Minor rock climbing outing morphs to minor rescue.

[Chip]

J.Dub and I had Friday afternoon scheduled to do some rock climbing.

It was a fine afternoon with my oldest son Grant, J.Dub and another friend from town and his son. We had 3 top-roping rigs set and were all trying different climbs, mostly too tough or damp, but good exercise at a minimum. Nice, normal, local.

AND THEN...there were 3 late 20's/early 30's guys climbing near us. One was leading a deep, wet crack and we hear "FALLING" ... THUD.

Not good.

I got down and untied from my harness and yelled "Do you want me to call 911 ?" and the response was "Yes". Dude had slipped in the crack and his top pro pulled out. He was only about 15' up but at that height there is little the belayed rope will do, so he hit the deck. No visible blood or loss of conciousness, he probably only broke his ankle, but it was safer to call in the troops and have a proper immobillized evac. The first EMT guy got there very quickly but was not familiar with the trail to the cliff (150' off the road), so he wandered about a bit until one of us brought him in. This would be the trend for the next 1/2 hour: various EMT, ambulance, police and Fire Dept personnel arriving and wandering about a bit before locating and addressing the injured.

They eventually got him braced, boarded and masked with oxygen, lifted and to the ambulance. I have a great respect and fondness for EMT/Ambulance/Fire Dept and Police personnel... so don't take this wrong...This is a small town we were climbing in and there was obviously NOTHING else going on this day. The response was equivalent to what Capt Sully got in the Hudson.

I went back up top, redirected my top-rope and belayed down the crack to clean the pro still there.

Anywho, the guy seemed fine, probably more embarrassed than injured. Always interesting when 911 needs to be called. (At least the call wasn't for me this time,though). I think J.Dub took some pics, but that may have been the injured's camera.

Hope everybody had a great weekend.

 

[Paradox]

J.Dub and I had Friday afternoon scheduled to do some rock climbing.

It was a fine afternoon with my oldest son Grant, J.Dub and another friend from town and his son. We had 3 top-roping rigs set and were all trying different climbs, mostly too tough or damp, but good exercise at a minimum. Nice, normal, local.

AND THEN...there were 3 late 20's/early 30's guys climbing near us. One was leading a deep, wet crack and we hear "FALLING" ... THUD.

Not good.

I got down and untied from my harness and yelled "Do you want me to call 911 ?" and the response was "Yes". Dude had slipped in the crack and his top pro pulled out. He was only about 15' up but at that height there is little the belayed rope will do, so he hit the deck. No visible blood or loss of conciousness, he probably only broke his ankle, but it was safer to call in the troops and have a proper immobillized evac. The first EMT guy got there very quickly but was not familiar with the trail to the cliff (150' off the road), so he wandered about a bit until one of us brought him in. This would be the trend for the next 1/2 hour: various EMT, ambulance, police and Fire Dept personnel arriving and wandering about abit before locating and addressing the injured.

They eventually got him braced, boarded and masked with oxygen, lifted and to the ambulance. I have a great respect and fondness for EMT/Ambulance/Fire Dept and Police personnel... so don't take this wrong...This is a small town we were climbing in and there was obviously NOTHING else going on this day. The response was equivalent to what Capt Sully got in the Hudson.

I went back up top, redirected my top-rope and belayed down the crack to clean the pro still there.

Anywho, the guy seemed fine, probably more embarrassed than injured. Always interesting when 911 needs to be called. (It wasn't for me this time,though).

Hope everybody had a great weekend.

Interesting, and well done.

 

[J.Dub]

Couple other thoughts, as I was (un?)fortunate enough to actually witness the latter half of the fall...including the decking.

I'd put the height of the fall around 20'-25', as the climber said that he was about a foot above his last piece (the one that pulled) when he popped off. (Not that the fall distance makes a huge difference in the outcome in this particular case.) Up to that point, he'd been plugging what appeared to be decent pieces - two cams and hex - every 4'-5'.

My take is that the combination of A) his top piece pulling [more on this below] and B) rope stretch caused him to hit the deck. Just an hour or so before the accident, I ended up "bouncing" off the ground when I fell whilst on toprope, due to rope stretch. I was about 8'-10' up trying to pull a tricky move and didn't make it. The belay was tight, but simple rope stretch allowed me to fall far enough for my feet to hit the ground. (Fortunately, the stretching of the rope also slowed me down enough that it wasn't a jarring landing.)

Regarding the piece pulling, my thoughts are that it happened because the piece wasn't extended with a sling/quickdraw. The pro in question was a green Camalot, which was connected directly to the rope when I got to the climber after the fall. Looking at my digipix of the remaining gear in situ, it appears that he also directly clipped one of his other cams.

The crack he was climbing was pretty straight, so there wasn't a tremendous need to extend his pieces for rope drag purposes. In addition, some folks advocate NOT extending pieces down low on a route, since a sling/QD will actually make you fall slightly farther, possibly increasing your chances of decking.

However, it is my opinion that not extending the green Camelot is what caused it to pull, since when he popped, the original direction of pull was OUTWARD, not downward. (Note: had the climber extended the cam, it very well may still have pulled...we'll never know.)

The end result was a groundfall and a broken right foot and/or ankle.

Chip and I were able to contribute to the effort by: calling 911 (Chip), getting the climber untied and keeping him calm by talking to him (me), directing the rescue personnel to the crag from the road (Chip) and rapping down to clean the remainder of his pro (Chip, at my suggestion). All in all, a decent effort for a coupla by-standers, I daresay.

Props to the Southbury FD/EMS for their rapid response and quick evac.

Hope the climber (Chris) makes a speedy recovery.

 

[cbcbd]

Wow, good on you guys for getting the rescue going! Scary.

However, it is my opinion that not extending the green Camelot is what caused it to pull, since when he popped, the original direction of pull was OUTWARD, not downward. (Note: had the climber extended the cam, it very well may still have pulled...we'll never know.)

All cams are multidirectional, so any pull in any direction should hold... in theory. What we don't know is what the crack looked like all around the cam. This case is really hard to say what happened since no one got to look at the cam in question after it was placed and before it popped. Not extending the cam could've possibly caused it to walk inside the crack, possibly into a wider part of it that would've allowed the cam to open... or maybe allowed one or more cam lobes to open. That can definitively happen in irregular cracks.

 

[Hobbitling]

did you get the pro back to the guy?

 

[J.Dub]

did you get the pro back to the guy?

Yep, one of his two friends hung around for a couple minutes to collect all the gear, thanking us for helping to retrieve it. (I think he was a little shaken up, understandably so, at his buddy's misfortune.)

The climber's other friend followed him to Waterbury Hospital.