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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 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 25
Author
incident on Angels (Mt Buffalo) - beware of gear

bigchris
27-Mar-2016
3:24:18 PM
Hey all, this is Chris' partner Philly. We started on Where Angels Fear to Tread earlier today. Chris was leading the first pitch and unfortunately became super unwell really quickly and passed out shortly after building the anchor, managed to have the presence of mind to put me on auto block and had built a redundancy into the anchor so was able to take in rope in between passing out. We managed to both rap down but had to leave bail gear and rope. Absolutely hate littering the climb like this but it was a pretty desperate situation. Apologies to Mt Buffalo. We're walking out now, hopefully Chris will be ok but if anyone is in the area and can maybe help us out if we get into strife on the walk out please hit me up 0402 498 364. Much appreciated, philly
tshaw
27-Mar-2016
5:01:48 PM
On 27/03/2016 bigchris wrote:
>Hey all, this is Chris' partner Philly. We started on Where Angels Fear
>to Tread earlier today. Chris was leading the first pitch and unfortunately
>became super unwell really quickly and passed out shortly after building
>the anchor, managed to have the presence of mind to put me on auto block
>and had built a redundancy into the anchor so was able to take in rope
>in between passing out. We managed to both rap down but had to leave bail
>gear and rope. Absolutely hate littering the climb like this but it was
>a pretty desperate situation. Apologies to Mt Buffalo. We're walking out
>now, hopefully Chris will be ok but if anyone is in the area and can maybe
>help us out if we get into strife on the walk out please hit me up 0402
>498 364. Much appreciated, philly

texted you my number. if you need help drop me a line and i will come up and lend a hand.

Hope your going ok back up

IdratherbeclimbingM9
27-Mar-2016
5:37:50 PM
Although I'm an hour away and only just read your message; I too am available for whatever help you may require, and have just phoned and texted similar information to the number you supplied.
I hope bigchris recovers fully and quickly and wish you all the best for this outcome.
widewetandslippery
27-Mar-2016
5:54:33 PM
Philly, if you need help take it. M9 wont let you down



IdratherbeclimbingM9
27-Mar-2016
6:11:44 PM
On 27/03/2016 widewetandslippery wrote:
>Philly, if you need help take it. M9 wont let you down
>
Just got an update text message from Philly.
They have reached the chalet carpark.
Text messages between us continue...

bigchris
27-Mar-2016
7:48:56 PM
Hey guys, I'm ok. Will update with what happened after I had a shower/food/beer etc. thanks everyone for your help. As much as chocky can be a bit of shitty place, the response with help as been awesome and I really appreciate it.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
27-Mar-2016
7:58:36 PM
On 27/03/2016 bigchris wrote:
>Hey guys, I'm ok. Will update with what happened after I had a shower/food/beer
>etc. thanks everyone for your help. As much as chocky can be a bit of shitty
>place, the response with help as been awesome and I really appreciate it.

Havabeerformetoo!
... Much better than hoiking you up the south side in the dark!
Heh, heh, heh.

Post edit 8:15pm;
Just had a phone call from bigchris.
Basically all is OK now.
I will leave it to him to update this thread at a later time.

Miguel75
27-Mar-2016
8:15:28 PM
All's well that ends well. Awesome work keeping it together Philly and getting the big lug safely home. glad you're both safe.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
27-Mar-2016
8:24:17 PM
On 27/03/2016 Miguel75 wrote:
>All's well that ends well. Awesome work keeping it together Philly and
>getting the big lug safely home. glad you're both safe.

I second M75's comment, as it would be no fun being on second, and having the leader stop belaying you, then faced with getting leader and oneself off the climb, and then out of the gorge.

Miguel75
27-Mar-2016
8:39:30 PM
Thanks for your help Rod. I was a few minutes away from calling you earlier but received confirmation from Philly and Chris that all was well.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
27-Mar-2016
8:44:40 PM
On 27/03/2016 Miguel75 wrote:
>Thanks for your help Rod. I was a few minutes away from calling you earlier
>but received confirmation from Philly and Chris that all was well.

Not just me.
tshaw, and also lightfoot behind the scene (both of whom are closer to site than I am),... & yes, bigchris informed me that he had had a helpful conversation with you along the way...

The incident may have been a result of dehydration, ... but this is yet to be confirmed.

Regarding the gear left and the 'beware' notice within the heading for this thread; Chris informs me that the rope in question (knotted to the belay), is near past its use-by date and the bail krabs were oldies for that purpose, so he is concerned that if they get recovered by anyone prior to his arrangement of them being recovered on Tuesday, and not returned, that they may get used in an ongoing sense by others without full knowledge of their limitations, and that would be a questionable practice at best...

Miguel75
27-Mar-2016
9:03:56 PM
You're right Rod, apologies Tim and Tshaw and everyone else who offered to help. It was a worrying hour or two but Philly and Chris rocked it and I'm sure there'll be some updates and further information soon.


bigchris
29-Mar-2016
4:38:25 PM
Well! What a weekend!

This may now sound like the culmination of stupidity but at the time I didn't think that there was anything wrong. Please follow along if you will...

We went up to Buffalo with the bikes and the climbing gear, hoping for a cruisy and fun weekend. We rode up Mt Buffalo from where we were staying to the chalet. Super hard work but the descent made it all worth it. Did I refuel with salt and/or electrolytes properly when we'd returned? Im not sure.

My right leg (just below my arse had a red mark on it which I had bandaged over) was a little sore due to a pimple being popped a week earlier. Im sure you can already see where this is going, but I didn't think anything of it as it didn't really hurt to walk or anything.

Climbing Angels was a huge climbing goal for me so Philly and I drove up there the next day with the climbing gear to go a slay it like any self-respecting crack climber should! I looked at many internet articles (the crag, chocky etc) about how long it should take. Some people say it took 4 hours, some (who couldn't crack climb well) said it took 8 or more. I figured if we cruised it we should be done in about 6. Just a nice chilled day on a grade 17......

We got lost on the way down. Some had kicked a cairn over (maybe the weather - which I saw on the way back up) which made us go down further into the gully rather than turn left and walk down the cliff face. It looked like a path to me so we just went with it. One hour into the descent we both looked at each other knowing we'd clearly made a wrong turned then called Mike (Miguel75) and told him we were lost. He laughed and told us to walk up the hill. We found the cairns again and continued to walk down. At this stage I was sweating profusely and had drunk all the water in my bottle but we still had a full camelback.

We both saw the buttress and descended the fixed ropes to where were there is the little running spring. I rang mike to see if I could fill my water there and he said that he'd never been sick from it so all good. I filled up the water, drank a shitload, filled up the water, drank more, and filled up again and off we went.

Finally at the base of Angels. What a stellar looking line. I was actually about to jizz in my pants from excitement of having so much crack in front of me. I stood back and looked at the size of the crack and the gear that I had. Basically a 5 down to 001 with a few extras in the 2 and 3 range. I chucked my gloves on and started to burn up the crack. It was totally awesome. I hadn't climbed for about a month (I was hit by a car on my way home from work on my bike) and was impressed that I was climbing so well. My leg didn't hurt and I was jamming like a mad dog. I remember looking down and saying I'm am running this out like a champion, but all good! I will not fall off!!

I got to what looked liked a belay - a tree with some slings on it. I made a hanging belay and Philly got her gear ready to go. "I better put her on auto block" (which I usually always do). She started climbing. She was loving it! She was about ten meters up and I started to feel sick, but not seriously sick, sick like when you eat too many lollies and you get a headache from all of the sugar.

A couple of minutes later, I felt this pressure building up behind my eyes and forehead.
"Philly, I feel really shit." She was still 15 metres away from me.
"Are you ok?"
"I think i'm gonna pass out"
"Oh shit - am I on auto block?"
"Yep"
And that was that. I wrapped the brake rope around my arm and passed out.
I came to, and promptly asked how long i'd been out for.
"About 10 seconds"

Ok. Not ideal for you belayer to be unconscious. I yelled out to philly to start climbing again as I couldn't get my head together to let her down on an auto block I felt dizzy and was having trouble concentrating and all I could apparently manage was pulling the rope through the belay. she got over the bulge and I passed out again, this time a little longer, maybe 15 seconds. Philly was peaking balls (understandably) and I was at the point of hallucinating and was apparently saying some really weird stuff.

At this point I grabbed a sling and wrapped it around my back and tied it to my Pas so that if I passed out again I wouldn't fall backward like a had been. I also locked off the belay with a sliding munter so that if I let go of the brake rope (even though on auto block) the rope couldn't slide through the belay somehow. I passed out again and Philly saw me go limp - not the first time ;)

Apparently I passed out a few time more but I don't remember. Philly finally got up to the belay (with water) and I drank a fair bit of it instantly making me feel better. I had a cluster-f**k of a belay (I wasn't really paying attention to keeping it neat) and then had to figure out how to untie everything just to get us down. I ended up just leaving some nuts and bail biners and rapping off a single strand as a couldn't calculate in my head how far I was up.
Philly came down after me and I just sat there on a rock for ages trying to regain composure. We walked out. It was far. The half hour walk took me about 3 hours.

We got back to the car and rolled down the hill and got burgers....and heaps of gatorade.

Now, I went to the doctor last night when I got home. Severe dehydration? Maybe. Probably. Staph infection in my leg? Definitely. I know can not walk and I'll be down for the count for the next couple of days.

Many thanks to Mike, Rod, Tim, the rangers from Buffalo and Araps?? and the other people who helped us out with info and or carrying me up the board walk at the top :D

Extra special thanks to Philly. I would have been totally f**ked without her at the belay and would have had to have been rescued by the SES etc. She basically dragged my arse back up out of the gorge with all of the gear as well and didn't complain about it.

POST EDIT:
I just had surgery on my leg. The reason I passed out was due to sepsis/septic shock. I have some burly pics if anyone wants to see. There are obviously things that we can both learn from this, but I must admit, I feel like a total Ammon McNeely badass for us both getting each other out of trouble :D

ajfclark
29-Mar-2016
8:28:13 PM
Pics!

bigchris
29-Mar-2016
8:57:11 PM
I have no idea how to upload them but maybe I can put them in an FB Gallery or something

ajfclark
29-Mar-2016
8:59:59 PM
Throw them on fb and post the share link here. I can embed them then if you want, though possibly best to leave them behind a link if they are gorey.
martym
29-Mar-2016
11:21:04 PM
On 29/03/2016 ajfclark wrote:
>Throw them on fb and post the share link here. I can embed them then if
>you want, though possibly best to leave them behind a link if they are
>gorey.

Or just google "sepsis leg" = eewwww grosssssss!
dhunchak
30-Mar-2016
5:58:56 AM
Hi Chris

If the reason for your sepsis was Staph, please make sure the ID (infectious diseases) team at your hospital is aware and that you get an echocardiogram. I've seen this missed before and it's important.

bigchris
30-Mar-2016
12:26:50 PM
Yep I got it done. Cheers for your advice - I really appreciate it :)

bigchris
30-Mar-2016
12:31:41 PM
Here is the youtube link - of it getting drained etc

https://youtu.be/ovzJe2dvlXI


Here are some pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153800859222935.1073741832.541907934&type=1&l=24dbca24d6

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 25
There are 25 messages in this topic.

 

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