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Chris Wegener
Trad climber
St. John, Virgin Islands
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Aug 26, 2007 - 03:29pm PT
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I too am late to this party.
I fell eighty feet off of Lithophilliac in JT in 69. I was aiding the route without enough gear and I was only leaving the pins when they were just tipped in. Suddenly I realized the rock was moving up and I was off. I seemed to fall forever, fortunately the route is steep and one of the few climbs in JT that is tall enough. John Wolfe caught me on a hip belay when a leper z pin I had left in the horizontal held.
We called it a day and went home. I was sore for a week and then off to Vietnam. I came back to climbing and it never bothered me though I never did feel the same about aid climbing after that.
Regards,
Chris
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Aug 26, 2007 - 04:27pm PT
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great thread - amazing stories!
a bit of drift...
RE:
"Please do not ask why we didn't think to install leg-loops permanently."
when I started making leg-loops in the early '80's a lot of the guys I asked about them, while showing them the product, said they were simply too concerned with getting their huevos pinched, or worse. In the beginning leg-loops were a slow mover.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Aug 26, 2007 - 09:07pm PT
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It was my belief at the time ('88) that you'd get hung up in the squeeze with legloops on Lucille. I took numerous 20 footers on a three inch misty buckle swami; each one included lowering, swinging, and making 5.10 moves back to the belay.
live and learn.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Aug 26, 2007 - 09:23pm PT
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RE:
"you'd get hung up in the squeeze with legloops"
this was the number two voiced resistance I encountered to leg-loops, before they became standard.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Aug 26, 2007 - 10:10pm PT
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the built in gear-loops were radical enough (but the robust padded swami caught on well) and I fully understood the attitude that prevailed in Yosemite regarding the need for simplicity and clean lines, I was of a similar mindset.
But there is something really aesthetic about wraps of 2" webbing, isn't there?
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Russ Walling
Social climber
Out on the sand.... man.....
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Aug 26, 2007 - 10:18pm PT
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I used to run a pretty thin swami.... this one is perhaps a single strand of 10mm.
Biggest ripper??? Probably Gold Dust/Duster in the Valley.... from just before the chains to hanging horizontal 2ft off the ground. Maybe 40+ feet of air. Probably in a 2" swami, no loops. Pulled some pro. Never really liked the loops, nor do I now. Was using a swami, no loops for a lot of last season.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Aug 26, 2007 - 10:23pm PT
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classic shots Russ,
Watusi always said leg-loops gave him that "trussed up" feeling - I have to agree.
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Russ Walling
Social climber
Out on the sand.... man.....
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Aug 26, 2007 - 10:30pm PT
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This ain't gonna be that comfy in a minute... Buttfukelman getting ready to rip out of Squatters Right in JT. Classic 2" swami with Eiger biners as the connection.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Aug 26, 2007 - 11:19pm PT
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Greg Epperson climbing in Baja in an early unpadded FROG swami
Epperson photo
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Aug 26, 2007 - 11:27pm PT
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an appropriate use of leg-loops - Greg Epperson at work
Epperson photo
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jack herer
climber
veneta, or
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Aug 27, 2007 - 12:04am PT
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Real question... what is the correct way to tie, and then tie into a swami with 2" webbing? Just one wrap, a water knott and 2 biners?
Got a bunch of 2" webbing and would like a light harness for those 5.6 multis and the like.
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mingus
Trad climber
Grand Junction, Colorado
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What hilarious stories. These are priceless!
I took a couple of falls on a swami...the first was thirty feet on Pat Ament's "Pool of Blood" in Eldorado. But I have to admit to 'cheating' when it comes to the discomfort of hitting the bottom of the line where the swami sucks up around your kidneys and ribcage, because I landed on my back in the talus before the rope caught up with me. When I recovered consciousness I threw all the experimental protection devices on the market at the time(pre-camming) into the trees below.
The next time I fell on a swami was in Boulder canyon. It was around 25 feet, but I cheated on this one as well, the old pin pulled, and at 20 feet I hit a ledge with the full impact on my coccyx and then I pitched over the last five feet onto the swami. So I guess I have only fallen around five feet on my swami. Man did it hurt!
In the 70's when you got your hands on a copy of Climb! Colorado or Yosemite Climber, you saw images of Roger Briggs on Jules Verne, or Ron Kauk on the Bircheff-Williams, and you thought who on earth needs leg loops? Those guys were the 'bad-asses' you wanted to emulate. What do I know? I only fell five feet onto that strapping that knocked the wind out of me. I sure am glad they have these things called 'harnesses' now! Thanks for all the stories.
How do we ever survive 'teenagerhood'? MingusManyMules
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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In ~'74 my cousin Ken and I ditched high school and went to Suicide to climb. I was psyched to climb Ten Carot Gold so off we went. I was one inch from the end of the crux traverse on the first pitch, tried a step through move and skated. I slid about 30-35 feet before he stopped me. I was unhurt, not even any road rash and we were able to finish the route.
Seems every time I ditched school to climb something sketchy happened!
Roy, who is that beautiful young girl in Tuolumne?
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Phil56898079
Boulder climber
New Mexico
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25 feet. My glasses came off. My belayer was using a hip belay. He caught me with one hand and my glasses with the other. I flipped over and hit my head. After that I never used the leg loops again -- only the swami.
You know, I lived in France for a long time, and in my group of partners, if you didn't give a dynamic belay, we wouldn't climb with you. Neither would we climb with anyone belaying sitting down or not watching. And we thought twice about letting anyone using a grigri belay us.
I only boulder now, but on the rare occassions I come across some climbers and I wrap the rope around my waist, I get a kick out of how they react. I really feel for the new generation. At least we had an informal apprenticeship program that worked. (And at least the guides still teach properly in France.)
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Dave,
The girl upthread: that is Helga Brown.
As late as '87, she & I took a trip to Canyonlands and were still doing everything in our swamis. We ran into Earl Wiggins & Katy Cassidy and Earl was impressed that we were such hold outs with the 2" tubular tie in method. I just thought it was the right thing to do.
I took a couple 30+ foot whippers in the Cali Needles in the 2" swami. One fall which I executed, we dubbed the "human copperhead maneuver". We were doing the first ascent of Duty Now for the Future, 1983, Lechlinski was belaying and I was heading out right from the steep right facing corner, and angling up underneath a flake on the head wall of Davy Jones Locker. Mike had put in a bolt slightly right of the corner and in his typical nonchalant style: “You got the bolt and all you got to do is motor up to the base of the flake.” While negotiating that stretch of rock, I chose a path that was well, a bit too... steep or incorrect or something, and then I peeled out of there, going for good air, fisrt plunging and then swinging sidewise in a big arc, slamming back into the corner. ‘Tore a good-sized hole in my Levi's, put a big raspberry on my hip and sort of tweaked my jaw. I think we put in another bolt for that section before we continued, and negotiated it via a slightly more auspicious path.
‘Took another pretty good winger during the first ascent of West Side Story on the west face of The Magician, also in the Needles; this was a route right of Liquid Sky, which we had finished earlier that summer.
These were steep face climbs, steep enough to warrant using hooks for some of the bolt placements. A pitch or two off the deck, I left the belay, underclinging and laybacking a 5.8 flake; after that I headed out into a steeper section of rock, with decent features for 5.9/10 climbing, I was a ways out, and it was time to drill, but I couldn’t let go to drill, and the only hook placement I could find was a tiny little flake no bigger than a thumbnail and it was just thick enough to except the tip of a Leeper flat. It also had to be waited at a 45° angle, so it was pretty tricky to get in the bolt without disrupting my stance, while leaning diagonally off the tiny flake and standing on smears. When I finished the hole I pushed the bolt in with my thumb very carefully, then as I slowly cranked down with the wrench to tighten the hanger into the rock, the flake snapped and I swung on to the bolt. We were getting pretty good at drilling and sometimes we’d get greedy and try to do a whole pitch, consecutively putting in the bolts without returning to the belay for a rest, so with this in mind I proceeded up some more terrain and when I began to feel a little bit run out, having pushed plenty far out, I found a stance: pretty steep, a bit smeary for the feet again and I started drilling away, but things weren't going so well: the drill bit was dull and it began binding and I started complaining. I was about ready to pitch off my weary stance, when Mike shouted: “quick I'll put a Leeper point and a fresh bit on to your haul line and you can pull it up, smack the hook in the hole and start over. It worked. Then after completing that bolt placement, I continued climbing and got about 15 or 20 feet out, started crimping & laybacking a diagonal edge, opting to point my right toe down along the edge, when my foot popped and I sailed out of there for 30/40’. I banged my ankle a little bit, and I was pretty shook up. That was it for me on that route; I lowered to the ground where Mari took a good look at my rattled nerves and packed me a bowl.
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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I took a 100 footer on a swami once. It was a super run out slab route, so I didn't hit the end too hard.
I also took about a 30 footer factor 2 on a single 1/4" bolt belay once. That was way, way back. Upside down and backwards. Scared the crap out of me.
Duane Raleigh caught both of those. I am forever grateful. On the hundred footer, he reeled in a lot of slack and caught me with two hands. Said it was a soft catch because all of the skin that I lost really slowed me down.
I know of others in that range. No problem. Swamis were cool. You could sleep in the things and wake up in the morning and go climbing.
I never bought into leg loops until my first wall. We had butt bags, but those things were literally a pain in the ass.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Yes Roy, I remember her now. You guys were an item for quite awhile.
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hashbro
Trad climber
Mental Physics........
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Nov 11, 2007 - 08:55pm PT
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As I mentioned in Bachar's baseball thread, I took a 35' (to 45') footer off of Bachar's "Pinky Paralysis" (or "Great moments in Baseball") in the late 70's. Pat Timson and I had gone up there hoping to cruise the steep little bugger. I ended up falling at the crux, and spun out into space backwards pulling 4 or 5 of my pieces, leaving only the two (or three) fixed pins on the belay.
When I stopped, I was spinning in circles under the roof. Boy cracked ribs sure do hurt for a long time, don't they.
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Ricardo Carlos
Trad climber
Off center, CO.
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Nov 11, 2007 - 10:30pm PT
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The fall that hurt was not the longest and it was with bowline on a coil as I forgot my swami. Rectum Roof and the crack was wet with grass growing in it. Cracked ribs had to switch to a Whillans.
Side note my oldest daughter was looking at pictures and seeing the Whillans harness commented dad couldn’t that really hurt you.
Having to take off my Whillans harness to crap sent me to Noreen’s Foresta pump house( The hottest Yosemite Bus driver ever) to sew a padded swami leg loop combo. Then climbing up a tree in her yard and jumping to see how it worked.
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