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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Jan 10, 2013 - 11:07pm PT
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Hey Friend,
Glad you're still around for another summer of trips planned. Spoke to Angela on the phone the other night while you were on your way home and I just couldn't blurt out "hey I heard Jim just had a close one".
I think UV is the real culprit. Folks, think of that stuff as real particles slamming into and completely through the sling anytime there is sunlight because that's exactly what happens. In fact, 9 minutes earlier those particles actually left the sun and made the PHYSICAL journey to earth until they slammed into the sling like bullets. Not just some mystical stuff floating around to brighten our day.
Arne
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MisterE
Social climber
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Jan 11, 2013 - 12:38am PT
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This route and webbing gets direct Arizona desert sun from early morning to dusk. The first ascent was 1981.
Hell, the whole place is suspect, except for the Oak Creek Basalt...isn't that why we love it?
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PhilG
Trad climber
The Circuit, Tonasket WA
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Jan 11, 2013 - 12:41am PT
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Happy to hear your still with us, Jim.
That's a good lesson for us all...
It's going to be tough to survive the next 50 years of climbing!
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cragnshag
Social climber
san joser
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Jan 11, 2013 - 01:16am PT
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It's good to avoid the reaper! Glad you made it.
Here's some simple math for all y'all out there.
supertape = 35 cents/ foot
fancy pine box (on sale now at overstock.com)= $2,339
This would buy 6683 feet of supertape to make about 1114 six-foot hero loops.
Probably a lifetime supply of webbing for most folks.
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Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
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Jan 11, 2013 - 01:40am PT
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As with everyone else, I'm really glad you clipped that knot into the system Jim. Sedona as a whole is no joke, for this and a lot of other reasons.
This is exactly why I always carry some webbing with me on my "Oh sh#t kit" biner.
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couchmaster
climber
pdx
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Jan 11, 2013 - 09:20am PT
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...."Consequently I had the knotted sling as a loose backup.
I leaned back to rap and found myself flying through space for six or seven feet and hanging from the single strand of knotted webbing. The main sling offered no resistance, it parted like it was composed of warm butter. Hanging from the knotted sling, I got a hand jam, placed a red camalot and all was well.
Moral of the story NEVER assume that an older sling is good even after careful inspection."
Holy mother of ....WOW! My story would have continued thus: "Hanging from the knotted sling, I got a hand jam, placed a red camalot and all was well EXCEPT FOR FOR STILL BEING SCARED SH#TLESS AND THE SH#T AND PISS RUNNING DOWN MY LEG......"
Seriously, thanks for the heads up, I too have overly trusted old webbing, and congrats on the amazing survival skillz which have seen you in good stead all yer life Jim.
Wow
Cragnshag: old refrigerator box -... free.
Fair trade, free range and even more biodegradable than Doninis old 1" tubular webbing:-) .
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kc
Trad climber
the cats
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Jan 11, 2013 - 09:38am PT
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More evidence in the argument for...redundancy!
Glad all turned out ok. :)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 11, 2013 - 09:54am PT
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All's well that ends well.
JFC, JD!
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Jan 11, 2013 - 10:08am PT
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I still had confidence in the old webbing, I had read a report that old 1 inch slings had been tested and still had 1,000 plus pounds tensile strength.
do us a favor, jim, and dig up that piece that you read. i've gotten very curious.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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Jan 11, 2013 - 10:21am PT
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One of my memories from the Nose was a half dozen crunchy slings like that all jammed through the eye of a single piton on the king swing. I clipped them all!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jan 11, 2013 - 01:48pm PT
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Jim: Looks like we need to keep doing the toast at the end of every climbing day.
Here's to Cheating Death! (again)
Since this is turning into a rotten webbing discussion: I do want to bring up 1 inch, high-tenacity, polypropylene flat webbing rated to 1500 lbs or so.
This material is little used for climbing, but is widely available for tie-down straps. I have used the stuff for 30 years for whitewater rafting.
Please don't use it for climbing anchors. I've had the experience of being able to easily-snap polypropyline raft straps that still had most of their original blue color after 100 or so days in full sun.
Here's a materials comparison chart link. It mentions nylon doesn't do as well in an akalai environment. I wonder if that would affect the obvious short life of nylon slings in Arizona?
http://www.drdcorp.com/strap-cord-hardware/strapchart.htm
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Snowmassguy
Trad climber
Calirado
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Jan 11, 2013 - 02:26pm PT
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Happy Birthday ! I think I have had at least 2 full value birthdays in the past. Scary stuff! Glad you are OK. Serves as a good reminder and wake up call for me going forward.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Jan 11, 2013 - 02:40pm PT
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Bolts and 4 quick links are way less of and eyesore and 1,000 times better than slings. If I have to construct a sling anchor I almost never use webbing. I use old climbing rope.
What is with this tat through the hangers bs? Would you guys rather die than put some metal on an anchor? Tat anchors are ugly too and stick out like a sore thumb. You'd think where sun was an issue you wouldn't risk it......
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Beatrix Kiddo
Mountain climber
ColoRADo
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Jan 11, 2013 - 02:40pm PT
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Happy belated!!! Scariest 6-7' fall ever! Quick thinking saved you. We are glad!
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Jan 11, 2013 - 03:11pm PT
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Whew!
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Ibex
climber
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Jan 11, 2013 - 05:16pm PT
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In contrast to you, a friend of ours was more unlucky.
When the old sling he was rappelling from broke, he fell
the entire remaining length of the east face of Matterhorn
to his death.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
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Jan 11, 2013 - 06:05pm PT
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re: testing the system
Hardly any mention here of testing the system before letting loose.
Test the system.
I love to rappel. I've done it hundreds of times - but NOT ONCE EVER without testing the system (visually, under body weight, dynamically under movement) before removing backup daisy, whatever.
In the gym, too, I also see many climbers reach the top anchor and without any pause let go or jump off without a second thought. When it's so easy, why not take a second and double check the system before asking to be lowered? Besides, it's great habit building for outdoors. I do it every time without fail.
In climbing it can be over in a second. The devil is in the details.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Jan 11, 2013 - 09:02pm PT
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OMG Jim, that's effin' scary as hell!
I've never broken webbing but once in the Bugaboos when the rope got jammed and two of us pulled extra hard, we retrieved not only the rope but the entire flake that had been the anchor, thereby giving new and additional emphasis to the term "rappel."
A notable aspect of Jim's experience is the anchor he trusted was worthless and the anchor he thought worthless held a seven-foot fall. I think this illustrates that, although we learn many things through experience, there are still things we don't know how to judge, and sometimes our "experience" can convince us (because we've gotten away with stuff many times in the past) that we know things that we really don't (such as the strength of old webbing and the solidity of fixed pitons and bolts).
I think another danger for those of us with many years' experience is that we can forget to shift gears, by which I mean that we may apply standards that were appropriate for serious conditions in remote settings to little crags, where we have all the time in the world and, usually, access to lots of extra gear to make the situation redundant, even if it slows things down a bit. If we're going to get the chop, at least it should be on something big 'n nasty and not some little pimple of a crag, but as Jim says, gravity never sleeps, and we nod off, even for an instant, at our peril.
As we all exhale our communal sigh of relief, we can take comfort in the fact that experience did win the day; the back-up anchor was clipped and did what it was supposed to do.
Thank god you're ok Jim. Happy New Birthday.
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crazytom
climber
Maine
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Jan 12, 2013 - 06:43am PT
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Everyone that posts here has been lucky at some time. Glad your luck hasn't run out!!!!!!!!!!! Grateful for the post as a reminder to us all to be diligent - always.
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nopantsben
climber
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Jan 12, 2013 - 06:58am PT
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Yeah, good to hear you're still gonna be around for a while!
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