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Thanks for the help @ bushrangers bluff..

rokmonkee

3-Jul-2006
7:58:34 PM

Last weekend(24th of june) my wife and I were climbing at bushrangers bluff. She fell, which resulted in a clean break through both her tib and fib.... But to get to the point of this post, we would like to thank the group of climbers (from melb. uni?) that assisted us in getting out of there and into an ambulance.. Thanks so much guys, you made everything happen so easily... Getting our gear packed up and just being there was of great assistance.. Not to mention making sure the ambulance came to the right place... Legends... We both regret not being able to remember anyones names, how rude!! But we hope you all understand this due to the situation....

Just to let you know, she is now home and recovering just nicely, making the most of this patient status she is currently holding....

So once again, many thanks guys....

Andrew and Briony

adamk

4-Jul-2006
3:06:58 PM

Hey man, sorry you guys r havin a bad run hope Briony makes a full recovery and we see you at Araps again soon
cheers
Adamk

dagdamor

5-Jul-2006
11:03:59 AM

It's good to hear Briony is doing well. We were happy to help - to do otherwise is not an option - and not remembering names is completely understandable! Our best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Lincoln, Kate, Alison and Alice.

gfdonc

5-Jul-2006
12:35:09 PM

Rokmonkee, we are all saddened to hear of accidents but happy to hear that Briony is safe, if not exactly well.
This forum serves as a great source of "lessons learned". It would be great if you could post a little more information about how the accident happened for everyone's benefit.
Thanks
- Steve

howzithanging?

6-Jul-2006
9:50:25 AM

hey andrew its tristan W, we met at araps last summer, hope briony is doing well!!

Richard

6-Jul-2006
1:21:52 PM

Hi Andrew, hope you wife gets well soon. Just wondering however, if for the porpose of someone else not having a similar accident, is it possible to identify what went wrong such that the fall resulted in the injuires it did. Was it just a plain case of falling while leading, or did something else go wrong .. gear failure, pro falling out, being flipped by the rope,etc? What sort of distance did she fall?

Cheers, Richard

Spanky

6-Jul-2006
4:55:47 PM

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your good wishes.

Ok, here's what happened.....

Arrived at the crag and jumped straight on to Orange Crush. Grade 14 is about my limit for leading and so the first point to note in hindsight is that I should have warmed up on something a little easier... or seconded something a little harder first.

I was using double ropes and had placed a piece of gear on each rope in the first couple of metres. Then when the climb traverses to the left a little I was struggling to find good gear. My middle finger of my left hand had mysteriously gone numb which started to freak me out. I placed some gear that I knew was marginal, and thought I saw a good placement a little higher up. However, the second point in hindsight: the marginal gear would have held a slump or rest, but nothing more, and climbing higher than that placed me at risk of a ground fall. I should have backed off at that point. Alas, I climbed a little higher and started to panic, got a massive flash pump in both hands & forearms due to vice-like panic grip and still had no feeling in my left middle finger.... and off I came. The marginal gear held for an instant and then ripped and down I went. Andrew managed to catch my upper body in his arms but my leg unfortunately landed across a rock which broke it clean through. I also sprained my right ankle somehow, not sure what happened with my right leg. The next piece of gear came into play just as I reached ground level. The length of the fall would be around 4m.

So that's the goss on what happened.... Still don't know what was up with my finger but it's the least of my worries at this point!

nmonteith

6-Jul-2006
5:01:51 PM

You probably pinched a nerve. I've had a friend that 'killed' his whole hand by jamming enduro cracks. His
hand lost all feeling for a few days - and only came back 'to life' after extensive massage. It was actually
pretty serious when it happened as he was mid pitch and coudln't use his hand at all to place gear. We
had to lower him off (two pitches up) as he couldn't hold the rope!

Good luck with the recovery! At least it is miserable winter - not perfect summer.

Richard

7-Jul-2006
1:10:34 PM

very interesting .. i recall scaring my self silly on that climb for similar reasons.. so I am probably lucky I did not end up with the same injuries .. the climb looks quite strainghtforward and looks like it has good pro, from the ground, but for the first few meters at least, I found it had too many round features which didn't take nuts or cams that well... I am sure I left the start fairly badly protected as well. Again, it was not till i got higher than I found a piece of pro that went in easliy and I liked.

I guess the lesson is that while itd ok to get scared on a climb, and its ok to do hard climbs, and its ok to be in a ground fall situation (when its easy), there's a need to make sure all 3 don;t occur at the same time..

Thanks for the info, and again hope you get better quickly..

Richard

climbingjac

7-Jul-2006
3:22:55 PM

Pinched nerve sounds about right, yes.

I tried to make a clip off a deep finger pocket during a road trip once. Stupid me didn't want to climb that extra 10cm to the good holds. The finger felt normal when I took the other hand off to clip – but once it had to bear weight while I hauled up rope to clip, I lost all feeling. The feeling remained absent for the remainder of the trip (approx 8 weeks!).

It may have just been, Briony, that a delicate part of a tendon was pressing down hard on an edge and that started the weird feeling in your hand…

Best of luck with your recovery!!

rokmonkee

8-Jul-2006
10:43:38 AM

Thanks guys for all the well wishing and helpful reassurance that others have experienced some similar situations with the climb and the numb finger. The feeling has come back to her finger, which has put a smile on her face. So once again guys, thanks for the kind and helpful words..

Andrew

-deano-

19-Jul-2006
3:25:53 PM

hi Andrew,
dont forget to thank yourself. that was a herculean effort on your part to carry Briony out of there. well done.

i hope you both keep climbing!

(you will i'm sure; if you arent murdered by your parents and in-laws, that is)

[for the record, i did that climb earlier in the day. and i cheated. i bridged out into the easy climb on the right (cobb & co?) which the guide explicitly says not to do. she has more guts than me]

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