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John Morton
climber
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Oct 30, 2009 - 09:12pm PT
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It was I think 1964 on the N Buttress of Middle Cathedral with Steve Thompson. I had belayed Steve up to my stance. It was one of those little ledges typical of that face which may look level if you hold your head just right. Anyway I put the rack on the ledge for Steve, and then watched horrified as it dribbled off into the abyss. We were left with what Steve had cleaned: a little horizontal and a 2.5" bong, the largest and smallest items we had brought. And a few runners. We were 6-8 pitches up, but got down OK using horns, bushes etc.
John
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Oct 30, 2009 - 09:37pm PT
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I, knock on wood, haven't dropped anything to serious but have been around when it happened. Dropping gear happens all the time, dropping a rack, that would not be good. DrBS dropped the bag of iron and hooks on the upper Town Wall, no cam hooks for you, remember that Alisa? Its half the fun of climbing!
On the top of the 3rd pitch of Dark Shadows years ago. My friend Todd had his new video camera, and as Mark was pulling the water bottle out of the pack, the video camera came out also. I was almost to the top of the pitch when I heard the yell and looked and managed to duck just as the video camera grazed my head. It free fell all the way to the base and landed in the small pond and exploded into a thousand pieces. Every time I go back, I try to find another piece from that time.
This year at the base of Young Warriors at Beacon Rock, roping up. Heard a yell from up high, and from 3 pitches up came a I-phone and impacted right next to me and bounced off into the woods. They came rapping down to try and find it to salvage the card, and I pointed out the intense poison oak thicket it had gone into and they lost interest in going after it.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Oct 30, 2009 - 10:34pm PT
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Malcom D. wrote: "Best story I've heard was that of Josh Wharton and Kelly Cordes last year while climbing Great Trango. While on the third pitch of the 68 pitch route they dropped most of the rack. Rather than rapping down to get it, they kept going up. At the crux 11c pitch they had only two cams that fit so Josh would climb 30' or so, place a cam, climb another 30' place the other cam then lower off to back clean the lower cam. Repeat to the belay. In addition (or maybe that's subtraction) they had only a single JetBoil canister and no sleeping bags. They went 2 1/2 days without any water other than what they could suck off of icicles.
Now that's badass..."
Jeebus, I'll say. Those guys are Gods. And this thread rocks.
While I'm at it - I think the majority of stuff that gets "dropped" actually just comes unclipped for a million reasons. I remember Bridwell, Kauk, Schmitz and I were on a new line on Watkins in blistering heat and from about the 2,000 foot level I saw our entire rack of small to medium Friends plunge down the wall. They were all brand new - just came out - and we almost cried, especialy when I was thrashing up a hateful flare a few pitches higher and could have used some pro.
But the Wharton and Cordes story is just all time.
JL
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AbeFrohman
Trad climber
new york, NY
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Oct 30, 2009 - 10:56pm PT
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While trying to get the right nut out Thin Slabs Direct (Gunks), I was shaking out the biner of nuts, and they all fell, except the one I needed.
I freaked.
I yelled "Holy Sh#t, I dropped all the biners except the one I ne... Oh, wait."
I placed the nut, clipped in, pulled up to the rest, and my partner tossed the rest of the nuts up like a spazzing octopus.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
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Oct 30, 2009 - 10:59pm PT
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And then there are those climbers who don't take a rack in the first place...
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corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
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Oct 31, 2009 - 12:26am PT
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Sitting at the top of Overhang Bypass (80's)
we were looking at the
July 4th traffic jam below us on the
road when an open pack toppled over and
my 35mm Nikon camera rolled out and kept
going right over the edge!
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Dodo
Trad climber
Spain/UK
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Oct 31, 2009 - 05:05am PT
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Lightning storm and Blizzard on the NE Face of the Badile, it is really cold, no bivvy gear, I decide we should go down. Fiona drops her ATC before the first ab, I give her mine, ~15 abseils on a Karabiner break on iced up ropes, fun days.
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426
climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Oct 31, 2009 - 02:54pm PT
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Not so much a dropped rack but dropping nonetheless.
We were on a crazy train Salathe trip, Austrians up front, 4 Koreans we played leapfrog with for 1/2 the wall, and us, Team "7ade".
The Austrians dropped a biner and hit Mr. Hiro in the noggin (his helmet was off). 3 pitches later, they drop a Gri-Gri and hit the same guy in the foot! What are the chances (can't be just 25%~~!) His shoes were off, too. He was seriously hurting...
Up higher a few pitches, Korean's keep asking what "sb" means. I keep trying to tell them "sling belay" from below, and they say "sleeping ledge"? "NO!" But our message was not clear, evidently. 3 am they are pinning out the headwall cracks, looking for "sleeping ledge" (Long).
My partner found a knife on Sous Le Toit. I should have confiscated it immediately. The haul line got cut 4 or 5 times from there to the top along with several slings and other assorted cord, but that's a different story altogether...
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atchafalaya
climber
Babylon
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Oct 31, 2009 - 03:07pm PT
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On me and a friends first el cap route around 1992, we had made it up about 5 pitches, and were passing the rack at a belay, when I saw my hammer and leash rocketing towards the dirt. It was a sweet Chouinard hammer from the 80's and it was heading for talus and hikers at the base. We screamed "rock" and it hit the slabs below South Seas and shot out into the woods. F$%#. Day 1, 1st El Cap Route, and we only had one hammer on the WOEML. After an almost clean ascent, we summitted 8 days later.
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426
climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Oct 31, 2009 - 03:19pm PT
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How bizarre.
My partner found a hammer right in that area, about that time. We were wondering how the heck you drop a hammer... Did you guys come by and claim it? Seems like I remember someone walked up to us shortly thereafter and asked about it...my partner, of scrupulous moral caliber, coughed it up.
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Jobee
Social climber
The Portal
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Oct 31, 2009 - 03:43pm PT
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Once while climbing in Australia I became pretty darn pumped, I was about half way up a very steep 90 foot pitch, this pump was worsening, grabbing gear was out lawed according my rules, and yo yoing was still considered legal, kind of, so I humbly asked my partner to lower me to the ground.
There I rested a bit then climbed back on the rock for another go, I cruised up to my high point, and climbed 15 feet beyond it, I reached for the rack so I could place a small stopper and did not find it, I groped around a bit more and thought to myself " man, this route is so dam steep I can't reach the rack because it's hanging behind my body" quite suddenly it dawned on me the rack is on the ground, with this realization my senses are quickened, my grip becomes tight.
Glancing down towards the ground I see the hand made spotted ocelot "FISH" gear sling with the gear attached to it, (to set the picture perfectly I will tell you I also wore a matching "FISH" harness) both of which I secretly believed helped me climb better because my friend Russ Walling had made them.
In a very soft, child like voice, I say out loud "I forgot the rack" there is no response from below. I say it again, this time with a bit more pitch, "I forgot the rack" there is an audible response, "WHAT???" ... silence.
I am faced with two choices, a 30 foot self inflicted plummet, or a 30 foot climb to the anchor and a certain ground fall. Too chicken to let go and jump I chose the latter.
I climb skillfully, carefully, upwards to a difficult but manageable section. The atmosphere and rock has melded into me, my two partners below vanish out of sight into a thickness, there is only movement, and rock, movement, rock, and the anchor!
I gather my wits, collect the fragmented self, set up the rappel, and descend towards the ground. Once there, nothing is said but much has been learned, today it went well, ... tomorrow?
Jo Whitford
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 31, 2009 - 03:59pm PT
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I've never dropped my whole rack, but I did drop an entire pin rack!
We were about four pitches up on Sea of Dreams, and I had been organicizing gear in my ledge. I had set the entire piton subrack on my ledge without clipping it in - what a dildoe. Anyway, at some point I must have stepped up and off the ledge to unweight it, the wind blew the ledge up and sideways, and the pins fell four pitches to the ground.
Fortunately, we were still close to the ground. I shouted to a person walking beneath - someone from this forum, I think, he later told me, in a spitting sort of fashion, that he was the one who had saved me from my own incompetence. Anyway, we tied three ropes together, and buddy tied the pin rack on, and we hauled it back up and carried on.
If you're going to spend a lot of time on the wall, you will eventually drop stuff. I used to be a bit butterfingered, but after 400 nights on El cap, I am actually starting to get a bit better. For instance, this year I spent about 30 nights up there, and so far as I recall, did not drop a single item of any real significance. But I bootied several really nice cams along the base, and of course a few fixed pins and wires here and there, so perhaps my net worth as a climber actually went up this year.
Nothing but luck this year. Even writing it has probably doomed me to dropping something really important and expensive next season!
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rotten johnny
Social climber
mammoth lakes, ca
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Oct 31, 2009 - 04:28pm PT
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not sure if this is urban legend or a tru story but dennis miller is on some el cap route and drops his rack (brown tube chock) into a cracker jack box and chucks it off the ledge where the box lands on top of a parties haul bag down below.....hopefully the party didn't go fishing for the hidden prize
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atchafalaya
climber
Babylon
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Oct 31, 2009 - 04:31pm PT
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426, we never tried to recover it. I think we headed straight for Bishop after getting back to the car.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
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Oct 31, 2009 - 05:28pm PT
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So maybe we should nickname Pete as "Drop the Pitons Pete". :-)
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Oct 31, 2009 - 06:13pm PT
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I prefer Pass The Pampers Pete, myself. The Sub-Subman!
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Oct 31, 2009 - 10:02pm PT
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At least I can still climb walls, Steve...
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Oct 31, 2009 - 10:24pm PT
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I've never dropped any gear that I can remember, but I did manage to drop a big rock in the middle of Layton Kor's brand new perlon rope on the first pitch of the first climb I ever did with him! He and I and Larry Dalke were up on Red Garden Wall in Eldorado with my only previous experience being on the Flatirons. I had done maybe half a dozen climbs before and stood up on a big block that looked solid to me.
The only good thing was that the rope had been given to him by one of the local climbing shops since kermantle ropes were just coming on line and they wanted him to test it compared to the usual goldline. He and Larry were very interested to see what the inside of it looked like.
Fortunately Layton was a very forgiving person, especially toward naive young coeds, so we went up the next week and finished the climb and did many more.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Pete- Anyone can stand in slings and act heroic, but what have you really added to the game? I am far from done having fun on the Captain, by the way.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C. Small wall climber.
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I will happily carry loads, jumar, clean, haul and keep either (or both) of you company on a trip up the Captain, by any reasonable route. And even lead a few pitches, if that would help. Such wall and aid climbing skills as I have may be somewhat rusty, and techniques and equipment have advanced, but with a bit of help I can probably figure it out, and not drop the rack or anything klutzy.
I draw the line at foot rubs, though.
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