the water filled ditch on the other side of the road. the neighbour starst chasing the car as at this point my dad is holding onto the door sill but his legs are under the car. there are only two trees spaced about 15 yards apart that would stop him hitting the ditch and each car finds one.
lucky for him but he is still under the car the wheels are spinning. the neighbour pulls hims
clear and he is fine, the pager/beeper he wore on his right hip was a mess but it saved his hip.
such a lucky escape.
stupid fker then repeated it a month later too, only this time the gates held and my mums car had to go back to the bodyshop
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MisterE
Social climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 22, 2012 - 08:49pm PT
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Great stories! Reilly, yeah I feel pretty safe in the valley...NOT! ;) That is crazy, Splitter - thanks for the story.
#4: Bat-shit Crazy Skipper.
So the next year I sign up on the same boat (the pay was pretty good for tendering), and on the trip up the Inside Passage, it becomes clear to me that this owner's son is really going to give it to me this year. I decide when we get to Sitka to bail, but now I am in Alaska and have no job. Being pretty experienced, I hit the docks and start asking for work. Nothing. Days go by, and I am running out of money, when I finally find a dungeness crab fisherman that will take me on as crew. I load up the bait, water-tank and the rest of the crab-pots while he goes grocery shopping. He is back surprisingly fast, but I think nothing of it as we finish loading. Pretty soom we are on our way. The crabbing spot is just outside of Lituya Bay, at the base of the Fairweather range of mountains, a stunning setting which blew my mind. We run into Lituya Bay, drop anchor, and I look in the cooler. He has bought 1 ham, 2 loaves of bread,a jar of peanut butter and a jar of mustard for a two-week trip. I ask him where the rest of the food is, and he says "That's it! But we will be eating crab and shrimp as well." I also see a gallon of bleach. As we are running out to the grounds, I go through the cupboards, hoping to find something else food-wise. Nothing.
As soon as we leave the dock, he demands that I start baiting the pots. I am starting to get worried. A few days go by, running the pots in the surf, and I gradually realize this guy is a psycho. He only communicates by yelling, a complete change from the Skipper at the dock, and he never lets me stop working from dawn until dusk. We get up early, pull the shrimp pots in the bay for that night's meal, have a peanut butter sandwich with water only, then out of the bay into the ocean where the rest of the day is battling the surf and sanded-in pots. It is hell. The boat is rolling, he is constantly screaming, and there is never a break until dusk. Pulling the sanded-in pots is a terrifying experience. The line is jumping in the hauler, threatening to break every moment, and I am hanging on for dear life as the surf pounds over us. There was very few crab, but we had to run the pots constantly because the surf was burying them. Stack pots, lash them down, finish the line, re-bait, and re-set. Day in and day out. After 6 days we run out of water, and I find out what the bleach is for. We go to one corner of the bay where he noses the bow against the rocks where there is a small stream of water and hands me a hose and a funnel saying "This is where we fill the water tank, it takes a couple of hours", then disappears below deck. I stand there for 2 hours diverting this trickle into our deck-hole. He comes back out with the bottle of bleach, and dumps half of it into the tank. I explode: "What the hell are you doing to our water?" He responds: "This will purify it so we don't get sick."
Things deteriorate from there over the next few days, and pretty soon we hate each other, but he refuses to go back to Sitka. We work glaring at each other, he yells and I am sullen. I can smell bleach on my skin, and am sick of peanut butter and ham. He said we could have some crab initially, but the crabbing is so bad, he won't waste any of the "profit" on food for us.
On day 12, I am stacking a pot 4 high on the back deck after a particularly bad yelling match, when he swerves the boat int a wave, and I go overboard in full rain-gear and boots. The water is probably 36-38 degrees, it takes my breath away. I pop to the surface, yelling and waving at him. He looks directly at me, gives this maniacal grin...and guns the engine away from me. I realize what is happening, and swim for all I am worth towards the boat. At the very last moment, I got lucky. One of the bumpers for hauling the pots had come untied, and one end was dragging in the water, with a loop of rope running a few feet behind it. I grabbed that rope like a madman and hauled myself aboard the still-accelerating boat. As I pulled myself onto the deck, he came to the wheelhouse door, saw me, and a completely astonished look came over his face, then he disappeared back inside. I was so frightened of him, I didn't say another word the rest of the two-day period, but he seemed to give me some grudging respect. It didn't matter, I was seething inside, but also really afraid.
When we got back to Sitka and unloaded, I said: " I want my crew share NOW." He told me to wait and he would go get it, but there was no way. I followed him to the bank, and stood with him the whole time, my stuff ready to go. He paid me, I told him I would never work for him again and went to the nearest bar to get smashed. When I was good and drunk, I started talking to some other fishermen, one of whom said:
"You went out with that lunatic? Everyone knows not to hand with him - you should ask around next time before you crew on an unknown boat!"
Lesson learned. I still went back to Alaska for 2 more years black-cod and halibut fishing.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2012 - 12:17am PT
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Alright, the run is over it looks like, the last response was deleted - might as well wrap it up and be done.
#5: I decided i wanted to aid climb in bad rock, and I was fortunate enough to be living in Eastern Oregon. I had walked by "Toes of the Fisherman" many times on my regular forays to Wortley's Revenge, which I had wired to 4 pieces of gear. I thought, in my unconceiving mind, that aiding a rarely-done 5.13 that overhangs 20 feet in the first 35 feet, was a good idea.
Plus there was this nice slab below in the sun to lay out all my gear and look cool as the folks walk by me on their way to points West. I have a new rope, a 10mm, and I fix that to a solo static anchor below the chill spot. I am Bad, nobody ever get's on this thing and I got a shiteree of gear laid out on the slab for all to see.
As I begin to aid up the overhang, I start to understand that the elements may not be in my favor: Static anchor, going as horizontal as vertical on solo-aid, but the fire of n00b enthusiasm consumed me.
So much so, that I was clipping above me as I moved past a bomber #8 chouinard placement.
Sadly, it was my first effort with my new Lowe-Balls, and I hadn't yet learned that you cannot shift on these things!
I learned fast as I ripped that and a blue tcu - from 30 feet out onto a fixed belay with a modified Gri-Gri.
I welded the #8, and found myself splayed out from my harness rope-catch. I rocked just a little forward and my feet touched the slab that I had so proudly laid my gear out on.
I twisted sideways, and saw that the point of the rock was no more than a foot away from the direct line of my lower back.
With rope stretch, well...there wasn't much rope out, thankfully for me, but bad for the rope.
Did I think about the other lower back close call? You bet your ass I did.
(Edited: Found a better written version of that story - thanks Survival)
#6 is the craziest. I was installing a climbing gym for an Oregon gym-wall company - at Long Beach - and bouldering late at night in a nice corner. Up and down, up and down. Hard gym floor beneath me, no-one else around. I get 20 feet up, and shake out my legs, one then the other. As I am shaking out the second, fully weighting my arms, the right hold spins and I am off backwards - a back-flip head-first plummet to the hardwood floor below. I am sure, yet again that this is the end. Bear in mind: a backwards flip with good feet, where the hand-holds fail. Sounds like a severe push away from the wall, right? However, there are these holes in the wall - big ones - for circular inserts that you can turn for varying features (not installed yet), and when I come to (not dead), both knees are locked in one of these holes, I am upside down 6 feet from the ground. Bruises on the back of the knees for a months, but yet again, otherwise uninjured.
This one really baffled me every time I thought about the natural route of projection. I felt I must have had a push BACK into the wall from something, someone to catch that last hole and save my sorry ass yet again.
Grandma once told me I have a guardian angel looking over me, I actually started to believe it after this one.
OK, I am done - hope I provided some entertainment for some folks.
Keep it going if you like, or not. Hope you all don't mind the recollections - once they started, I had to keep going. Just one of those flood-of-memories things.
Cheers, Erik
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Aug 23, 2012 - 02:59am PT
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My very first "real" lead
Early 1970s
Huntington Ravine
High on the route
Placed a #3 wired and went for it
Big run out
Oops, fell
Entire pitch zippered
Except for that #3 wired
My belayer caught me
When I stopped
I was upside down
Only 5 feet above the ground
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Aug 23, 2012 - 03:23am PT
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After climbing El Cap and sleeping on top, we decided to descend the canyon east of El Cap instead of rapping off the East Ledges (BIG MISTAKE).
I was walking on a carpet of moss on granite slabs along the top of a big cliff. The moss cut loose, like a giant carpet sliding down a steep granite slab. This carpet of moss and I went flying off the edge of the cliff and I found myself in free fall down a 100+ foot cliff.
The big carpet of moss landed on a small ledge about 40 feet down from the top and started piling up on the ledge in great folds.
I followed, and landed on my back in a great, soft pile of moss - uninjured.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Aug 23, 2012 - 03:28am PT
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Chair Peak, the NE buttress back in the late 70's. It had been a heavy snow pack, and it was early Spring. I was leading, party of 3. I had just climbed a rock rib and then traversed into the couloir that takes you up when I heard a rumble above me that did not sound good, so I zipped out of the gully and a big avalanche came down, completely filling the gully as it went by, and spilling onto the rock rib I made it to and just missing me by a couple feet. I would have been toast. After the avy, I figured it was safe and we climbed up and found that it had been started by a couple of other climbers who had come up a different way and their steps had started the slide down our way. Yikes.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Aug 23, 2012 - 03:29am PT
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Roped big-wall solo of the Leaning Tower in winter.
3rd night, in a hammock in a winter storm - accidentally dropped all of my bivy gear. I thought I was going to die that night, but a "Third Man" experience kept me alive.
Managed to top off the next day before a really big storm hit.
While I licked my wounds in Camp 4 that night, another solo big wall climber David Kays froze to death on El Cap.
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Sierra Ledge Rat
Mountain climber
Old and Broken Down in Appalachia
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Aug 23, 2012 - 03:36am PT
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I have a dozen or more other stories like these
"There's a fine line between bravery and foolishness."
When you decided to push it, are you being brave or foolish? Only time will tell.
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mitchy
Trad climber
new england
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Aug 23, 2012 - 10:59am PT
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My buddy and i were coming home from buying some weed one night and as i parked my car, two guys pulled up and got out of their car and pulled a gun on my buddy, sawed off shotgun. I was on the drivers side and had to walk around the front of the car where the guy with the gun was now poiting it at my face. He said gimme your money, with his hand held out. So, as i stepped toward him i was leaning left and right and as i leaned he pointed the friggin' gun at my face. The most scared i've ever been. coulda gotten killed over fifty bucks.
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