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Chockstone Photography
Australian Landscape Photography by Michael Boniwell
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Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

 Page 4 of 6. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 100 | 101 to 110
Author
Trapped in Squeeze Test for hours [The Age]

Duang Daunk
23-Apr-2014
9:20:52 PM
On 23/04/2014 Cliff wrote:
>On 23/04/2014 Duang Daunk wrote:
>
>>Should he pay for his rescure? (Fruedian slip intentional), No.
>
>Freedian?
>
>

Yep, that works too.
martym
23-Apr-2014
9:51:32 PM
Turns out I may vaguely know the guy - he's very slight (read Asian) so chances are he fell into a nook most of us fat arses usually bulldoze over.
simey
23-Apr-2014
10:37:21 PM
There are a bunch of issues stemming from this saga that bother me...

Firstly, a person getting stuck in the Squeeze Test with friends nearby isn't exactly a death-defying situation. The stuck person might be feeling anxious but that's about it. It is a minor in comparison to someone falling off a climb and suffering broken limbs, head injuries, having blood squirting out of them, going into shock, not to mention them often being stuck in an inaccessible spot.

There were hundreds of climbers camped at Arapiles that night. I am amazed that rescue services were called. I am amazed that no one was able to work out a solution to this problem.

The last time someone was stuck in the Squeeze Test was a few years ago. Gareth Llewellin and myself wandered into the situation just on dark and were already witnessing a similar hullabaloo with emergency services until Gareth simply climbed above the stuck kid, got a sling around him (or he might have even just reached down and grabbed him) and then maneuvered him out of his predicament. It didn't seem like rocket science.

I am a bit curious as to why none of the climbers in the vicinity were able to achieve this earlier. And once rescue services were called, I am curious as to why it took them so long to do exactly the same thing.

As for people getting stuck in there again. Well I would much rather see people having epics on the Squeeze Test and learning from it, instead of making bad calls on the cliff and plunging into the deck.


shiltz
23-Apr-2014
11:09:03 PM
So rather than concrete it up we could just leave a bottle of olive oil beside the boulder with some instructional diagrams showing how to extract a stuck friend from the squeeze. And failing that the mobile number of a nearby farmer with lambing, calving or foaling experience...
On Thursday evening a nearby climbing doctor was able to help out the Lemmington pair. For the stuck squeezer a nearby climbing vet could have helped out perhaps.
dalai
23-Apr-2014
11:32:33 PM
On 23/04/2014 Reluctant wrote:
>Can we all stop saying "Stupid climber falls".
>No rope or harness or fall. Not climbing.
>
>It's a boulder. Bouldering. Boulderer.
>"Stupid boulderer gets stuck". Now it looks and sounds appropriate.

Since when is a caving manoeuvre bouldering?
rolsen1
24-Apr-2014
7:41:20 AM
On 23/04/2014 shiltz wrote:
>So rather than concrete it up we could just leave a bottle of olive oil
>beside the boulder with some instructional diagrams showing how to extract
>a stuck friend from the squeeze. And failing that the mobile number of
>a nearby farmer with lambing, calving or foaling experience...
>On Thursday evening a nearby climbing doctor was able to help out the
>Lemmington pair. For the stuck squeezer a nearby climbing vet could have
>helped out perhaps.

I'm thinking a huge custom built nut tool could be left near by... all you'd need is for friends to grab a couple of passers by and pop the stuck climber out.

shiltz
24-Apr-2014
9:46:15 AM
On 23/04/2014 dalai wrote:
>Since when is a caving manoeuvre bouldering?

I think the term "squeezer" is more appropriate.
martym
24-Apr-2014
10:05:05 AM
On 23/04/2014 dalai wrote:
>On 23/04/2014 Reluctant wrote:
>>Can we all stop saying "Stupid climber falls".
>>No rope or harness or fall. Not climbing.
>>
>>It's a boulder. Bouldering. Boulderer.
>>"Stupid boulderer gets stuck". Now it looks and sounds appropriate.
>
>Since when is a caving manoeuvre bouldering?

This calls for a classic Chockstone Poll!

When is "climbing" no longer climbing?

a) When you're doing it on pebbles?
b) When you're doing it sideways on pebbles?
c) when you're doing it sideways through a gap between two pebbles?
d) when a rope rescue won't help you?
e) all of the above?

Duang Daunk
24-Apr-2014
10:36:10 AM
On 24/04/2014 martym wrote:
>On 23/04/2014 dalai wrote:
>>On 23/04/2014 Reluctant wrote:
>>>Can we all stop saying "Stupid climber falls".
>>>No rope or harness or fall. Not climbing.
>>>
>>>It's a boulder. Bouldering. Boulderer.
>>>"Stupid boulderer gets stuck". Now it looks and sounds appropriate.
>
>>
>>Since when is a caving manoeuvre bouldering?
>
>This calls for a classic Chockstone Poll!
>
>When is "climbing" no longer climbing?
>
>a) When you're doing it on pebbles?
>b) When you're doing it sideways on pebbles?
>c) when you're doing it sideways through a gap between two pebbles?
>d) when a rope rescue won't help you?
>e) all of the above?

Doing a) - e) on pebbles = what?
Lots of answers to that.
simey, should be disqualified from answering, as he isn't likely to give up squeezing any time soon.
kieranl
24-Apr-2014
2:47:28 PM
On 23/04/2014 simey wrote:
>There are a bunch of issues stemming from this saga that bother me...
>
>Firstly, a person getting stuck in the Squeeze Test with friends nearby
>isn't exactly a death-defying situation. The stuck person might be feeling
>anxious but that's about it. It is a minor in comparison to someone falling
>off a climb and suffering broken limbs, head injuries, having blood squirting
>out of them, going into shock, not to mention them often being stuck in
>an inaccessible spot.
In the short-term that's pretty correct but not necessarily true over time. To quote Nick Thresher from Ambulance Victoria on the ABC News : "He's extremely hypothermic". Everyone who has spent time in the outdoors should understand the implications of this.

>
>There were hundreds of climbers camped at Arapiles that night. I am amazed
>that rescue services were called. I am amazed that no one was able to work
>out a solution to this problem.
>
>The last time someone was stuck in the Squeeze Test was a few years ago.
>Gareth Llewellin and myself wandered into the situation just on dark and
>were already witnessing a similar hullabaloo with emergency services until
>Gareth simply climbed above the stuck kid, got a sling around him (or he
>might have even just reached down and grabbed him) and then maneuvered
>him out of his predicament. It didn't seem like rocket science.
>
>I am a bit curious as to why none of the climbers in the vicinity were
>able to achieve this earlier. And once rescue services were called, I am
>curious as to why it took them so long to do exactly the same thing.

Why do you assume that the bleeding obvious was overlooked and not tried? It was tried by the climbers in the vicinity and remained at the core of the ongoing attempts by rescue services.
White Trash
24-Apr-2014
3:19:14 PM
On 24/04/2014 kieranl wrote:
>Why do you assume that the bleeding obvious was overlooked and not tried?
>It was tried by the climbers in the vicinity and remained at the core of
>the ongoing attempts by rescue services.
>
because he wasnt there?

so, after reading all this thread, what was the successful solution to the climber - boulderer - caver extrication, apart from some oil?
why wasn't he be able to be extracted once he achieved a relaxed state, possibly due to the heaters being deployed?

what is with the reference to simey being a squeezer? is he often to be found in there?
simey
24-Apr-2014
3:36:23 PM
On 24/04/2014 kieranl wrote:
>Why do you assume that the bleeding obvious was overlooked and not tried?
>It was tried by the climbers in the vicinity and remained at the core of
>the ongoing attempts by rescue services.

Well if the obvious was tried, maybe it wasn't tried particularly well. Like I said, this is not the first time that emergency services have been called to someone stuck in the Squeeze Test. Despite all the people, all the spotlights, the ambulance and all the other nonsense that was on the scene before our arrival the last time this happened, Gareth simply climbed in above him and had him out in 5 minutes.

rossco
24-Apr-2014
3:47:58 PM
I'm with Simon, they should sack the Arapiles Rescue Group and replace them all with Gareth.
kieranl
24-Apr-2014
4:03:42 PM
On 24/04/2014 rossco wrote:
>I'm with Simon, they should sack the Arapiles Rescue Group and replace
>them all with Gareth.
I'll go along with that. Now to get him back from WA.

shiltz
24-Apr-2014
4:46:00 PM
On 24/04/2014 Cliff wrote:
>Maybe they need to install a wire cage of suitable proportions that 'squeezers'
>can climb into before hand to make sure they are suitably proportioned.
>Like the wire trays at the airport that make sure your luggage is small
>enough.

Love it! Could even build a full scale fibreglass replica with a mechanical eject feature that operates automatically if the squeezer is in there longer than 10 minutes then goes through a quick rinse cycle.
patto
24-Apr-2014
4:57:08 PM
On 24/04/2014 shiltz wrote:
>On 24/04/2014 Cliff wrote:
>>Maybe they need to install a wire cage of suitable proportions that 'squeezers'
>>can climb into before hand to make sure they are suitably proportioned.
>>Like the wire trays at the airport that make sure your luggage is small
>>enough.
>
>Love it! Could even build a full scale fibreglass replica with a mechanical
>eject feature that operates automatically if the squeezer is in there longer
>than 10 minutes then goes through a quick rinse cycle.

Considering the number of dirty climbers that insert themselves into that crevice most evenings I think we might have to investigate more thorough cleaning options for the squeeze boulder.

Miguel75
27-Apr-2014
7:47:47 PM
On 27/04/2014 anthonyk wrote:
...SNIP...
>the reason it took 10hrs was because every service under the sun wanted to turn up,
>be briefed and liase for hours on end.

There's no way that'd ever happen... ;)

I saw Nooj's post before it disappeared. He mentioned he was delivered from the jaws of death (aka the Squeeze test) sans olive oil... Glad you're ok Joon.

ajfclark
27-Apr-2014
9:12:29 PM
Popped past this afternoon. The oil is starting to smell a little rancid. That might put a bit of a dent in the popularity for a while.
duploboy
27-Apr-2014
10:58:37 PM
The facts of the event in brief:
Misreported by the ABC (Jeez they are overfunded aren't they?) and then by other news sources.

The boulderer was not alone but with a large group of mates attempting the squeeze late in the evening. He is very slim, and as already mentioned slipped deeper into the slot than most people do. Presumably once you have no leverage with arms or legs any more it would be very hard to lift the hips back up the same way. Hands up who has never got a passive nut stuck in a crack before? His mates of course tried to lift him, and then also rigged up slings and ropes from the top of the boulder to haul him. These attempts continued for an hour or two before 000 was called.

Over the night several different emergency crews arrived including, police, paramedics, Arapiles rescue, CFA crew 1, SES, CFA crew 2, air medics from Melbourne, police rescue. They continued elaborating more and more on the rigging the climbers themselves had set up. A few attempts were made over the night with more and more haul power but these failed to budge the guy one inch. Again- think of that fecking jammed nut. The climbers continued making key suggestions including to pass a pole underneath the guy, and lubricating the rock with olive oil. But with so many people standing around awaiting instruction, it took the arrival of Police Rescue and a LOT of force to finally coordinate this successfully.

You can ask Keith Lockwood how non-trivial the entrapment was, and the Horsham ambo who spent the entire night monitoring the guy's condition how seriously they took it. As has been mentioned, the medics were extremely cautious about moving too quickly for fear of toxin buildup in the compressed areas of the body. In retrospect this was a little conservative, since the guy had been trapped rather than crushed- but the consequences of a misdiagnosis could have been fatal. The medics were recording heart rate, dripping in fluids, muscle relaxants and pain killers throughout, and it was their professional decision at the time to act only when resources were on standby to whisk they guy to Melbourne for immediate follow-up. They also checked for bone breakage and organ damage since the extraction was very painful for the victim. All crews did a fantastic and compassionate job - not the least of which was trying to shelter the guy and keep him warm in the the rain, wind and cold. The climber maintained good spirits throughout the entire experience, but was understandibly more exhausted and alarmed as 6 hours became 8 became 10.

Yes it is remarkable how many forces were mobilised for such a seemingly offbeat event- but offbeat things happen every day in many random ways the consequences may be far from trivial. All rescue services should be commended for their professionalism, and I doubt that any of the 30 odd individuals involved would say their time had been wasted. Who knows when any of us might need our cries for help to be taken seriously, whether we've fallen from a cliff, or fallen drunk down the stairs.

Nooj
7-May-2014
10:43:17 PM
Hey Simey, I'm posting this here because your PM box is full.

I was kinda waiting to hear back from you on how I could contact the emergency guys involved. I'd love to know if there's anywhere or anyone who I can drop a letter to, or a donation, or a phone call. Thanks again !

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