Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

Scariest fall ever? 12-Oct-2012 At 10:59:37 AM crazyjohn

Message

On 9/10/2012 Cool Hand Lock wrote:
>That's a massive winger.
>
>Mental Jim told me he was belaying someone going for a ground up first
>ascent at Ben Lomond. On the second pitch the guy ran out 30m with no gear,
>as it was a closed corner. Fell the full 60m+stretch. Pulled up a few meters
>off the deck.
>
>Mental Jim shaid he the leader went past the belay quite quickly.

Well Locky it was me, not mental Jim, whoever that is who told the story.... ;)

Scott Deputy is a good climber. He works on YOSAR with Niels, the guy who took the 50 meter fall climbing at Ben Lommond. Just to clarify a few things,

1. Niels had a lot of gear. Like 7 or 8 pieces. Each of these held long enough to pull me into the cliff so I ended up dry humping the cliff until he eventually ripped out all but one piece of gear. His fall was arrested mostly by being trapped behind a flake. This ended up stripping about 3 meters of sheath. The story with pics is here:
http://cjclimbs.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/american-tourist-bunjee-jumps-remote.html

2. The length of the fall is not that important. What you hit at the end of the fall is very important. For example, last week I belayed young Wiz from NZ on his flash of Serpentine (both pitches). On his victory jump I flaked out about 15 meters of rope. So he fell like 30 meters. Even though it was a big fall I still gave a little bounce when the rope went tight. He was totally fine.

A couple days later I sent Rage and took the same jump, but there was not alot of rope out (maybe 5 meters), the line is more direct so less friction, I may have jumped further from the cliff creating more of an arc and contributing to a greater swing, my belayer was heavier than I am... Anyway, I came smashing into the cliff and bashed up my wrist. In this case, a bigger fall would have been way safer.

I belayed a friend, Merry on Venom at Frog. He only had one number 5 friend which only fits at the bottom of the OW. We thought it was easy so didnt really think about the runout. As luck would have it his hand seized up on the finger crack at the top of the climb! With no gear in, it was just a matter of time until he pumped out and plummeted. So I got ready to take in rope and prepared to jump off the ledge. And after a few agonizing minutes, thats what I did when he fell. I must have taken in two and a half armfuls of slack then jumped off. He stopped 3 meters off the deck. In the madness of the fall, I somehow took in and locked off the live rope as well and that twanged through my fingers when he fell so I had a bung hand for awhile but otherwise it was ok.

and am I such a pariah that my name is unmentionable? ;)
cj