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Climber hit by Lightning - Pierces Pass 5-Jan-2011 At 5:05:23 PM Jezlevett

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During the storm i rang a friend to describe the situation and to explain that everything was ok at the time. The stormed stopped briefly and the wall was completely soaked , by 5.30 my climbing buddy reached me. We decide to both go to the cave to chill and make up our minds. After a quick discussion I had agreed to climb the last 2 pitches around 50metres together if it was possible, so we could quickly retreat, I was standing on the ledge next to the anchor and my mate was coming back from the cave to belay me. When the lightning appeared to strike extremely close by as the wall flashed and a loud thunder sound was made. My mates hands were touching the wall at the time so he felt the shock and compared it to an electric socket as his muscles cramped up in his hands. At that time we looked at each other and decided to bail. In case the storm got bigger.

The abseil is extreme and epic by the way cheers to mike law for making such an awesome abseil. We abseiled to the 4th pitch from the end of the 6th pitch, and my mate called friends to establish possible ways out. My smart phone had died as usual, with its bad battery life. We didn’t have good reception so we thought that this could be the last chance we have to talk to anyone. After two hours of getting numbers and waiting for people to call us back We had decided that we would take the base jumpers route. We had an idea of where it was but Isildur if I think I know who you are provided a more detailed description of the route out. And we told them what the scenario was as well. I also called my brother and told him not to worry and we would be taking the base jumpers route, but were ok at the time and would be out by 2pm the next day max.

So by then time had stretched out till 8pm. We did 2 more abseils with the 3rd abseil the rope became stuck when we were one pitch off the ground. We had decided to land on the ambola block (I think its called) We tried using a 3 to 1 pulley system and a 1 to 6 pulley system to try to pull the knot free. We know think the rope had caught maybe over the edge.

Back at home friends started to get worried and they called for help at 8.30 and we thank climb fit staff and other people involved for their effort. When they couldn’t hear back from us. Looking back if I had a friend in the same situation and was far from reaching them I would do the same regardless of what they say so we really appreciate their help.

We tried for ages to free the knot. Then decided to call it in since we were well into the dark. As we didn’t know how much our pulling on the rope had worn the rope we decided it would be smart not to prussic up to move the knot over the edge, we had heard bad stories of ropes breaking. ( by the way there is a knot as we tied both ropes together to get a 60m abseil) . So at 10.30 we tried calling for help as this is the point where we knew we needed assistance. Um 112 and 000 seem to be exactly the same if that clears things up. Anyway we got through for 5 seconds each time only twice, and I doubt they could understand what we were blurting the location and scenario extremely quickly.

After that I realized I could use my quad knot anchor , take it apart and make a long rope. I anchored it to a tree and myself. Walked back to the edge of the block and luckily pulled the rope free. Which was probably the most happiest we have ever been.