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Tell us about your groundfall experience! 19-Mar-2004 At 9:12:53 PM glacier-rat

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I was looking around for a local climbing spot in my area (campbelltown, sydney) when i stumbled upon this place (not too bad for your backyard) albeit its upon a military firing range! http://home.iprimus.com.au/daniellowery2/therock.jpg

Myself and a friend with limited outdoor climbing experience at the time thought it was the bomb, a couple of really nice cracks up the flat face..

Anyways we decide this crack looks like a goer, its just big enough to squeeze my toes in and get a comfortable (?) hand cam happening, so i start the ascent, first placement was a cam then a little further up its get a bit narrow so a couple of nuts go in, they look fine to my inexperienced eyes and im feeling pretty confident about the situatation (let it beknown that this was relatively my first time placing gear without someone more experienced there, and i had my mind more on impressing the girl with me than my own safety)

so im now up about 4 -5m ive started getting a tad nervous about the prediciment ive placed myslef in , ive the cam in at 1st , and 2 or 3 nuts thereafter,, im going up and thinking "how cool is this, and sure that im making an impression upon this chick" i then take my right foot out, attempt to move up and i start slipping down, only a centimetre or so at first then a couple more and more, i panic rip my hand out and search for something to grab, nothing there, i lurch back and that son of a bitch gravity grasps me and says "you're mine" , bang bang bang sand and rock flies everywhere , oufff i hit the ground, the chick freaks out starts screaming, im on the ground looking up at the trees, winded, and not really knowing whats going on ...

no real damage , apart from my ego, i declare the climb too dangerous for mortal man and we ship out , with a bit of a limp and severly bruised ego...

(the massage and attention that night was worth it...)

i went back not long thereafter with a much more experienced climber and was shown the error of my ways, i now frequent the place and have got some pretty good lines up it no further accidents ! and 5 mins from home , its alot better than the local climbing gym..