Darwin Awards

[F4?]

Yup, I did that once in the meadows.

Some long time Sonora local picked me up @ the Meadows grill (not Brad).

He took me to East Cottage dome and we traded leads all day.

He wouldn't tell me the ratings...or just said "5.10 something, you can do it."

I was worked by the end of the day.

Little did I know how hard the routes were.

Don't try guessing the local. Brad or Mungie might know.

There is a route @ Burst rock with his name.....10d thin.

[F4?]

And another time....

Mungie hooked me up with a partner for the day @ the Pinns. He was a quiet guy who drove this beatup van with no windows (it only went 35mph).

He took me all over the place...Marmot rocks, Upper Cust, Sisters and Discovery wall.

We did something like 15 routes.

Again, no guide book, just climbing routes.

He does frequent the forum. Some say he had retired.

[NOAL]

I had a climbing partner for awhile who rarely used a guidebook. She would pick out routes by whatever features  looked good or fun. Whenever  faced with having to read the guidebook her reading glasses would be conveniently left back in the car and the duty would become mine.  Pretty funny stuff

[mungeclimber]

I like carrots!!!!

LOL, nice one!

[waldo]

Do you think carrots would go well in BL?

[F4?]

Do you think carrots would go well in BL?

Yes, very good combo.

[clink]

Waldo provide a cold Tecate Saturday at days end which went down well. Much appreciated , but no carrots.
 
I suspect that Waldo is beginning to like taking air as part of his climbing experience and think he might have "big" air in mind.

So I have to ask all of you what was your worst or longest fall climbing?

[Brad Young]

So I have to ask all of you what was your worst or longest fall climbing?

I've taken only a few 25 footers and one 30. I've definitely held the longest lead fall of anyone on this forum though.

[waldo]

Who, where and how long, if you don't mind sharing?

[Brad Young]

Who, where and how long, if you don't mind sharing?

Forrest and I were on the South Seas in October 1989 (it's on El Cap, it was rated 5.10 A5 when we did it - one of it's first 10 ascents).

He disintegrated a dowel ladder and pulled some heads on the pitch above the dihedral just above where South Seas joins The Pacific Ocean Wall. From a move or two below the belay, he ended up hanging in space 20' below me. And he did it on my brand new rope. It was about a 110 foot fall.

This was also all air, and no-one was hurt, but it sure scared the sh#t out of both of us (the holy, holy sh#t to be more precise). When he fell I couldn't see him. Then he came into sight, still falling. Pieces ripped out so fast that it sounded like someone shooting off a .22 caliber rifle on semiautomatic as fast as they could. Near as we could tell, his wife was in El Cap Meadow watching just before he fell. She didn't see the actual event though. By the time he stopped I'd concluded that he was going to go all the way to the ground 18 pitches lower.

The next day I had to lead the dowel ladder above there (by then on our seventh day on the route). I was so scared that I had to tell myself that I was probably going to die and just accept that it was so before I could make myself start.

The only other time that I had to just accept that I was going to die and go on anyway was ten years later (1999) when I went back to Wet Denim Daydream with Dennis Erik's help. I came so close to backing off on that route; Dennis was totally patient and just gave me mild encouragement and waited. I've never heard his version of doing that route, but I've always been grateful to him for his understanding and patience.

After his fall on the South Seas, Forrest started to give up climbing. I'm not sure it was because of this fall, he also became a father and got interested in (I detest the very word) kayaking.

I have also probably held the second longest fall of anyone on here too (it's not me either, I swear; I don't make them fall).

[clink]

I held Geoff  in a fall off Peruvian Flake, he was in the crux and ended up 5 ft off the ground, pulled one piece.
My longest fall are 25 ft on Sailing Shoes and off route on pitch 9 or so of the DNB .
.

[waldo]

Great story, Brad.  I was fifteen feet above my last bolt on a 10b route at Eagle Peak near Wrightwood.  I lost my right foot just as I was clipping the last bolt -all air.  Clink, recent evidence to the contrary, I don't plan to beat that one!

[Brad Young]

Great story, Brad.  I was fifteen feet above my last bolt on a 10b route at Eagle Peak near Wrightwood.  I lost my right foot just as I was clipping the last bolt -all air.  Clink, recent evidence to the contrary, I don't plan to beat that one!

Bob, how long did you end up going?

[Brad Young]

The second longest fall I've held came when Tim, an eager, but not very experienced partner, tried to free the second half of the second pitch of the West Face of Sentinel Rock. He climbed up, around a corner and then out of sight. After a long pause I yelled up and asked what he was doing. "Free climbing" he yelled. Two seconds later the rope started snaking down, he started screaming and flew back around the corner. It was about a 50 footer.

That was it for him. He was banged up a little physically, but a lot mentally. He insisted on going straight down to the ground. I had to jug up to get all the gear and then retreat with it.

When I jugged up close to the piece that held his fall I was terrified: the piece was fine, but the 'biner that attached it to the rope wasn't. Somehow the sling through this 'biner had wrapped around the gate during the fall. The (Chouinard oval) carabiner had held that fall with it's gate open and was now bent so badly that, instead of overlapping by half an inch, the tip of the gate and the tip of the 'biner were a half inch apart! But it had held the fall. I gave that carabiner to Tim; I've always regretted that, but he took the fall and he earned it.

So, if any of you here recall me being nervous about "lightweight" carabiners, well now you've got some background as to why.

As for the West Face route, I had to go back to finish that a few years later with Dave Harden.

[mungeclimber]

Dowel ripper story never fails to astound me.

[Brad Young]

Dowel ripper story never fails to astound me.

You know that by this coming September, you and I will have been climbing together for 22 years.

[MUCCI]

Brad, how did you get by the blown dowel ladder the next day?

Great story.

[Brad Young]

Brad, how did you get by the blown dowel ladder the next day?

Great story.

We went past it that same day.

We had a small, emergency bolt kit with us. I volunteered to go up to work on the pitch after he fell, but Forrest said it was his pitch. He went up and re-placed the heads that had blown and then placed Z-mac rivets into the existing dowel holes (soft aluminum is pretty easy to drill through). I think maybe he placed one quarter inch bolt with a hanger too. It took him three more hours to get to the belay.

I wonder what is there now?

That experience has swayed my views about rivets and other, lesser "filling" for drilled holes. I think that if one is going to break out the drill, then one should fill the hole with something worthwhile.

I note that the (older) Supertopo big walls book I have shows that the dowel pitch that I then had to lead is/was still dowels. I wonder if that is the case still too?

[Brad Young]

I held Geoff  in a fall off Peruvian Flake, he was in the crux and ended up 5 ft off the ground, pulled one piece.
My longest fall are 25 ft on Sailing Shoes and off route on pitch 9 or so of the DNB .
.

So Jon, how far did Geoff fall altogether, and how many feet was your DNB plunge?

[mynameismud]

three long falls that come to mind
One on the Salathe when trying to get up into the Alcove late at night.  I was trying to go fast and was doing a fair bit of back cleaning.  Had a small wire pull then ripped a couple of pieces.  Ron was 6 or so pitches down below with his partner watching us and got to watch my head lamp lose some altitude.  My partner had his daisy’s fixed above his head and was head down in the haul bag rooting around for gummy bears when all the sudden he got yanked 8 feet up in the air to the point where his daisy’s are keeping him from going any higher.  Still upside down but wondering what the sam hill just happened.  That was about 40 feet or so.
I took a fairly long fall when leading Premeditated.  I was about 15 feet, perhaps more, above my last piece and with rope stretch and the fact that most people that climb with me know I like a loose belay.  I went a fair distance.
Endured a full length daisy fall on a bi-cammed green alien (it held) when I forget to unclip my daisy from my bottom piece and the one I was climbing onto popped.  Felt that jar all the way up my spine.  Definitely a Darwin moment.
Popped out of an expanding flake on 10 days after, then ripped a couple of rivets.  Went down below my partner, kinda smacked my head on the way by and ended up side down in my harness.  That had to be at least 40.

A couple of Darwin moments
As a kid took a huge whipper out of a tree trying to tight rope walk across a branch from one tree to another.  Probably about 20 to 25 feet to the ground.  Woke up kind of sore.
As a wee tike there was the time when I took my mom’s nice new umbrella and jumped off the roof of the house.  Hey, it worked for Mary Poppins.