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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jun 12, 2014 - 01:15am PT
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Avery, you and James were both injured soloing so, from where I sit, at one point you both got internally 'comfortable' with that reality on a more or less comparable level which leaves me speculatively wondering about resiliency and self-trust issues in the wake of your respective accidents. As you say, no two individuals are the same and neither are their histories of life experiences and circumstances, let alone recoveries - I know my wife is just remarkably resilient in a raw survival sense, where I'm more of a just lay down and die type.
Ultimately it is for you to determine your relationship with it all, but maybe Ron's suggestion of some top roping could help you get a clearer bead on your feelings; are they simply a nostalgia for another earlier time, a longing to return to some abandoned roots, just being caught up in re-associating with the community here, or a real desire to climb again.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Jun 12, 2014 - 01:30am PT
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Ten years ago I fell 100 feet free-soloing in Joshua Tree. This year, I got close to free climbing El Cap in a day.
Nice effort James! Those muscle relaxers must be working.
I fell off the horse, and was hoping that I could give a couple of months to heal up--that never worked, so now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to re-find the stirrup.
Injuries suck-eth. But nothing beats the joy of climbing movement/climbing dance.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2014 - 01:42am PT
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Thanks for the advice, it's all positive and it's something I don't take lightly. This thread has been a therapeutic experience for me.
Thanks to all.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2014 - 03:11am PT
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What ever happened to howy? all his posts have vanished.
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KabalaArch
Trad climber
Starlite, California
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Jun 12, 2014 - 09:53am PT
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what's your self rescue technique when you find yourself in mid air, somewhere between the rock and the ground?
The drop from “No Fall,” posted upthread, wasn't much more than your average boulder problem; just a few several bodylengths. But it's not the fall, it's the landing – a table sized ledge, about another bodylength above the spiky cobbles and man-trap bramble thickets which border the paved walkway that circumnavigates Indian Rock.
The ledge surface is just irregular enough to throw you off balance, and pitch you into the landscaping. No landing like a cat down there – this area had already dished out one cervical fracture.
The smooth, steep slab made a pretty fair off season simulator for a new, touchy, GPA testpiece that had shut us down end of the prior season; it formed the left hand wall of a dihedral whose right hand was overhanging but blessed with an abundance of solid incuts back in the corner. Maybe 5.4.
So, Plan B was just out of arm's length, but that's where I hucked when things went wrong at the top of the slab.
It almost stuck, too. I can still see the 3 fingers of my right latched over the jug, firm and positive. Then, in a very slow moment, one by one each digit uncurls.
If you fall, when you're not expecting to, it happens so quickly that you don't even know you're falling until you're bouncing at the end of your cord. At least, that's what Scott used to say. I think we all experience just enough time dilation to react, even if the reaction seems like pure reflex. I was about halfway down when I caught hold, and it wasn't a blind shot in the dark, either. I'm know I slowed the fall down, at least enough to keep my feet beneath me.
Mess up an athletic save like this, to paraphrase Largo himself, and you're in trouble.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jun 12, 2014 - 10:13am PT
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This is an interesting thread.
I think all of us who climb become enmeshed in the illusion of invulnerability, partially because we are going where normal mortals do not.
Inevitably, we are brought to our senses, in small way, or large.
The small ways, the small injuries, the warnings, are easily explained away (isn't the mind a wonderful thing), and the major things that happen to OTHER people are easily explained away as user error that we would never do.
But our sport is dangerous. I remember talking to Joe Simpson several years ago, when he had decided to give up mountaineering, because he lost a friend on the average of every year, and he'd been climbing for 25+ years....not to mention his horrific injuries. He thought rock climbing was the way to go, and I'll never forget his thinking: "in mountaineering, there are so many objective dangers you can't control, but in rock climbing if you get hurt, you screwed up." He should read this thread.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2014 - 02:55pm PT
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Sweat inducing stuff, KabalaArch, Thanks a lot.
When I fell, I remember two bone crunching hits on my way to the ground. I fell facing the rock (obviously) but I landed on my backside so somewhere in the fall I turned 180 degrees.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2014 - 03:02pm PT
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Thanks Ken M,
Very perceptive words, in my humble opinion.
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Avery
climber
NZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 12, 2014 - 09:35pm PT
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Thanks Ken M,
I didn't know Joe Simpson gave up mountaineering. Do you when he gave up, by any chance?
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melski
Trad climber
bytheriver
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Jun 25, 2014 - 02:55pm PT
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besides spraining my ankle,,getting struck by lightning,,going over a thousand feet in an avalanche,heat stroke on the nose,i;ve been fine,after fourty years of climbing,bought a new rope today,some things are hard to give up,,like my buddy keith says its about the space,,
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