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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 19, 2011 - 08:56pm PT
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You should see my millipede. Not likely to get the boot from this thread.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 19, 2011 - 09:21pm PT
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Never took a 100ft. fall but I held a 200ft. one. Does that qualify me?
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jiff
Ice climber
colorado
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Aug 19, 2011 - 10:13pm PT
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The moral of this story may be, "Don't go on a solo aid trip out west when your wife leaves you".
great moral and great tale!!!
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Captain...or Skully
climber
or some such
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Aug 19, 2011 - 10:48pm PT
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FYI: I am not Russ (The Musskelunge) Walling, however. I am The Walleye, which is a far bigger fish and a superior species.. You, personally are a bigger fish, Walleye. I'll grant you that. But, superior species? Yer pushin' yer luck there, boyo! Muskies are fairly badass.
Excellent stories, huh? I can dig it. Even though mine sounds boring now.
Cheese Louise.;-)
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john hansen
climber
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Aug 19, 2011 - 11:00pm PT
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Any more on that 200 footer Donini?
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giegs
climber
Tardistan
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Aug 19, 2011 - 11:16pm PT
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Took an 80 footer into water off the 2nd to last move on a water solo in '07. Plunged another 15' down. I'm 6' tall, so that's 101 ft, dammit! Like the fish I saw in the creek the fall was bigger than simple measurement allows for.
Luckily I was at that perfect level of drunk where I couldn't quite walk or stand up, but I could (almost) climb 5.10 so I didn't get too beat up for it.
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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Aug 20, 2011 - 12:09am PT
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In 1978 I climbed the Kor-Ingalls on Castleton with my friend Tim Coats. At that time there wasn't much of an approach trail or anything and we wound up scrambling up the cone kind of on the Southwestern slopes. It wasn't easy getting through all the intermittent cliff bands and near the top we soloed up a couple that were tall enough to really scare me.
We finally made it to the climb, got up on top and entertained ourselves reading the summit register, checking out the famous names.
By the time we got back to the base it was pretty close to dark, short days I think it was December 29th. It was stormy and the sky was completely overcast. We went back down the way we came up, and we were able to do the two scary downclimbs before dark.
After that we lost our way in the dark. We had a couple of pretty crappy lights so we could only see our local area. We finally wound up getting cliffed out on something that looked about 30 feet tall. We walked it to the East until the slope on top got so steep and ball bearing that we were afraid we'd fall off, so we turned around and went West.
We were walking along and got to this point that gave us a view of the cliff ahead of us. What we could see of it looked the same, 30 feet that we couldn't downclimb. But on top just ahead we saw a big rock. We were elated since we could use it for a rappel anchor.
I grabbed a rope off the outside of my pack, quickly found the rough mid-point and threw it over the rock. I quickly got into a dulfersitz since my harness and all my gear was buried in the pack.
As I backed up to the edge it collapsed with me and I shot down the ropes far enough to burn holes in both my hands. Worse still, I was hanging in space not touching anything. Not being able to think about anything except the pain in my hands and getting off the rope I kept going. Bear in mind it is pitch black darkness.
I was going down the rope and wondering why I wasn't on the ground yet when one end of the rope passed through my lower hand. I immediately stopped and started screaming at Tim to help me out. I hung for a while but soon I got the realization I was going to fall off from the pain.
The reason the rock was there is that it was a drainage, and underneath it was one of those big, overhanging amphitheatres that erode in sandstone.
In desperation I hung from my upper hand and tried to tie a knot to make a loop I could sit in. Of course, I could not do this and wound up falling completely free of the rope.
As I fell I was waving my arms for balance trying to stay upright and out of the blue snagged the longer end of the rope. I held it as I fell and I could hear this high pitched wizzing noise as it pulled over the anchor. I'm sure it rode up and over the top of the anchor rock rather than pulling the whole rope, and all the rope wound up on the ground with me.
I fell perfectly, landing on my feet and collapsing onto my back. I had one of those Chouinard teardrop shape packs with the zipper top, and right in the top I had one of those rectangular Nalgene liter bottles. It was empty but capped, and my head crushed it flat. I'm sure it saved my life.
After I hit I was kind of paralyzed for a while. I couldn't move at all nor make any noise. I could hear Tim screaming from above but it was a while before I could answer and allay his fear I was dead. Apparently the noise when I hit was very impressive. I have no real idea how far I fell.
Since Tim wasn't coming down the same way he left to find a feasable passage. After a while I got it together enough to coil the rope and began half walking, half crawling back to the car.
Eventually I encountered Tim and we made it the rest of the way to the car.
I was never the same again. I badly damaged my back, I tore several of my ribs off my sternum and I broke my right pinky finger so badly I eventually had to have it surgically fused. I also got more than an inch shorter.
It was the first real climbing trip I had ever gone on and in surviving it I learned a lot. One thing I learned is what a bad idea falling off is. That knowledge guided the rest of my climbing career, even though I did all of the hardest and most dangerous climbs after this trip I have only taken a couple or three falls since. They were well protected and short.
Nick Danger
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 20, 2011 - 12:13am PT
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John, I held Malcolm Daly on a 200 ft. fall on Thunder Mountain in the Alaska Range. I received a deep puncture on my thigh from Mal's mono point. Malcolm suffered a compound fib/tib on his left leg and a shattered calcaneous on his right foot. Mal now gets around rather amazingly with a prosphetic.
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ElCapPirate
Big Wall climber
California
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Aug 20, 2011 - 08:43pm PT
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Count me IN... at least 3 times.
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Aug 20, 2011 - 09:44pm PT
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1978. my partner sonny falls at the top of reeds direct right where that horizontal feature is and the hand crack ends. no big deal, a clean fall. but sonny just keeps coming at me and proceeds to take out half the belay tree i was sitting in at the top of pitch 1. i feel nothing on the lead rope and grab for others, somehow snagging the haul line. turned out he'd tied in wrong ( into loop ) to the old orange whillans harness and left the tie in knot at the top of reeds. caught him on the haul line about 10 feet above the deck. he walked out of the clinic at .01 mph later that evening like an old man. what is that - about 175'. sonny's last climb....
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:07pm PT
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does two 50's at the same time on the same rope count ?
on the glacier on chulu west in nepal in 1983. pemba is at the back and cuts off a corner leaving lots of slack in the rope. he goes big into a crevasse, just disappears in an instant. eric brand is in the middle of the rope and catches the fall. eric is now lying down in the snow holding the rope. i dump my pack. without thinking much, i decide to retrace my steps and get to the same side of the crevasse as eric - seemed like a good idea to be on the same side. i retrace my steps not worrying much, but also creating a lot of slack. i go big, like a road runner cartoon, so fast, into the same crevasse as pemba. eric's up top holding both of us now. i look around the icy blue corner, deep in the hole, and can see pemba in the same crevasse. fortunately we were both completely unhurt and chimneyed / tensioned out of there post haste. two 50's in one. hats off to eric, RIP, we miss you
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:37pm PT
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Wow, David. That sounds like a story from John Long's book. I thought it was urban legend that bacon had been saved by trail lines when the climbers parted company with their haul lines. To what was said haul line attached on Reeds? It sounds like you caught a 160? foot factor two fall with your bare hands from the description.
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Scott Thelen
Trad climber
Truckee, Ca
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:39pm PT
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Scott Thelen
Trad climber
Truckee, Ca
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:44pm PT
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Rick Linkert
Trad climber
El Dorado Hills CA
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Aug 20, 2011 - 10:59pm PT
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If my memory serves me, I think Mark Klemens took his huge fall off the Meat Grinder with a rope that my partner and I used a few days eariler to rap off one of the climbs behind Camp 4. We borrowed the rope and it was horrendous condition - the sheath would flake off with just a bit of effort with a finger nail. It was rumored to have been fixed on El Cap for a season or so. It was so bad that I really was concerned about using it for a rappel. I guess the good news is that it made us feel much more confident about our lead ropes.
I also remember a tale of Jim Stanton taking a titanic fall off the second pitch of the Braille Book - something well in excess of 100 feet.
Rick
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David Wilson
climber
CA
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Aug 21, 2011 - 12:06pm PT
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melissa, the haul line was probably on a locker on one of the back leg loops. it was a very adrenaline infused event. he took out half the tree in the fall and likely slowed himself down. pat adams was at the base, got to him first and asked me to lower him the last ten feet to the ground. i lowered him on the haul line that must have been hung partially in the tree or the 160' catch would have been impossible...crazy lucky guy to survive that one
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Dec 24, 2011 - 01:17pm PT
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Frosty Screamer Bump!
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Dec 24, 2011 - 01:26pm PT
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Anybody know how big the Whistler that Sacherer took was? The one that Kamps caught? That fall was legendary when I started climbing. I think it was on middle cathedral?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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I'm a booster but not a member...LOL
Big Screamer Bump!
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