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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
WA, & NC & Idaho
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Aug 17, 2012 - 10:57am PT
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This thread makes me want to cry!!! Or laugh!!!! SAD!
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
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Aug 17, 2012 - 10:58am PT
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Despite the occasional strong language or perspective...
There's never been a doubt in my mind that Cragman is a stand-up guy who cares, has a strong work ethic and high standards and principles about life at large and in general.
Sometimes it's easy to forget many of us post because we WANT to debate, because we WANT to stir up the dust to hash out some current affairs issue in or out of climbing. But that's all it is. It's hardly the rest of our lives. Out in the field, all of us (well, most of us, lol) would get along terrifically, I think.
Without a doubt, as I've expressed before, were ever I to bust ribs or hip ouch! deep in the Sierra (who knows where, perhaps an outlandish, foolish free solo AT MY AGE on Third Pillar, maybe? :) ) hearing that Cragman was in on the rescue would be reassuring news.
A good man who loves his family, country, sport. And fairness in things. In the end that's what counts.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Aug 17, 2012 - 11:57am PT
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Opinions are like asssholes. Everybody's got one.
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this just in
climber
north fork
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Aug 17, 2012 - 12:36pm PT
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Well played Dean.
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Googlymoogly
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 19, 2012 - 09:59pm PT
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I am working on the writeup. I didn't realize how long it would be. I will try for tonight but if that doesn't work expect to see it tomorrow night...
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Aug 19, 2012 - 10:01pm PT
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Kudo's and balls in more way than one. Hope we are kinder to you than the big stone was lol.
Hell posting this TR might be rougher than what you went through ..
Mebbe not... even if it was a screw up most folks here respect balls and the willingness to take responsibility.
Looking forward to it! I think :)
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Aug 20, 2012 - 12:42am PT
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Hey Chief, Great picture. I'll bet you have one of these shirts...
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squishy
Mountain climber
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Aug 20, 2012 - 01:31am PT
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This is f*#king priceless...
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Aug 20, 2012 - 01:43am PT
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got one just like it and several others with the same basic message. Kick Ass.
I'd also be willing to bet you weren't much of an ass kisser or you'd probably have made Master Chief. Hahaha.
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Aug 20, 2012 - 02:22am PT
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LOL. Don't you have to be smudge free for 12 years to get GOLD?
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Aug 20, 2012 - 02:30am PT
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That is classic Chief. Glad you finally got the GOLD.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Aug 20, 2012 - 02:45am PT
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What a fukking testostrone-fest.
Yawn.
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Googlymoogly
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2012 - 02:06am PT
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I am almost done with the writeup. Just got pics to add to it...
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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Aug 21, 2012 - 02:27am PT
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Yeah Chris
You came just in the nick of time! These guys were starting to feed on each other.
Post em up and wear your best asbestos
Thanks
Karl
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Aug 21, 2012 - 02:32am PT
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I am almost done with the writeup. Take your time. I won't be reading it.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Aug 21, 2012 - 03:35am PT
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Right on riley. Took the words right out of my mouth. Don't mind biotch he's a little crusty at first. He'll warm up to ya eventually... We are all humans who are prone to error after all.
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Googlymoogly
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2012 - 04:06am PT
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Here is the writeup.
It is a short version of just our time on the wall. I have a long version I wrote for friends and family who don’t live close by and wanted all the details after finding out what happened. It is 7 pages of text if you took the pictures out so unless you have a lot of time to kill read the short version posted here. The long version is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/160erjnj2p5j0f1/El%20Cap.pdf
Here is another short version written on the NPS site but I think they left out a ton of details: http://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/Rappellers-Rescued-off-of-El-Capitan.htm
First some pictures:
Up to this point the only problem was losing my rope. My friend started to pull it with a knot still in the end and I decided it was best to just cut it and use his spare rope instead of climbing to retrieve it. Nothing else eventful happened until Richard got stuck. We got to camp five and Richard went down first. He studied the topo for a few minutes and told me he thought the bottom set of anchors was the correct set. I understood his logic and really didn’t give it much thought knowing we had a 50/50 chance and that if we messed up we could just come up and use the other anchor.
He went down and I didn’t hear anything for a while on the radio, so I tried to communicate and didn’t get anything right away. After another 10-15 minutes I heard, “I am at the bottom of the ropes and there isn’t an anchor.” He said he could descend a little farther. After a minute his next call was, “I am hanging in mid-air and can’t go down any more.” Before I could really respond he radioed me again and this time I could hear the panic kick in, “Dude I am stuck and there are no anchors.” I asked him to come back up but didn’t hear anything. Later on I would find out that he was hanging below the great roof. I would say about 15-20 minutes went by before he finally responded again telling me he was stuck and had vomited a few times since his last call. He said he was very dehydrated and scared. The communication was all one sided though. I kept asking him questions to see how he was actually doing and see what options we had to fix the situation but of the few times he responded he just told me how sick he was and never addressing what I asked him directly. Richard had forgotten the ascenders up with me but had prussiks with him. I mentioned that I could secure each separate side of the rope using a prussik on a munter but that he would have to work with me to keep one rope locked off and let the other go to transition the weight. I mentioned that if he could do that I could come down the other rope and help him as well as give him the ascenders if he felt that was easier or possibly haul him up. I didn’t get any response until he told me once again how sick he was but this time he said he needed help. It was really obvious at this point that he had already given up and I honestly feel he had given up within a minute or two of deciding he was stuck. More tries on the radio got no answer from him.
At this point I decided we had no option but to call for help as he had asked. My phone had about 25% charge and after about 6-8 attempts to call 911 the call went through. Just as I got into the details of our situation the call disconnected. A number of other attempts failed as well. I radioed Richard and told him I was calling and asked again if he could do anything but got no answer. I ended up trying a few other numbers and it so happened that my friends number worked so I quickly told him the details and asked him to call 911 for me. I later found out he was sitting on the toilet in house when I called him which for some reason seems a bit humorous now.
Another 20 minutes went by and I got a call from the Yosemite emergency number. The YOSAR member Chris got all the details from a number of disconnected calls and explained that he was going to send someone with a spotting scope to the meadow to see where we were at and what we could do to rescue ourselves. This is what I tended to think was going to happen and had no complaints about YOSAR trying to talk to Richard. My phone had a few minutes of battery left so the ranger (I think I may have talked to more than one) got our radio channel and said he would communicate on that which luckily had a full charge.
The YOSAR member who talked to us on the radio talked to me first and got more info on the gear we had and what the situation was exactly. The rescuer talked to Richard for a while and it was obvious that he was hoping for YOSAR to come grab him. At this point he was responsive on the radio but the rescuers told him repeatedly to hold the talk switch down longer so what he said was understandable. The rescuer eventually got Richard to try prussiking up. I knew Richard knew how to use prussiks but suddenly it was like a new skill to him. At first he claimed they were slipping which didn’t make any sense but after some prodding by the rescuer he started to go up. Over the next 2 hours or so Richard radioed down to tell YOSAR how dehydrated he was more than once. The rescuer told him if he got back to the anchors there was water waiting with me(which was true). During this time I didn’t have much to do except wait. I kept the radio next to me and just sat for most of the time. I nodded off a few times while sitting up which made waking up like one of those dreams of falling, despite knowing exactly where I was. Eventually I just laid down on the ledge and put the radio by my head. After a while it was obvious Richard wasn’t going anywhere fast and had managed to ascend only 50-70 feet in over 2 hours. At this point Richard got on the radio and asked very simply “Can you guys just have a helicopter come get me?” I think he had seen the YOSAR article in Maxim magazine about a chopper rescue on El Cap. The rescuer on the radio explained that that wasn’t an option whatsoever due to the danger and told Richard he needed to keep trying to ascend. Not too long later though they communicated that a rescue was being planned and told Richard he could stop and asked if his legs were going numb and he confirmed that they were. The rescuer told Richard to now descend 20 feet where he had a place to at least place his feet. And now the waiting began. Richard said he needed to get down and they said he couldn’t expect to see a rescuer for a few hours.
A frustrating picture:
My friend took it during the rescue. He kept saying he was vomiting but I guess he was able to snap a pic while unable to do anything else.
To answer a few people:
Would I do it again? I lost my rope (which will put climbing on hold for a while when combined with a fine) so at the moment I can’t, but either way I think the answer is no. When I go back at some point it will be to climb it.
Yeah I got a citation for Disorderly Conduct: Creating a hazardous situation. The officer claimed rockfall being a danger to climbers below was one reason. Which would be understandable but there were no people below us on the route. I won’t know the court date for weeks and have no idea what to expect for the fine amount.
If I had the time I would head to the valley just to talk to Rohrer but don’t have the time unfortunately.
Thats the story as I promised. Time to run and hide now huh?
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crasic
climber
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Aug 21, 2012 - 04:16am PT
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well, at least you weren't the one to f*#k up. I bet it was pretty frustrating on your side.
Your friend basically just went into shutdown mode from fear it seems and couldn't snap out of it. Shitty situation to be in as the partner, and especially if you now get a big slap from the law.
I have one question though, why did you cut the rope instead of just climbing the bolt ladder back up to it? cutting a rope is an act of desperation done in hellish conditions when all hope is lost. You were up, early, in good weather, on route, and with a nice bolt ladder to get yourself up. Not that it contributed to what happened in the end, but it seems like bad juju,
There is a classic russian mountaineering song thats quite relevant, excuse the bluntness.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
If a friend suddenly turns out to be
Not quite a friend, not quite an enemy, but just...
If you can't tell at a glance,
If he's good or bad,
Take a risk! Take him along to climb a mountain.
Don't send him off on his own;
Have him use the same support hooks that you do,
And then you'll know, who you're dealing with.
And if the guy in the mountains isn't terrific,
If he suddenly flags and goes down,
If he takes a step on ice, and wimps out
If he stumbles and shouts in panic, -
Then next to you is a stranger.
Don't yell at him, - just push him away,
They don't take such guys up into the mountains,
And in songs like this, no one sings about them.
But if he didn't whimper, didn't fuss,
Despite being sullen and ill-tempered, but went along,
And when you fell from a cliff,
He moaned in pain, but held on to you,
If he went with you, as into a battle,
He stood on the peak, tipsy,
Then you can rely on him,
As on yourself.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Aug 21, 2012 - 05:36am PT
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Thanks for sharing your writeup, Chris.
I was rescued once when I couldn't pull down my rappel rope and I wasn't able to ascend back to the anchor.
There was a cold rain and I was eventually shivering some.
I didn't even have prusiks, but I was coached to try my 1" webbing slings.
They worked but it was pretty slow, and I didn't want to try the free hanging part due to risk of cramping.
My partner (wisely not joining in my rappel adventure) teamed up with a YOSAR guy and they climbed 2-3 pitches to reach me.
I wouldn't have needed a rescue if I had brought my ascenders, but the original plan was for a weekend of free climbing until the rain started, so I didn't have them in the car.
Even just prusiks would have given me much better self-rescue capability, but I may not have had those in the car either....
I went too light for the task and fortunately I got rescued.
For your team situation, I believe you should have had 2 sets of ascenders, one set always with each person.
That's the way I always do walls.
They are needed if you have to fix any ropes and reascend, or if you take a leader fall into space and need to regain your high point.
I agree with the above post, too - if you don't know your partner well, you may get a bad surprise when you are relying on him and he is not up to the task.
If you had some more experience, you might have been able to do a partial rescue by hauling up one side of the rappel rope until you had enough slack to make a figure eight loop and anchor it.
Then down-jumar one of the strands and coach your partner.
But if you had enough experience to think of that and set it up,
you would already have known to have 2 sets of ascenders....
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Aug 21, 2012 - 05:51am PT
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Thanks for posting, seems like it could have been pulled off. Any one of us old farts could have found ourselves in a similar situation when we exercised youthful indiscretion BITD. Kudos for taking a stab at it . Not a lot you can do when a partner hairs out. I say fight the ticket
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