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The singularly most dangerous thing ... 27-Oct-2005 At 2:32:16 PM NMcKinnon

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Cool thread - my hands are sweating...

Our first day at Devils Tower in Wyoming. We’d climbed a 3 pitch 5.10 hand crack in the late afternoon, and had one scramble pitch to top out. Neil & Poul were keen to top out and check the view. I was keen to abseil and avoid getting benighted.

Neil chose to continue despite my complaints. I opted to stay and set up the rap. After 30 minutes I was pissed off and decided to start the rap and wait at the 2nd pitch anchor. Sadly I missed the anchor on the way down, and ended up at the end of the rope. I hadn’t knotted the rope end and was just hanging with little gear and no prussics. Below me was about a 60 m drop.

In a panic I located a bolt just below me. I reached down and clipped into the bolt and let go of my rap rope – which shot away from me as I fell onto the bolt. I waited for about another 20 minutes with no sign of the others rapping down. In this time my anger and stupidity increased. I decided to unclip from the bolt and try to down-solo about 15m to get to a point where scrambling off was possible. Soon I’d backclimbed a small overhang via a flaring hand-crack. By now my arms and legs were shaking with fear and exertion. I attempted to re-climb the overhang but couldn’t – I was too pumped.

In the end I had to keep back-climbing. Some sections I just jammed my arms in the crack and slid downwards. I remember shaking quite a lot when I did reach the ledge below.To make matters worse, I had to wait for the others anyway. I had to fetch head torches to help them down the final scrambling descent in the dark.