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johnx01
Trad climber
UK
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Mar 30, 2006 - 04:05am PT
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To the guy with the green bandana : Nice spot kid.
The woman's a top belayer tho'
Reminds me of a friend I was climbing with a few years ago, he'd just come back from the States and was telling us a story of a couple of climbers working a route.
As the leader got to past the hard bit, he turned to his belayer and said
'Hey dude, I'm gonna whip' and just came off for a thirty footer.
We thought this was so cool we would try this approach to falling, we spent the next few weeks trying it, we never got past
'Hey doooooooo - aaaargh'
John
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hardman
Trad climber
love the eastern sierras
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Mar 30, 2006 - 09:04am PT
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gunks local cody who just bagged freerider on el cap this past september
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Eddie
Trad climber
Boston
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Mar 30, 2006 - 09:18am PT
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Are helmets really that out of style these days?
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Holdplease2
Big Wall climber
Yosemite area
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Mar 30, 2006 - 09:38am PT
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Hi Billy: It wouldn't really have been factor two, though the distance might make it seem so.
I ripped/broke 8 pieces of pro and deployed 8 screamers on the way down, reducing the rate of fall. The catch was soft, and the screamer on the pro that caught me didn't even fully deploy.
A bolt 10 feet off the anchor is what stopped the fall. It was the only pro on the pitch that wasn't a head or rivit.
-Kate.
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sevrdhed
Boulder climber
salt lake city
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Mar 30, 2006 - 10:29am PT
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Well, I'm glad I found this thread. Funny to see those pictures posted on the internet.
"That's an incredible sequence. Never heard of that many cams blowing out. Fricking belayer deserves a trophy.
JL "
Haha, she certainly does, if not more. Not only did she do a superb job of belaying, she held it together after watching him deck, AND then proceeded to rope up 10 minutes later and aid up the route to clean it and set up a TR so we could try it. She's got way bigger balls than I do, certainly.
Scariest thing I've ever seen in my entire life, bar none. If I go the rest of my climbing career without watching someone else hit the dirt, I'll be a happy man.
Steve
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hashbro
Trad climber
Not in Southern California
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Mar 30, 2006 - 01:17pm PT
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Unfortunately there are no photos (only blurred memories) of my big whipper on Pinky Paralysis in the Valley in the late 70's. Pat Timson belayed me on the second pitch of the aptly named thin crack.
Not having the appropriate sized nuts (with testosterone levels still high) I went for it anyway. I put in several bad hexes and kept hoping the next one would be better, but it wasn't.
Getting pumped, I finally reached down for my last nut and it pulled straight out sending me backwards out in space. I pulled one, two, three and then four nuts and flew a full forty til Pat stopped me on a hip belay, with only two fixed pins between he, I and eternity.
I found myself dangling in space, having flown over the roof on the first pitch, ribs and ego bruised (or broken).
I guess I must have survived.
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Texplorer
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Mar 30, 2006 - 01:47pm PT
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From my solo on Zodiac this summer. . . .
. . . Next up was the grey circle which I encountered more spice. The pitch leading up to the Nipple had some spicy hooking and copperhead placements. Sarah, one of the girls in the party above me was still belaying as I approached the anchor. She said she had stick clipped to get to the anchor but I was determined to “climb” to it. I climbed to just below her on a hook she split her legs to give me room to climb up to the belay. Gotta love climbing!!! Well, to make things more interesting I had to place a copperhead to make the final moves to the anchor. After a few minutes of bashing the thing in with lost arrow I lightly bounced it. Seeming OK I stepped onto and moved up between Sarah's split legs. I sat there fiddling with my aiders and started to move up to clip the anchor when . . POW!!! The head blew and I fell back onto my hook. I guess Sarah had good reason to be nervous of all my hooks and pins so close to her crouch. Well, luckily her body was spared and lucky for me my hook bent but held. That was enough excitement for one day and I bivyed there under the Nipple pitch that night savoring one of my best whips.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Not in Southern California
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Mar 30, 2006 - 02:09pm PT
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And of course this was not this year, but it was the best whipper of the year when it occured (posted elsewhere on this forum).
In the early 70's at Suicide rocks I belayed "Bill", a fellow I had just met on the Guillotine, a 5.8 route on the north side of the crag.
With my pal Randy sitting on the ledge next to me and a crowd of onlookers below, "Bill" moved farther and farther off route, grabbed gear that he failed to clip and whined quietly to himself.
Eventually the crowd at the base included the entire Riverside Search and Rescue team, a bunch of concerned climbers and Randy ready to help with the scrape up. All of a sudden "Bill" screamed once. then again and we say his carcass skid across the white slabs of Suicide toward us and the ground. At that instant Randy and I began grabbing tons of rope to lessen "Bill's" fall. We pulled through 40, 50 and then 60 feet of rope when "Bill" hurtled toward the sharp ledge next to our belay stance.
Then suddenly "Bill" stopped, inches above the craggy ledge, his heart still beating and his body hugely shaken. Randy and I were stunned that "Bill" survived, having only fallen 120 feet.
The rescuers from Serch and Rescue jumber up on the stance, cut off his swami belt and shuttled him down the trail as we looked on in horror.
That is the story of "Acapulco Bill" and his Cliff Dive at Suicide rocks.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
one pass away from the big ditch
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Mar 30, 2006 - 03:34pm PT
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holy monkey dancing!
which route was he on for the actual fall?
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guyman
Trad climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Mar 30, 2006 - 04:04pm PT
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Good story....
One time I was working on a new root in the valley, "Reefer Madness" as it became known. It starts off from the top of a pillar so one is already up about a pitch with no chance of decking....It's Steve Beadford's lead and he gets up about 60 feet above the 2 bolt belay, 1/4 inch mank, standard of the day, with no stance to bolt from, he found a little flake on the face and put in a thin pin and had us give him a little tenson so he could get his hands free. He starts drilling and the darn flake just comes off!! He sort of turned around, looked down at the three of us hangin on the bolts, and started to scream as he started to fall/slide. This is slab climbing so it started off slowley but in an instant he was really flying, and comming right at US. His foot hit one of the boys at the belay and this sent him spinning as he went past and down, ending up way below us! His ego was a bit brused and after burning one we were ready to go again...only problem...It was my turn.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Not in Southern California
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Mar 30, 2006 - 04:40pm PT
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Mungeclimber,
Acapulco Bill fell somewhere adjacent to the Guillotine. I'm not sure if a route exists in that region or not.
Before fading into obscurity, Acapulco Bill actually became somewhat famous for surviving the fall.After spending the night in the hospital in San Bernadino he returned to Humber Park bruised and shaken, but a star. For the next few weekends, Bill was seen shmoozing around with the likes of John Long and the Stonemasters.
To quote Largo, "that dude had some sac."
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ChrisW
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Mar 30, 2006 - 04:54pm PT
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If this is for 2005. I fell on Romulan Territory on Lumpy Ridge (RMNP) falling 2/3rds of the ~150 foot first pitch. I only bounced off the slab once blowing both climbing shoes almost totally off my feet. Otherwise, It was a pretty clean fall. After the fall, we self rescued and i crawled back to the parking lot wounded but not dead.
2 weeks later I found out I broke Two toes. One on each foot. I was back in the saddle 3 weeks later. Thanks for the Catch Yarrow.
So, I guess this could be in the running for Colorado 2005?
One more thing. No pro blew with my fall. that guy at Indian Creek must have been using the wrong size cam for the crack. don't blame it on the Gear. It's always Pilot error one way or the other.
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Tom
Big Wall climber
San Luis Obispo CA
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Mar 31, 2006 - 12:12am PT
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Pilot Error, n; In aid climbing, when the leader errroneously moves onto something unable to support his weight.
"The decision to not fully bounce-test a fixed head above a bad pin-stack, so as to not fall onto the pin-stack, was Pilot Error and resulted in a zipper fall."
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scuffy b
climber
S Cruz
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Mar 31, 2006 - 10:39am PT
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And if the head failed the bounce test?
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Holdplease2
Big Wall climber
Yosemite area
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Mar 31, 2006 - 10:50am PT
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You replace it...
-Kate.
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scuffy b
climber
S Cruz
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Mar 31, 2006 - 11:07am PT
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Yeah, but what I mean is, if the head fails without the test and drops you onto the stack, won't you be falling onto the same stack when the head fails the bounce test?
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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So we're closing in on the end of 2010.
Who logged the biggest whipper this year?
My own modest entry is the 30-35 footer back in April, but The Brave Little Toaster and I get bonus points for a broken arm, a broken finger and a 50 mile drive to the E.R.!!
Ok, who can beat us?
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xtrmecat
Big Wall climber
Kalispell, Montanagonia
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I logged a doosy on the Trip at the end of May. Tom, thanks for all that you do for us, took this picture of the end result. It should remove any doubt as to how far I went. I may have been jugging by the time the photo was taken, I can't tell for sure.
I was at the flared nut placement one long move before the intermediate anchors on pitch 5 of the Trip, and oh what long trip it's been. I seem to remember the tied off pin's hero loop didn't even resist, the camhook bent beyond all hope of it ever being useful again, a nut and I think a mini cam pulled, and it was I think a .4 or so BD that finally got things slowed up.
I remember the pop, falling, no big deal right, and then having time to realise that the wind noise in my ears was something new, comprehending the fact that I should not still be going, and then cushing in on a soft catch. All air, no touch, pulled my little German belay buddy up off the anchor to the first hanger. Woke him right up if I am not mistaken. He wanted me off the end of the rope asap, even more than I wanted to get back in the groove. Musta hurt him pretty good, scared him for sure.
I am six foot tall, so figure out where the mid anchor point is, come down about four feet and that is where my chest was at the start of the wahooooooo experience. I believe the nut was slotted in the black wetness at the top of the picture and the anchor is a long reach or two moves just out of the frame of the pic. Yes, I screamed a wahoooooo at the top of my lungs upon a succesfull stop. The crowd on Mescalito, the party that had a bad fall at the top, hooted approval.
Best dang memory of ElCap I have. I do believe it to be my personal best air time, too. Thank You Mammut for the new super safe rope, it inspires a sense of warm and fuzzy, well at least warm and wet.
How did I do???
Burly Bob
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HighTraverse
Social climber
Bay Area
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xtreme ol' laddie
For us weenies who've never done the Trip, can you edit the pic to show the mid pitch anchors and the pro that held?
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xtrmecat
Big Wall climber
Kalispell, Montanagonia
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No can do. I am a photo newby. Tom took the pic from the bridge and the anchor is about one move out of the top left of the frame. The dark stain on the top of the pic, in the left leaning crack, 15% of the way from the left edge is where the nut ripped, I think. I don't have any photo edit software to install arrows or text. Last thing on my mind was to document the event, it was after all, the money pitch. I do believe the crux is not this pitch, but a little further up the stone, or so it seemed to me. But it definately is the funnest pitch so far this year.
Burly Bob
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