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General Climbing Discussion

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Scariest climbing moments 12-Aug-2004 At 6:35:57 PM Robin

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Scariest moments are when you know you're going to fall but can't do anything about it. My scariest moment was on Sky Rocket (20) Mt Wellington. This is a long, sustained pitch that swallows wires. About half way up I started to run out of gear. I placed a marginal wire then ran it out a bit. When I couldn't find anymore gear I decided to downclimb (bad move). I got half way down a layback flake then ended up so pumped I couldn't take either hand off the rock. Still run out over a crap wire I hung on till I fell. That was scary!

The wire held but the fall was still big. There was one cam below the wire, and below that all my wires zippered. I came out of it no worries but the belayer had slight rope burn. Still after the fall I figured that was the worst thing that could happen and the wire was obviously OK, so I jumped back on and finished the climb.