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2015/07/08: Kangaroo Point Belayer Injury

ajfclark

10-Jul-2015
8:01:48 AM

From ACAQ's Facebook page:

Dante Deynjur‎ACAQ (Australian Climbing Association Qld Inc)
Last night someone threw a couple of rocks the size of axe heads from the top of the KP cliffs and hit this poor bastard in the head. He was on belay at the bottom at the railing, wasn't wearing a helmet. He was still conscious while getting stretchered off but obviously pretty badly injured. I was narrowly missed late last year in a similar incident by 2 rocks the size of house bricks... I'm not sure if there's a serial rock-chucker but I guess the moral here is to wear your helmet when climbing or belaying outdoors, cos crazy stuff happens.

It's worth noting that the only people I've seen hit or narrowly missed by rockfalls at KP have all been belayers, not climbers. Wear your helmet.

This blokes name is Hugh I believe.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

10-Jul-2015
8:14:57 AM

Rocks?
If I was asked to guess the nature of thrown KP missiles I would've reckoned garbage like empty XXXX beer containers etc. to be more likely.

I hope the injured person makes a full recovery, and that the idiot/s who chuck the stuff get caught*.

(*It might be better for the idiot/s if they are caught by police or on security camera?, rather than by climbers!)

KP although an urban environment with greater usage and subsequent higher chance of such idiocy, is not alone in this phenomena. Over a lengthy climbing career I have experienced thrown missiles at other cliffs, including some located in quite out of the way 'adventure' areas...

ajfclark

10-Jul-2015
8:33:16 AM

Yup. From apple cores to rocks to cans to ropes coiled in a bag to 4m tree branches I've seen quite a lot of stuff get tossed off the top of cliffs.

kieranl

10-Jul-2015
9:05:40 AM

Way below Bent's lookout at Buffalo, we came upon a piece of light railway line speared into the ground.

nmonteith

11-Jul-2015
8:35:47 AM

Echo Point at Katoomba must hold the record for the most debris thrown off a cliff. Numerous wheelie bins, beer kegs, street signs, chairs and even a whole picnic table.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

11-Jul-2015
9:17:00 AM

On 11/07/2015 nmonteith wrote:
>Echo Point at Katoomba must hold the record for the most debris thrown off a cliff. Numerous wheelie bins, beer kegs, street signs, chairs and even a whole picnic table.

(Linkinsertedforyanm!)

I wonder why it is that chucker-people think the thrown objects simply disappear?
Witness the amount of unsavoury stuff like bodies (The Gap in Sydney), and other stuff like cars at various cliff bases, that get retrieved from time to time...

Flabmaster B

17-Jul-2015
7:41:06 PM

my mates once threw some arm chairs (from council clean up) off the top of our secret sport cliff so as to provided better belay comfort when we got to the base.

Worked a treat...

Unfortunately the local kids set them alight after a few weeks!

martym

17-Jul-2015
10:41:17 PM

A friend (who is now a successful business person and in local politics) once asked if I wanted to join him throwing rocks through the windows of an abandoned service station. I said why?
"They're just standing there and soon to be demolished and no one has done it yet!"

I think some people just like seeing stuff go boom.

Karl Bromelow

18-Jul-2015
12:39:13 AM

On yet another ultimately fruitless search for climbable rock near my home I was exploring the depths of Moorooduc Quarry a short while ago when objects stated fizzing through the air and plunging into the pool at the bottom.
I could hear a bunch of fellas at the top and realised they were driving golf balls from the lip.

I yelled up,"There's someone down here!" to which they replied, "Can you leave we're trying to hit some golf balls?"
They were quite polite. I could see them. Not kids. Looked like tradies who'd knocked off for the day and having a few beers whilst belting balls into the quarry.
The quarry bottom is public. There was a family in there with two small children shortly before it started raining missiles. There was no arguing and I beat a hasty retreat as they kept coming.

Bizarre what lights some folks candles. I guess they might say the same.

Eduardo Slabofvic

18-Jul-2015
5:08:33 PM

An old trick at Frog was to throw rocks up in the air whilst someone was climbing then start yelling (at no one) to stop chucking rocks. Worked a treat.

IdratherbeclimbingM9

19-Jul-2015
9:11:50 PM

On 18/07/2015 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
>An old trick at Frog was to throw rocks up in the air whilst someone was
>climbing then start yelling (at no one) to stop chucking rocks. Worked a treat.

The few times I have yelled out to the chuckers that people were below only provoked them into chucking more stuff...
☻

Did you chuck more stuff at yourself?
Heh, heh, heh.

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