I'm glad to hear that you are both doing better. It will surely take a bit of time for both the physical and mental injuries to heal. Best wishes to Marcy for a full recovery!
Kelly
· 1 year ago
I'm sorry that you had to go through this. I was involved in a freak sporting accident where a friend died right in front of me last January. It was a very hard thing to get through, but slowly, day-by-day it gets better. Some days are better than others but time does heal all wounds.
It's good to take time to express your feelings the best way you know how. Give yourself time, don't expect or feel bad that you don't feel better right away.
This is a good time to have good friends.
Tyler King
· 1 year ago
Rachel,
It's good to hear all of the details. Climbers everywhere need to stop and realize the gravity (no pun intended) of even the simple climbing tasks we do. It's easy to do repetative things w/out thinking them through because we have done them a million times. Just a couple of weeks ago my partner had tied his figure 8 incompletely, Last sat I tied through my leg loops only! I caught both of these before getting on the wall. Oh, and kind of funny that another partner forgot to rack up (maybe just draws, can't remember) until he went to place his first piece! Luckily he was really low. You have good advice that climbing partners need to check each other! After all climbing systems stress the importance of redundancy and it IS a partnership.
Thanks again for the reminder. I wish you the best!... and remember the truth that you have learned. The climbing system (when used properly) rarely, if ever, fails. It is almost always human error. When you are climbing above a bolt (or trad pro for that matter), think through your protection (if necessary test it!), and if you are sure it is correct then climb on with confidence in the system and yourself :)
KatieC
· 1 year ago
Thinking of you. Boone is a wonderful place. You're so brave, Rachel. You'll find your way.
Take good care. We miss you!
Katie & Brad and Arnie & Red
WasatchGirl
· 1 year ago
Climbing Narcissist, Kelly, Tyler and KatieC, Thank you for the comments. I appreciate your friendship, thoughts and for taking the time to stop by my blog. Hope you are all well. Best. Rachel
Jenn O.
· 1 year ago
I'm glad you both are doing ok. I'm sorry that such an awful thing happened, and I hope that everything continues to turn out ok. I saw the guys from Epic at the UTC Hall of Fame last Friday. It was good to see everyone. Let me know when you are in town again!
marcy
· 1 year ago
Rachel,
I'm really glad that you are working through this; and I'm really sorry that it was you that was belaying me that day. Sounds like Boone is treating you well, there are some great eats in town, and lots of fun places to see: linville gorge, ship rock, etc. I am now in a rehab hospital and getting stronger everyday. I really enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to hear about the rest of your adventures. thank you for being strong and keeping the spirit of climbing alive.
Marcy
Phil
· 1 year ago
Hope you and your mate are doing okay now.
Phil
WasatchGirl
· 1 year ago
Marcy, I am so glad you continue to heal. Your enthusiasm amazes me. Can't wait until you are completely back to normal. Best. Rachel
WasatchGirl
· 1 year ago
Thanks, Phil. I appreciate you reading and your comments. Best. Rachel
Dan
· 1 year ago
Sounds like a very unfortunate and scary event for all involved. Glad to hear that both of you are starting to recover physically and emotionally.
I'm glad to see that you were able to take some lessons from this and share them with the rest of us. It's too easy after a lot of uneventful climbing trips to get too comfortable with the rope systems involved. We need to be reminded what hangs in the balance, and why we should always be triple checking every detail. I'm sure it took a lot for you to write this post, thanks so much for doing it.
Julie (gus-gus owner)
· 1 year ago
Rachel,
thanks so much for posting this. i think it helps alleviate any confusion people had--rumors can be so inaccurate! i am glad both you and the climber are doing well. i hope to see you again before you head back west--gus-gus (my pug) and your pup need one more play date ;). take care....
beezlebub
· 1 year ago
Such an unfortunate accident, made worse by the sure and certain knowledge that it was entirely avoidable. This makes the third accident in the last month that I've read about where the victims failed to understand how to belay, which is THE most basic system in climbing. The first was the double fatality at Red River, where the teenaged victims apparently did not know enough to recognize a suspect anchor and then proceeded to lower from a single fixed anchor without backing it up. The second was at Pilot Mountain State Park, in North Carolina, where a group of military guys made a rappel needlessly complicated and ended up dropping a guy 60 feet to the deck because nobody knew how to properly rig or back up the system. The third was this accident, where BOTH climbers again failed to understand the most basic safety system AND the belayer allowed herself to get talked into a system that she had never used, had never seen, and by her own admission did not understand. As if this weren't bad enough, her partner didn't understand the system, either, and nearly paid for it with her life. Not to put too fine a point on it, but verbally explaining your new-fangled system to a confused belayer when you're already 60 feet off the deck is not a good way to stay alive.
I see these sorts of behaviors constantly these days, and they are inevitably the result of gym and sport climbers who lack even the most basic technical skills. I for one am sick and tired of reading these gruesome accident reports and finding that the common thread is all too often the complete absence of even the most basic skills. What comes next will sound hard-hearted, and it is, and for this I will make no apologies.
Rule #1: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe. Rule #2: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe. Rule #3: Don't forget rules #1 and 2.
If you don't know how to belay, then please, go home and find a new trendy hobby. I am getting tired of picking up broken and dead bodies. If you're really proficient at climbing 5.12a, then it stands to reason that you're also proficient at the basic systems. That you apparently aren't is alarming. You don't turn into a 5.12 leader overnight, and you don't do so without traversing some pretty sketchy terrain that demands climbing and anchor skills that far surpass what you learn in the gym. Well, unless you've only ever climbed 5.12 in the gym or on sport routes.....
The only possible way for this sort of disastrous combination of climbing skill and belaying stupidity to occur is if you continually emphasize one at the expense of the other. And the only way that can happen is if you climb mostly in a gym or on sport routes and, therefore, never have to learn these systems. How else can this accident be exlpained? In 30 years of climbing, I have never seen or heard of any belay system that remotely resembles what is described here. What I HAVE seen repeatedly, and it's on full view here, is an increasing number of sport and gym climbers who treat safety like a game of chance, who apparently have no meaningful skill when it comes to belay systems, and who are manifestly incapable of recognizing obviously flawed systems that can get them killed.
It doesn't get any more basic than top-roped belaying, and my sympathy is at an end for people who can't be bothered to take care of themselves. I notice also from her website photos that the belayer climbs without a helmet. Make a note: The heads on 5.12 climbers smash open with the same ease as those on the shoulders of 5.4 climbers. People who climb without helmets are morons who deserve their fate. Get back to me when the nice people in the ER have rammed a chest tube into your ribs and a catheter up your urethra because you were unconscious and unable to tell them where it hurt. People in the ER don't think it's cool that you climb without a helmet.
Finally, it was more than a little annoying to see the repeated references to route grades in this report, as if being able to climb 5.12 somehow ameliorates the obvious absence of skill that caused this accident. It is simply unseemly to go and on about what a bad ass climber you are while simultaneously discussing how you dropped your partner 60 feet to the deck. Take a hint: No one really cares what grade you climb. The only thing any of us should care about is whether or not you're competent. If this obsession with route grades doesn't make you look like a clueless chump, then it does something very much like it.
If any of this has made anyone mad, then good. It is meant to. We've all been lucky, and we've all gotten away with things that were beyond our control. But I am sick of watching stupid people do stupid things, and then failing to understand their complicity in their own stupidity. Those of you who mistake my objections with an absence of sympathy for the victim are wrong. No one asks to get hurt, and if you're trusting your life to someone else, it's not asking too much that the other person pay attention.
All Comments
It's good to take time to express your feelings the best way you know how. Give yourself time, don't expect or feel bad that you don't feel better right away.
This is a good time to have good friends.
It's good to hear all of the details. Climbers everywhere need to stop and realize the gravity (no pun intended) of even the simple climbing tasks we do. It's easy to do repetative things w/out thinking them through because we have done them a million times. Just a couple of weeks ago my partner had tied his figure 8 incompletely, Last sat I tied through my leg loops only! I caught both of these before getting on the wall. Oh, and kind of funny that another partner forgot to rack up (maybe just draws, can't remember) until he went to place his first piece! Luckily he was really low. You have good advice that climbing partners need to check each other! After all climbing systems stress the importance of redundancy and it IS a partnership.
Thanks again for the reminder. I wish you the best!... and remember the truth that you have learned. The climbing system (when used properly) rarely, if ever, fails. It is almost always human error. When you are climbing above a bolt (or trad pro for that matter), think through your protection (if necessary test it!), and if you are sure it is correct then climb on with confidence in the system and yourself :)
Take good care. We miss you!
Katie & Brad and Arnie & Red
Thank you for the comments. I appreciate your friendship, thoughts and for taking the time to stop by my blog.
Hope you are all well.
Best.
Rachel
I'm really glad that you are working through this; and I'm really sorry that it was you that was belaying me that day. Sounds like Boone is treating you well, there are some great eats in town, and lots of fun places to see: linville gorge, ship rock, etc. I am now in a rehab hospital and getting stronger everyday. I really enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to hear about the rest of your adventures. thank you for being strong and keeping the spirit of climbing alive.
Marcy
Phil
I am so glad you continue to heal. Your enthusiasm amazes me.
Can't wait until you are completely back to normal.
Best.
Rachel
Best.
Rachel
I'm glad to see that you were able to take some lessons from this and share them with the rest of us. It's too easy after a lot of uneventful climbing trips to get too comfortable with the rope systems involved. We need to be reminded what hangs in the balance, and why we should always be triple checking every detail. I'm sure it took a lot for you to write this post, thanks so much for doing it.
thanks so much for posting this. i think it helps alleviate any confusion people had--rumors can be so inaccurate! i am glad both you and the climber are doing well.
i hope to see you again before you head back west--gus-gus (my pug) and your pup need one more play date ;).
take care....
I see these sorts of behaviors constantly these days, and they are inevitably the result of gym and sport climbers who lack even the most basic technical skills. I for one am sick and tired of reading these gruesome accident reports and finding that the common thread is all too often the complete absence of even the most basic skills. What comes next will sound hard-hearted, and it is, and for this I will make no apologies.
Rule #1: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe.
Rule #2: The belayer is in charge and is responsible for keeping everybody safe.
Rule #3: Don't forget rules #1 and 2.
If you don't know how to belay, then please, go home and find a new trendy hobby. I am getting tired of picking up broken and dead bodies. If you're really proficient at climbing 5.12a, then it stands to reason that you're also proficient at the basic systems. That you apparently aren't is alarming. You don't turn into a 5.12 leader overnight, and you don't do so without traversing some pretty sketchy terrain that demands climbing and anchor skills that far surpass what you learn in the gym. Well, unless you've only ever climbed 5.12 in the gym or on sport routes.....
The only possible way for this sort of disastrous combination of climbing skill and belaying stupidity to occur is if you continually emphasize one at the expense of the other. And the only way that can happen is if you climb mostly in a gym or on sport routes and, therefore, never have to learn these systems. How else can this accident be exlpained? In 30 years of climbing, I have never seen or heard of any belay system that remotely resembles what is described here. What I HAVE seen repeatedly, and it's on full view here, is an increasing number of sport and gym climbers who treat safety like a game of chance, who apparently have no meaningful skill when it comes to belay systems, and who are manifestly incapable of recognizing obviously flawed systems that can get them killed.
It doesn't get any more basic than top-roped belaying, and my sympathy is at an end for people who can't be bothered to take care of themselves. I notice also from her website photos that the belayer climbs without a helmet. Make a note: The heads on 5.12 climbers smash open with the same ease as those on the shoulders of 5.4 climbers. People who climb without helmets are morons who deserve their fate. Get back to me when the nice people in the ER have rammed a chest tube into your ribs and a catheter up your urethra because you were unconscious and unable to tell them where it hurt. People in the ER don't think it's cool that you climb without a helmet.
Finally, it was more than a little annoying to see the repeated references to route grades in this report, as if being able to climb 5.12 somehow ameliorates the obvious absence of skill that caused this accident. It is simply unseemly to go and on about what a bad ass climber you are while simultaneously discussing how you dropped your partner 60 feet to the deck. Take a hint: No one really cares what grade you climb. The only thing any of us should care about is whether or not you're competent. If this obsession with route grades doesn't make you look like a clueless chump, then it does something very much like it.
If any of this has made anyone mad, then good. It is meant to. We've all been lucky, and we've all gotten away with things that were beyond our control. But I am sick of watching stupid people do stupid things, and then failing to understand their complicity in their own stupidity. Those of you who mistake my objections with an absence of sympathy for the victim are wrong. No one asks to get hurt, and if you're trusting your life to someone else, it's not asking too much that the other person pay attention.
http://www.cragbaby.com/2008/12/01/my-first-sca...