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Stupidest thing youve seen? 29-Jul-2005 At 9:52:34 AM MrKyle

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Beat this.
Was climbing at Tonsai in Thaliand 10 years ago. We were just kicking back under a coconut tree watching people throw themselves at the short hard things there. There was a crew of 4 Japanese climbers about - one of which was hard crore. The problem was his bumbly mates thought they were too - and tried to emulate him.

So we were watching in amusement as bumbly #1 proceeded to attempt some hard thing. He was about 6 metres up (2 or 3 bolts) shaking away on a route that was obviously way too hard for him. The problem was that his belayer (bumbly #2) was at least 6 metres away from the wall. I kid you not. Worse still, the rope ran from his belay device ALONG THE GROUND and up to bumbly #1.

As we lay in the heat, my mate nodded at the debacle unfolding and said "That guy's gonna deck." Barely had the words left his mouth, than bumbly #1 peeled off the route and imbedded himself in the ground. Fortunately it was a sandy beach and he was uninjured.

Unfortunate yes, ignorant yes, but stupid no. But wait, there's more...

In the aftermath, bumblies 1 and 2 stare at each other in shock. All the climbers nearby are wide-eyed and quiet. They both give nervous laughs and look very uncomfortable with the situation. And then, much to everyone's disbelief, bumbly #1 limps back to the route and starts climbing it again!!

So stupid.
If my belayer had done that I would have decked them.