Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

Author

Another fall in Qld

StuckNut

25-Jul-2011
9:19:47 AM

"The 30-year-old man was climbing on the eastern side of Mount Tibrogargan, one of the Glasshouse Mountains, with two friends when he lost his footing on a ledge shortly before midday.

Witnesses told police the man was knocked unconscious, but was grabbed by a friend on the way down, who then managed to break his fall."

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/climber-survives-80m-fall-with-friends-help-20110725-1hvwe.html?from=brisbanetimes_sb

nmonteith

25-Jul-2011
10:06:51 AM

I highly doubt this is a 'proper' climber. Chances are it's the usual tourist soloing up the Caves Route.

climbingjac

25-Jul-2011
11:12:55 AM

True... I don't think I've ever heard of a "proper climber" fall described as "he lost his footing"

Capt_mulch

25-Jul-2011
11:36:01 AM

Some details would be good - as usual the press have not given any detail..

ajfclark

25-Jul-2011
11:48:21 AM

Not much else on the ABC, but they don't call him a climber: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-25/man-in-critical-condition-after-80m-cliff-fall/2808638

climbingjac

25-Jul-2011
1:29:23 PM

Either way, a very lucky chap to survive an 80m fall and not have it cost him his life.

Bizarre that one of his mates broke his fall after 80m of falling? Half of his group must have been wandering around near the bottom exactly below where he started falling. Super lucky wierd coincidence if indeed this was a walker.

To me this seems quite unlikely, so maybe the reference to a friend breaking the fall meant he was caught by a belay+rope situation. A massive fall if this is so. Wow you'd have to be on say a 50m rope with a 40m runout, with either no gear in, or all gear failing, on a multipitch climb, sail past the belayer to a previous pitch... leaving belayer with charcoal-grilled hands from catching such a fall.

Or of course there is the more likely scenario that the 80m reference was wildly inaccurate and in fact it was a shorter fall than that. I remember once hearing some nonsense that I had fallen 1kilometre and merely broken my leg. Setting aside from the fact there are no 1km climbs in the Grampians, I had actually hurt myself during the walk back to the car, not during an actual climb. A matter of "he fish was THIS BIG" I guess! Sensationalism sells newspapers.

widewetandslippery

25-Jul-2011
1:34:07 PM

I think its the general case of Mondays news is written on a Sunday night and an easy story when there is new news its good news. As we all know all Norweigans are gun nuts, the carbon tax is wrong and all cyclists look like Pee Wee Herman which leaves nothing new to sensationalise.

There are 7 messages in this topic.