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General Climbing Discussion

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Stupidest thing youve seen? 3-Aug-2005 At 4:43:13 PM gemmaw

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A while back in the Wolgan we came across a couple climbing. The girlfriend had obviously not climbed before, at least not outdoors. Not being savvy in the techniques of climbing/belaying, she’d gotten the rope into a clusterf… So while complaining about it and everything else about the nasty experience (I think I heard her say it’s not like climbing in the gym), she took both hands off the belay (friction device) and proceeded to detangle the rope!

Later we passed them again and she was seconding his lead (he obviously survived the first climb). She was shouting up to him, “How do I get this wedge thing out of the crack?”. He then tried to instruct her from about 40m up the cliff, although she didn’t have a nut tool. “I can’t get it out. I’m going to leave it here”, she said. When he told her how much the nut cost she said she’d buy him another one. It was the first bit of gear on the climb – I think she would have had to buy him a lot of gear by the time she got to the top (unfortunately we didn't go back later to collect any booty).

Something else that I always used to see when I worked in a climbing gym. Some gym bumblies would lead indoors since we had the facilities there. I would often have to rush over and remind them to clip the draws when they had gone well past them – too used to top-roping, I think they’d forget they were leading.