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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2011 - 04:48pm PT
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there are many, many such stories where no one survived to tell the tale
not sure we want to get into those ones...
how about the other end of these stories where you caught someone on the rope?
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pk_davidson
Trad climber
Albuquerque, NM
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Aug 16, 2011 - 04:53pm PT
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On the third pitch of AbraCadaver on Rockfellow, came off trying to grab the now gone spike at top of layback part. Must have been close to 100', all air, wooshed past the belayer. Fortunately it was Grossman who timed his push just right so that I went past him instead of onto him and then came back up to where my head was about even with his knee. Very gentle fall, didn't feel a thing but sure put a flat spot in a brand new rope.
Steve then tied in to go up and lead the pitch. Got up to the little horn, looked down and realized he was only tied into his leg loops.
A week or two later, Fig went up to do the climb and took a minor slip and caught his foot on the little horn and ripped the shick out of his tendons, etc... Painful walk out.
Moral: don't try to lead 3rd pitch of abra in Green Shoenards with only wired nuts and about a year of climbing under your belt. Later did it with sticky shoes and tcu's and it was a blast, felt like lockers vs. rattling, sweaty, gripped liebacks.
As for catching... somewhere around is the story of the Evil Eye in Sabino Canyon and the near death experience of the trundling idjits.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 16, 2011 - 04:59pm PT
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Hey, caughtinside...I'd call mine willful ignorance. Just lucky to be alive.
If you live, sometimes you learn. Cheers.
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oldguy
climber
Bronx, NY
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Aug 16, 2011 - 06:20pm PT
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Well, there's Fitschen's Folly at Tahquitz--150' unbelayed into the talus (no helmet in those days). And there's Chouinard's 150' fall on the Crooked Thumb in the Tetons, ably caught by Bob Kamps that immediately led to the adaptation of the Swami Belt. The first long fall that I know of was Fred Martin on the Sahara Terror at Tahquitz, about 80' in the late 1950's. Fred was mostly unscathed but Frank Hoover, his belayer, got some serious rope burns while providing an automatic dynamic belay. It was then that we learned that a long leader fall was not necessarily a bad thing--just don't hit anything on the way down. Another fellow whose name I forget fell about 80' free but landed on his back in some sand and wasn't seriously hurt.
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BASE1361
climber
Yosemite Valley National Park
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Aug 16, 2011 - 06:55pm PT
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I fell 3,000 feet a few times from El Cap when I slipped walking too close to the edge......
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:40pm PT
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Joe, you didn't discuss the condition in which you arrived at the tree trunk in the talus; and also neglected to mention your first leader fall earlier in the day on your first piton on your first lead on Trader Horn.
Yvon taught me about the swami belt idea shortly after Crooked Thumb; so I was wearing one on my Tepee's Pillar flight.
Base, that makes it sound like you were pulling pretty low!
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S.Leeper
Sport climber
Pflugerville, Texas
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:44pm PT
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James, do you have any permanent injuries from your fall?
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:44pm PT
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I fell 3,000 feet a few times from El Cap when I slipped walking too close to the edge......
Is that what they mean by BASE walking? Or Free BASE, in Dean's usage, if actual climbing is involved?
Out for a stroll or climb in a national park, as is everyone's legal right, falling, and self-rescuing? Thereby saving the public considerable mess and expense? That would make the apparatus simple safety equipment. All you need to do is swear with a straight face that your fall was entirely accidental. Intent is almost everything.
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TomCochrane
Trad climber
Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:48pm PT
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how about if you just happen to fall off near the top of the last pitch and your climbing harness isn't tied in properly?
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Bubba Ho-Tep
climber
Evergreen, CO
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:55pm PT
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I booked rather than hooked. Solid qualifying ride.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 07:57pm PT
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I'll take 100 feet of freefall to 50 feet of slab anyday. Thats gonna leave a mark.
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Mark Hudon
Trad climber
Hood River, OR
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Aug 16, 2011 - 08:47pm PT
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I'm too scared to fall that far!
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Aug 16, 2011 - 09:07pm PT
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I probably took a 100 footer when I zippered an entire a4 pitch on the Prow while soloing it back in 1970. I thought I did the 2nd ascent but who knows.
I was nearly done with the pitch and zippered all the nested pins, most tied off with nylon shoe-lace cord, to reduce leverage. The bolt that Robbins put in at the belay stopped me.
A bunch of people were watching in a spotting scope, Dill, Donini, etc.
They said I completely fell out of view.
I remember the knot was pretty much welded shut and real hard to untie at the top. I guess luck was on my side. I was wearing a Whillians harness at the time. Lucky I wasn't tied into a swami belt.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Aug 16, 2011 - 09:16pm PT
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Bloody 'ell, you guys are manic! Especially Tom Cochrane. Pretty cool to take a huge whipper on A4 on the Prow, when it's only C1 or so these days.
I'm with Mark Hugedong. Safe and happy and all. My longest fall in over thirty years of climbing has only been about thirty feet. I've taken a few of those.
NOT EVEN CLOSE to the Hundred Foot Club. Never intend to join! Prefer the Half My Age Club. {wink}
We await Kate and Ammon.
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mushroom
Trad climber
USA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 09:24pm PT
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Im close. I took one around 85 feet. Ice climbing no doubt. I stopped about 10 feet from the deck. Shook myself out, reverted and asked my belayer, "You on belay dude?" "No dude!". I broke an ankle that day. My crampon must of caught somewhere. Some days you win, other days you learn. Luckily that rope was 200' and the climb was move than 100'.
What does not kill you . . .
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JakeW
Big Wall climber
CA
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Aug 16, 2011 - 11:28pm PT
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James climbs 5.13 now, and learned how to bake, and can almost read and write again. Not bad for a permanently disabled retard.
I fell 100ish feet off the Mark of Zorro pitch on Zodiac, about 10 years ago...back when I was dumb enough to aid climb. Now I'm smart and I hangdog, much more elegant.
I was pissed that year cuz I had to work so much at the Tioga Pass Entrance Booth, and things never worked out on my weekends, so I hadn't climbed many walls. I decided I better just climb one after work.
I picked up Kriletich at the Tuolumne Store at about 7:30pm. We drove down to the valley, marched up to the base, and started climbing. At the white circle we blasted off some flare Scotty Burke gave us. We thought it'd be some little thing, but it turned out to be a full on Fourth of July rocket. It screached out over the Nose and lit up the whole meadow with sparkles...luckily nothing caught fire.
Now, we were trying to go pretty fast, since I had to be back at work the next morning, so we weren't exactly putting the necessary emphasis on safety...plus we were young. So I was just throwing sh#t in, yarding, and punching it. At the Mark of Zorro I clipped the bolt at the lip, but skipped clipping the heads afterwords since we didn't have a hammer to replace them should I whip and pull them out.
At the ledge above I woke up some dude that was bivied there, and continued on freeing up and right into that next corner where I shoved some more gear in and yarded. Eventually it all fell out and I plummeted into darkness.
I fell past Sean and my headlamp kept going. He thought it was me...going all the way as rope piled up in his lap. Eventually it fed back out though, and I came to a stop. After a few moments of gentle swinging my head conked the wall, but I couldn't touch it thereafter.
I wrapped some webbing around the rope and prusiked up, then lowered down to Sean and got his headlamp. Then I yarded back up and re-led past the bivied dude...who was laughing at me for some reason. He loaned Sean his headlamp as he jugged by in the dark.
We topped out a bit later, ran down and lounged in the meadow, and rallied back up to Tioga Pass in time for me to clock in at 11am for another shift.
Numerous times during the day I awoke to some dumbass tourist asking me if they needed to pay to go in...
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craig demartino
Trad climber
loveland, co
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Aug 16, 2011 - 11:43pm PT
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I'm in, 100 feet from the first pitch of Whiteman in RMNP. But I get awesome parking at the mall now.
Good seeing you in SLC James.
C
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MarkWestman
Trad climber
Talkeetna, Alaska
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Aug 17, 2011 - 12:32am PT
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"JakeW":
If your Zodiac whipper was in the fall of 2000, like early September- then I'm about 100% sure that the long- like 4 or 5 full seconds long- and LOUD, scream that woke me and my partner up on Big Sur Ledge was yours!
I've told this story many times over the years. We saw your group starting up at dusk. Watched your progress, fell asleep. Middle of the night, a bunch of shouting kind of mixes with the dreams I'm having, but clearly I heard something like "MY HEADLAMP JUST DIED!". Then, about 20 seconds of silence, followed by the loud, creepy, death scream, which ended and echoed across the valley and back into the night's silence. My partner (Joe Puryear) and I bolted upright, looked at one another, and one of us said, "that didn't sound good...". A few days later I met the soloist- who I think was Aussie or Kiwi- who was bivied atop the Zorro pitch and saw the whole thing.
Small world. Glad you were okay- how far was it?
Cheers-
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bruce talbot
Trad climber
reno, nv
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Aug 17, 2011 - 12:35am PT
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Mark Clements took at least a 100' freefall out of the top of the Meatgrinder in 71. He had his foot on a knob, ready to mantel up to the little ledge when it broke off, pulled the last pin below him. The friction at the pin that held melted the sheathing into a glaze and left the rope at about two thirds of it's original thickness.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 17, 2011 - 12:41am PT
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It would've been better if I hadn't joined the club. I thought I was so cool.
D'oh.
Only takes a second. You ain't so cool now, pal. Wakin' up in a litter can be, and is best avoided. Just sayin'.
Taught me a thing or two.
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