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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 3 of 5. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 83
Author
worst near accidents I've seen

ajfclark
22-Sep-2010
12:26:36 PM
I think there was a video of Noddy telling that story at goatfest, wasn't there?
mikllaw
22-Sep-2010
12:53:36 PM
Nic Taylor was a bit out there and would often run things out to buggery, get to the crux and put in one runner and launch onwards, saying "If this comes out I deserve to die".

He did his usual trick on Messiah's Exit, and placed his first piece at the roof (12m off the deck). As he stepped around the roof he made his usual pronouncement and unwittingly kicked the piece out. I didn't inform of this until he was on easier ground above.

Hendo
22-Sep-2010
1:32:25 PM
I didn't actually see this, but here is what my other senses picked up. I was sitting on a fairly pointy rock under cosmic ecology at Barrenjoey with my back facing the cliff, probably having a bite to eat though I can't quite remember. I heard the sound of rope whipping through air and draws, when the noise didn't stop quickly I started to bend over slightly and turn around to see what was happening. I then felt someone land on my head and roll down my back. I turned to see this person lying safely on the ground. I never worked out what happened exactly but general rope shenanigans and miscommunication meant that this person was (I think) expecting to be lowered off from the anchors but wasn't on belay. Thankfully Barrenjoey is a short crag, about a 12m fall. I didn't have my helmet on, it hurt surprisingly little and I'm very glad I was sitting there.

After this I now wonder if my belayers realise I also see them as effective emergency crash pads.
costa
22-Sep-2010
3:08:34 PM
how was your bunghole?

gordoste
23-Sep-2010
12:17:46 AM
On 21/09/2010 citationx wrote:
>neil wrote:
>>I once had someone belay me off such a small slung boulder that I could
>>kick it over when I got to the top. I was not impressed!
>
>My first ever trip to Arapiles, Easter 2004. We'd spent 12 hours of the
>day driving from Sydney to arrive at 10pm. I was so excited that it didn't
>take much for my partner to convince me we should do a climb then - Diapason.
>I led the (what I considered slippery) first pitch and he the second. Upon
>topping out on the ledge at the top of the second pitch I looked at his
>anchor - two "bomber" cams under a rock. I asked him if it was solid and
>he replied that he couldn't budge the rock when he placed them. I picked
>it up and moved it further from the edge of the ledge. He, in the interim
>made a better anchor...

lol i never heard that story! was it mr. holmes?

gordoste
23-Sep-2010
12:19:20 AM
On 22/09/2010 ajfclark wrote:
>I think there was a video of Noddy telling that story at goatfest, wasn't
>there?

yes but actually he fell about 20m into the top of a chimney and wedged there!
ClimbingNT
23-Sep-2010
12:32:49 PM
My biggest near accident was when I was on a top rope and only realised how poorly it was set after I approached the top and preparing myself to take on the crux. Popped my head up over the overhang in an attempt to find the next hold, and saw that the rope had been looped over an old chain, that was secured to 2 bolts. What made it even more scary, was the fact that I was situated left of the anchor and out of sight of my belayer. If I fell it would have caused a massive pendulum, and possibly a rope failure.

Since then, I have always climbed with people who are constantly focused on safety....and understand how anchors are supposed to be set.
mikllaw
23-Sep-2010
1:33:46 PM
Randy Mac was toproping Lean Beef (24) at Bonnet Bay in Sydney, about 13m high above a fire trail covered this wet spring with thick grass. Many shots later and he fell yet again, the sling cut through (there might have been a bit of swinging going on) and he fell 10m and landed flat on his back, all ok till the steel screwgate landed in the middkle of his chest

Eduardo Slabofvic
23-Sep-2010
1:48:18 PM
I rapped in to the semi-hanging belay on Wading Ape at Girraween. It is possible to stand on the little slab, but it requires balance. I unclipped from the rap rope and was standing there waiting for my climbing partner to take his hands away from the anchor so I could clip in. He slowly looked at me with wonder in his eyes, then it dawned on me and I clipped the anchor.
J.C.
23-Sep-2010
1:56:18 PM
On 22/09/2010 TonyB wrote:
>Lots of guys and girls are just accidents waiting to happen. Like a guy
>belaying at Dam Cliffs, chatting to his mates while giving a huge amount
>of slack, rope dragging on the ground. Climber screws the very last clip
>... has mega fall to within 30cm of deck. Belayer calls out calmly: "just
>rope stretch !"

is it possible to have a mega fall at dam cliffs? most of the climbs are glorified boulder problems!
widewetandslippery
23-Sep-2010
1:57:57 PM
On 23/09/2010 mikllaw wrote:
>Randy Mac was toproping Lean Beef (24) at Bonnet Bay in Sydney, about 13m
>high above a fire trail covered this wet spring with thick grass. Many
>shots later and he fell yet again, the sling cut through (there might have
>been a bit of swinging going on) and he fell 10m and landed flat on his
>back, all ok till the steel screwgate landed in the middkle of his chest


But is it a near miss or like the terminator copping a few shotgun rounds to the chest and carrying on?

gordoste
24-Sep-2010
12:50:35 PM
On 23/09/2010 Eduardo Slabofvic wrote:
>I rapped in to the semi-hanging belay on Wading Ape at Girraween. It is
>possible to stand on the little slab, but it requires balance. I unclipped
>from the rap rope and was standing there waiting for my climbing partner
>to take his hands away from the anchor so I could clip in. He slowly looked
>at me with wonder in his eyes, then it dawned on me and I clipped the anchor.

This one made me chuckle!
Dave J
24-Sep-2010
3:13:10 PM
Great topic (this and the big falls one)

I can think of a few near accidents.

Here's the first

Doing London Calling with Nick Sutter ...an age ago. There are a line of 3 rings up the face but to get to them you do this big traverse out along this flake. To reduce rope drag we'd come up with this scheme where you climbed on 2 ropes one attached by screw gate for the traverse and the other for the rings with the idea being that you unscrew and ditch the first rope for the top section. So nick storms out across the first section...all good, not even breathing too hard, shakes out at the rest, checks out the headwall, unscrews the gate, ditches first rope and then says something thing like.

"oh no ...out of sequence" (can't remember the exact wording but something like that)
the first of the bolts is still another 2 meters up and nick is stuck in the middle of the wall with absolutely nothing clipped and no real option but to carry on climbing.

He got to the next bolt an clipped and everyone was happy. I cant remember if he did the route that go or the next ... I didn't seem important.
bl@ke
24-Sep-2010
6:41:47 PM
On 24/09/2010 Dave J wrote:
>Great topic (this and the big falls one)
>
>I can think of a few near accidents.
>
>Here's the first
>
>Doing London Calling with Nick Sutter ...an age ago. There are a line
>of 3 rings up the face but to get to them you do this big traverse out
>along this flake. To reduce rope drag we'd come up with this scheme where
>you climbed on 2 ropes one attached by screw gate for the traverse and
>the other for the rings with the idea being that you unscrew and ditch
>the first rope for the top section. So nick storms out across the first
>section...all good, not even breathing too hard, shakes out at the rest,
>checks out the headwall, unscrews the gate, ditches first rope and then
>says something thing like.
>
>"oh no ...out of sequence" (can't remember the exact wording but something
>like that)
>the first of the bolts is still another 2 meters up and nick is stuck
>in the middle of the wall with absolutely nothing clipped and no real option
>but to carry on climbing.
>
>He got to the next bolt an clipped and everyone was happy. I cant remember
>if he did the route that go or the next ... I didn't seem important.

haha that makes me think of when you unwrap your rollup and instead of throwing the wrapper in the bin you throw the rollup in the bin! and then you realise what you just did and cry :( (from primary school lol)

Phil S
24-Sep-2010
8:11:39 PM
When I was about 7 years old, give or take, I taught the kids down my street how to abseil. I had an old bit of dads spinniker sheet - and that's all. Since I had already tried classical methods and found them uncomforatble I came up with a new system. I anchored the rope, led it through the front of my belt then up across my chest and over my shoulder (thereby avoiding the troubling groin rub). I think I only made one descent before the other kids lost interest - lucky that.

rodw
24-Sep-2010
10:23:35 PM
Okay another one that was a near miss for me.... at a new crag we decided to top rope a route to see if the line went before bolting...set tope rope up with a rope guard to protect the rope over the lip ( we had a rope bag as our protector)....anyway some many hours later after many attempts I decide to give one more shot at working out the crux...start to pull on look at watch and decide "fuk its time for the pub"...I run up to the top of crag to take down rope and find that the rope had slipped off the rope guard and had been running across the lip the whole time...the sheath was gone and I counted 6 strands left on the core......damn close to bad crap happening.....had a few extra beers at the pub on the way home and bought a lottery ticket.

I've always said beer is good for your health
TonyB
25-Sep-2010
11:00:52 AM
On 23/09/2010 J.C. wrote:
>On 22/09/2010 TonyB wrote:

>is it possible to have a mega fall at dam cliffs? most of the climbs are
>glorified boulder problems!

Hitting the deck from 12m couldn't hurt could it ?

We chatting to a fellow free soloing there who had fallen 12m and lived to solo again.
rod
25-Sep-2010
11:03:41 PM
my near death experience: do the tough semi-expo descent into a nice little verdonesque perch, hop on a warm up route and link a couple of pitches with the intent of being lowered off then get into the real meat of the day. belayer is communicating ok but i can't see him, start being lowered and i'm thinking "this seems a bit sus". i've got my hand on the rope and it keeps paying out at about the right pace but...? reconfirm the command with my belayer after about 10m of this weird badness feeling, commit full body weight still with a hand on the rope then...freefall, face down looking at 35m of rock face and the subsequent 70m near vert couloir before the big cliff lower down...bad juju feeling goes into overdrive...

...then i slam into a tiny little pine tree which just happened to tuck itself under my right arm AND take the impact without ripping. dripping blood and with quite a few kinks i'm hanging mid face with my "belayer" tucked out of sight. it took a minute of his confused reaction gibberish for me to reach the conclusion that i'd be safest soloing out of there back to the chains and rapping down.

the weird feeling was spot on: he'd untied and wandered off for a snack instead of belaying then the rope having wedged itself into a crack offered up enough friction to make it seem like being lowered.

unfortunately, i then had to climb our way out of there with the wanker wanting to belay...i roped solo'd 'em instead and had him second each pitch with SO much penalty slack paid out in revenge that he was terrified.

never seen him since and hope to never see him again, just writing this induces a need for violence toward him...but i do appreciate trees a lot more.

Jmk
26-Sep-2010
5:01:58 AM
All pretty funny in hind sight .
15+ years ago I was scarping around for climbing partners. We went to the county and I was 3/4 up Interstate 31. I looked down at my belayer and decided that she was not paying enough attention. So I jumped off! I must have been an idiot - this was in the days before I owned 3 racks and carry it all up a climb. So I fell and fell (bit of rope stretch contributed to a massive winger) Ended up with a badly sprained ankle. Now as you know you can climb thro most everything with enough painkillers so continued to climb. It was only next day and weeks when I could not walk that I realised how bad the ankle was. And yes she did catch me - was I hoping she wouldn't so as I lay dieing I could say "I told you to keep an eye on me" What an idiot.

tmarsh
26-Sep-2010
11:02:17 AM
Two friends of mine climbing at Buffalo. Unfortunately on double ropes borrowed from me. It's windy, and friend A is well out of sight of friend B. He's finding things a bit hard going and decides to clip into a piece and take a rest. The wind is making communication a wee bit hard.

Friend A: Take
Friend B: Really? So soon?
Friend A: TAKE!
Friend B: You sure you're safe?
Friend A: Yes. TAKE!!!
Friend B. Okay then. You're off belay.

Friend A slumps onto the rope and goes wheeeeeeeee off down the cliff. Some cuts and scrapes, but he managed to avoid hitting anything substantial. My ropes were not so fortunate with big long scorch marks where the ropes had run through the superheated top biner. Coulda been a *lot* worse.

 Page 3 of 5. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 80 | 81 to 83
There are 83 messages in this topic.

 

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