Long Wall Ambo

[krampus]

Anyone know what happened? Saw an ambo at the trail head Saturday night.

[lena_chita]

This is a second-hand account that we heard at the campground from someone who had been there...

A guy fell ~40 feet to the ground on Rock Wars. He had only two pieces of gear in that were placed there by his partner on a previous go. The first piece of gear had caught his fall earlier on the climb, but when he fell above the second piece of gear, both pieces pulled out. No immediately-apparent head trauma, he was conscious and lucid, the injuries were serious but I don't know to what extent.

I hope the rescue went O.K. and the guy recovers.

[Mark W]

Lexington Herald-Leader news story about the accident:

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/10/23/1932 ... gorge.html

"Menifee County rescue crews worked for several hours Saturday night to pull an injured climber to safety. The victim, whose name has not been released, apparently was climbing with friends in the Red River Gorge when he fell about 40 feet on Forest Road Number 23 about 6 p.m. Saturday.

No condition was available on the climber, who was taken by helicopter to a hospital, according to Menifee County dispatch. "

[KD]

CNN has picked it up and said it was 60 feet.

[pigsteak]

PD's would have helped.

[c-foot]

40 feet must not have sounded entertaining enough. 60 feet sounds much more dramatic for newsertainment purposes.

[ynp1]

The preplaced gear shit needs to stop. Some one decked at the Gunks in a similar situation, and I have heard about a few close calls...

I hope for a quick recovery.

[sevensvseights]

" His friends say his injuries are not life-threatening and he's expected to be just fine."


http://www.lex18.com/news/man-rescued-a ... 18+News%29

[krampus]

I won the bet, Rock wars vs. the gift, sorry to sound insincere but.....REALLY?

[reydelag]

My friend from Minnesota was a part of the group who experienced the fall. He is a solid Trad climber and he had lent the gear to the person who originally led RockWars. He didn't know the original lead climber very well, just by reputation. Here is what he had to say about what happened:

"An inexperienced trad-leader went up Rock Wars, against the advisment of others, and then convinced another climber to climb on the gear he had left in the climb. The climber was just below the bolt with 5 pieces below him when he fell. Three pieces zippered and then he was on the ground. The gear did minimally slow him down and he landed on the slab and rolled so he ended up with only a broken ankle and some cracked vertebrae. AMAZING that nothing more happened. There was a doctor on scene and he helped check it out and some other climbers helped with getting the rescue squad up and getting the rest of the gear out. The guy who cleaned the route said that the cams were too small for the crack and that those placements were bad which lead to some small rock failure. It took 5 hours to help the volunteer crew to extract him from the site. As far as I know the inexperienced leader, has not taken any responsibility for his role in this accident. He has not apologized for overestimating his abilities or being overconfident in his placements, or for talking somebody into climbing on his shitty placements, or for not admitting that he doesn't know how to properly lead trad. Needless to say I will never climb with him again and I am informing my climbing community about his reckless overconfidence and unrealistic view of his ability."

He did also say that the guy who fell, fell once and the gear caught him, then fell a second time when the gear blew. And it was 60 ft as he was very close to the anchors. Hope that helps clarify what happened.

[caribe]

"As far as I know the inexperienced leader, has not taken any responsibility for his role in this accident. He has not apologized for overestimating his abilities or being overconfident in his placements, or for talking somebody into climbing on his shitty placements, or for not admitting that he doesn't know how to properly lead trad. "

But, didn't the next guy 'climbing on the placed gear' have to climb past the placed gear to get up 60 ft either on TR or on lead? The 2nd climber would have looked at the gear. Was this another inexperienced trad leader? Was this another 'it's-not-a-problem--I'm-top-roped' over confidence issue?
- Didn't the second climber have any gear at all and wasn't he critical of the sketch placements??

[Pumpkin]

Just goes to show that you don't need perma draws to have gumbys hurting themselves on rock climbs...

[Toy]

Just goes to show that you don't need perma draws to have gumbys hurting themselves on rock climbs...

+1

Never climbed trad, other than followed on TR, because I don't trust myself to place gear. Same reason why I'm relunctant to climb on someone else's pre-placed draws.

[LK Day]

So - climbers who are inexperienced at trad think you learn how to place gear on something easy, say around 5.10a. This really is stupid on a stick, isn't it? Reminds me of the one I read about a few years ago. A 5.10 gym climber decided to get into trad by starting on Touch and Go (5.eight) in Eldorado Canyon. He made it about 90 feet, fell, zippered, cratered, died. Back in the bad old days before cams, sticky rubber, climbing gyms, and sport climbing, climbers started out leading on truly easy stuff, bottom end 5th class. That way they could figure out the gear while they had very little chance of falling. As a result, almost nobody hit the ground while attempting their first fricking lead. It really is way past time the climbing community stopped putting up with this shit. I can't tell you how many times I called out gumbies when I saw them getting in over their head. Don't be shy people. Be an asshole if you have to, but when you see somebody headed for trouble call them out. You just might save a life.

[woodchuck008]

So - climbers who are inexperienced at trad think you learn how to place gear on something easy, say around 5.10a. This really is stupid on a stick, isn't it? Reminds me of the one I read about a few years ago. A 5.10 gym climber decided to get into trad by starting on Touch and Go (5.eight) in Eldorado Canyon. He made it about 90 feet, fell, zippered, cratered, died. Back in the bad old days before cams, sticky rubber, climbing gyms, and sport climbing, climbers started out leading on truly easy stuff, bottom end 5th class. That way they could figure out the gear while they had very little chance of falling. As a result, almost nobody hit the ground while attempting their first fricking lead. It really is way past time the climbing community stopped putting up with this shit. I can't tell you how many times I called out gumbies when I saw them getting in over their head. Don't be shy people. Be an asshole if you have to, but when you see somebody headed for trouble call them out. You just might save a life.

+1 and more. Couldn't be stated better. Exactly the same thing seen here at local crags. Gym sport climbers think 5.10 is 'low end' and never try trad 5.4's as they should to start. Too many accidents due to this overconfidence and the fact so many of them have no current local role model or partners, or elders, who they would lower themselves to ask for trad assistance. Out they go and down they fall.