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Point Perp Accidents 23/24 Feb 2014 24-Feb-2014 At 1:10:59 AM nmonteith

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I just got back from an event filled weekend. One was a near miss, and one was a proper full scale accident. I thought I’d jot down some notes from the two days in the hope they are useful.

Incident one happened on Saturday at Windjammer Wall. A strong and experienced climber I was belaying was attempting Feeding Frenzy. He chose to run it out to the high first bolt, about 8m up the wall. The first 4m is juggy onto a ledge, then another 4m above this ledge is the bolt. He was about to clip the bolt when the jug he was holding snapped off. He tumbled back - landing arse first on the ledge, bounced spectacularly and continued onto the ground. Amazingly he sustained no serious injuries from the 8m fall - just bruising and minor scratches. He was incredibly lucky not to have landed head first onto the jumbled boulders. A very close call.

The second incident on Sunday had a similar theme but did not end so well. An American climber (with 8 years climbing experience) was attempting a trad route on the far left end of the Bayside area *. It involved a 30m rap in to a small ledge. His partner (an Italian) chose to leave the rap rope in place. The leader launched up a juggy crack - got to about 6m up and broke a handhold. He had placed no gear at that point. He fell off, landing on the ledge with one leg causing a very nasty compound fracture and dislocation of one ankle. A lot of blood. Lucky for them they still had the rap rope in place! The belayer prussiced up to the top and ran for help (finding me and others). He did not know the phone number for ambulance in Australia and did not speak very good English. I made the call - and had the usual problem describing the location of the accident (why do they always ask what town and street number!). I then rapped down to the injured climber and ended up spending 5 hours with him as the Ambulance chopper and high access guys patched him up, drugged him and put him in the stretcher. The route above our ledge was overhung and blocked the chopper so he was winched out manually to the top and then carted to the waiting helicopter. Myself and the ambo guy ascended out after dark.

Lessons learnt?

• Place gear in the first few metres of a route - even if it is easy! A short fall can have big results, especially in a rap-in, climb-out area.

• Have an escape option. Prussics and a fixed rope meant the belayer could get to the top and get help quickly. The accident happened around 4:15pm and most climbers had already left the cliff. If they hadn’t left a fixed rope they would have still been stuck there - possibly overnight trying to get the attention of boats 80m below.

• Guidebooks need to clearly show emergency contact phone numbers. The Point Perp guide failed miserably. The Italian belayer did not know how to ring for an Ambulance in Australia, lucky we were there to help him.

• Cutting a tight climbing shoe off a dislocated and broken ankle is not fun!

( * I have yet to work out exactly what route they were on - even though I spent 5 hours below it! It was somewhere near Hello Dolly I think - but not the main wall. They may have have been off route and rapped too far down?)

I would like to thank the Ambulance and other emergency services for a fast and professional job. THANK YOU!