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Almost buggered up pretty bad

Olbert

14-Jan-2012
10:58:29 PM

The weirdest thing happened to me the other day on a route...also one of the most dangerous things that has happened to me in a long while.

I was leading up a route as per usual when I got through the crux, clipped the bolt above the crux and proceeded on. Nothing unusual there. I then performed a fairly long strenuous move on slopey holds to a set of positive crimps. I was then far enough above that bolt for my foot to be about the same level but still another metre or so below the next bolt. At this point I heard a 'snap'. Unusual, was my first thought.

I looked down. My shoelace had clipped itself to the draw. Now, I was wearing Miuras which have a little knot tied into the end of each shoelace - this makes them hard to yank undone.

"Oh f---!" was basically my mindset. I knew falling would be a huuuuuge 'no no', I knew the next bolt was well out of reach, I knew that yanking my shoe off the bolt might not work because of the dam knots of the shoelaces and I knew reversing what I had just done would be hard, if not impossible, in my current pumped and scared state.

So here I was, clipped into the draw via the loop in my shoelace. I gave it a kick and nothing happened. I was getting more pumped and was trying to think through my options. I gave it a harder kick and again, nothing. 'Right,' I thought to myself 'if you dont yank this off, you're f---ed.'

Third time I reeeeaaaally kicked. This time it came off.

Hooooolllllly shit was I relieved.

Has this happened to anyone before? What could I have done if the shoelace hadnt have yanked off?


Miguel75

14-Jan-2012
11:05:44 PM

Freak nasty! Kinda sketchy situation... I reckon next time you should chew through your ankle. Just think of the book deals and Hollywood awesomeness you might receive.

Glad you're ok.


BoulderBaby

15-Jan-2012
9:31:27 AM

Miura VS - It wouldn't have happened :P

retro

15-Jan-2012
9:55:12 AM

One time I was soloing up the corner at Colosseum Wall to set some ropes. I had two ropes on my back and I was bare foot. It was hot. Half way up I was greasing up and went to chalk. My bracelet caught in the throat of my chalk bag. No biggy I thought and tried to pull it out but it didn't come. My other hand was sliding out of it's jam. I looked down at my two clients and thought, sht, i'm going to die in front of them. I gave another sharp tug, nothing. And then my friend ian walked around the corner. And I though, sht, I'm going to die in front of him as well, and then just before the jam cut loose I gave a huge pull and ripped the throat out of the chalk bag and stuck my fist, nylon throat, and bracelet in the crack. Lucky.

rolsen1

15-Jan-2012
9:57:40 AM

There was a joke trip report / story, titled something like "spot climbing epics", a few years ago in one of the mags, where this happened to the fictitious climber, guess it was only a matter of time before it really happened to someone.

As for what to do, down climb into a figure 4? :)


nmonteith

15-Jan-2012
9:58:02 AM

I've had this situation happen twice previously.

Ever since I started climbing (20 years!) I've had a little bit of climbing 4mm cord tied around my ankle as a kind of piece of jewelery. it's held tight with a double fishermans knot. I've always joked that I could use it as a backup attachment point if my harness fell off. Anyway I was climbing a short bouldery roof route, where the crux was in the first 5m right above a rock shelf. Normally the belayer has to take extra care to give out slack for clips as the ground is really close and moves are the all twisted up roofing with toe hooks and pinches. Normally it's fine, until CLICK, right in the middle of the crux I have only just solved the QuickDraw clips into my ankle band! I'm at full stretch horizontally in a roof with my hands on slopers and the next move is cutting your feet loose and swinging them up next to my hands. Obviously I didn't have much time to try and solve this dilemma (I'm always surprised how much longer I can hold on when I'm in one of these situations!). In the end I got my belayer to pull the rope tight and I tucked up into a ball and fell off narrowly missing the rock ledge below me with my head. Surprisingly my belayer had managed to get some of the weight off my ankle and within a few secs I could pull myself into a position to unclip myself.


nmonteith

15-Jan-2012
10:01:47 AM

The second time was getting my heel tab clipped into a QuickDraw on a vertical wall. Luckily in that situation I just kicked and kicked and it eventually snapped.

Mr Poopypants

15-Jan-2012
12:12:35 PM

Ollie

You gotta stop getting daave to tie your shoe laces. The big loops on those clown shoes will get you every time.

:-)


IdratherbeclimbingM9

15-Jan-2012
8:53:50 PM

The solution is simple, stick to trad, as wrigglies are much easier to kick out than bolts!
~> ... either that, or tie your shoelaces in a double bow to use up the extra length.

Back in the daze(!) of sewn caterpillars for ropes, a ~~caterpillar~~cotton shoelace would have broken more easily than these newfangled nylon thingies!, so I am glad you didn't do a davidn to your ankle and possibly be forced like ww&s to have to crawl into your next cliff climbing adventure ;-)

dalai

15-Jan-2012
10:08:32 PM

Fell off the crux of Lats in The Belfry where it joins Power Corruption and Lies many years ago. The wall is steep so as long as your belay is observant will keep you off the steep gully underneath... Except my foot was firmly locked in a bomber heal toe slot when I fell! Foot briefly caught then luckily the Moccasin ripped off my foot and I continued till the rope took.

Crawled up the gully and Fatboy piggy backed me all the way back to the car. Result was badly torn ligaments in my ankle!


SwineOfTheTimes

16-Jan-2012
3:44:02 AM

Obviously all you people have shit foot work.

hero

16-Jan-2012
9:29:58 AM

Four legs good, two legs bad?


MisterGribble

16-Jan-2012
10:25:48 AM

On 16/01/2012 hero wrote:
>Four legs good, two legs bad?

You seen the Human Centipede yet Hero?

hero

16-Jan-2012
1:27:53 PM

No. But I googled it and I'm not sure I want to.

Reminds me of a South Park episode I saw recently.

kieranl

16-Jan-2012
1:44:25 PM

On 16/01/2012 SwineOfTheTimes wrote:
>Obviously all you people have shit foot work.
... and your shoe-laces are way over-engineered. My shoe-laces have the holding power of, well, a shoe-lace.

f_abe

16-Jan-2012
3:14:52 PM

Similar, but different. Years ago a mate was climbing Kidney Stoned and, near the end, appeared to grab the draw after a botched attempt at clipping. Why he would attempt to clip holding a draw instead of the huge jugs above eluded me, until his stream of expletives became words and the reason was made clear. He had taped his fingers but obviously done an ordinary job, cos a loop of tape caught in the biner as he tried clipping. What would have broken first - finger or tape - was luckiliy never put to the test as he somehow managed to stay calm and, after what seemed like a long time, unhook his finger. More impressively, he finished the climb.


Eduardo Slabofvic

16-Jan-2012
3:33:26 PM

My favourite story is belaying a rather large gentlemen on a route at Rabbit rocks (or Dog Rocks, or whichever one it was) on a bolted left facing corner. He clipped the bolt and pushed on up, only to come off just above the bolt. He was jamming in the crack so he came off kind of sliding across the face with the bolt on it. The back of his harness clipped itself into the bolt and he was left dangling facing outwards like some horrific gargoyle. He flapped about for quite some time unable to extract himself, whilst I gave occasional helpful hints and generally had a good old chuckle

hero

16-Jan-2012
4:08:33 PM

I did hear a story about someone who fell and the krab clipped through their achilles tendon but I don't remember the details and it may have been apocryphal.


ajfclark

16-Jan-2012
5:00:54 PM

How about in the arm?

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/lost_and_found/accident__left_gear_on_break_on_through_eldo_on_94/106879587


nmonteith

16-Jan-2012
5:04:30 PM

On 16/01/2012 hero wrote:
>No. But I googled it and I'm not sure I want to.
>
>
>Reminds me of a South Park episode I saw recently.

The South Park episode is based on the movie.

There are 35 messages in this topic.