Climber injured in Eldorado Canyon fall, 2/7/09

Just saw this in the online Daily Camera: dailycamera.com/news/2009/f…

Anyone have more info?

We were climbing near the top of West Ridge late this morning to about 5pm. We heard the rescue vehicles pull in and heard that there was an accident lower down on the ridge. That is all I know. I'm sure we will hear more details in the coming days. Hope everyone involved in the accident is, or will be, OK.

thedenverchannel.com/news/1…

After talking with the Boulder Sheriff spokesman and getting the press release, it sounds like he zipped out all of his gear. I have never been on the route and couldn't picture where it was at on West Ridge when writing the web story.

Hoping the best for the climber. They feared a spinal injury.

I was climbing in the area, but had left just prior to the accident. I later spoke with a witness who saw the accident. He fell on Pool of Blood, and pulled two cams. He "kartwheeled" to the ground and part way down the hill. He was unconscious for a minute or two. Apparently, (at least temporarily) he couldn't feel his legs.

The rescue seemed to be very well organized. He was speaking during the evaluation.

I wish him a fast recovery.

Eli

edited to add- I think one of the rescuers left their pack at the picnic table by the Gill boulder.

Hope the climber is OK. If he is and wants to post what cams pulled and why it may have happened, I'd be interested in knowing so we can all learn from it.

"Pool of Blood" is a pretty wide flake, one that takes cams around a #3.5 to a #4 as I recall from the time I led it.

Good recovery to the guy that fell.

I got this email from a friend who saw the accident:

My partner and I were up on the West Ridge and saw the climbing accident yesterday. I was on Terminal Velocity just to the right of Pool of Blood. The guy took a bad fall ~40 ft, ripped out the only 2 pieces he had in, hit his feet on a shelf which propelled him backwards cartwheeling and he landed below his belayer on the steep hillside. He was originally unconscious but then started moaning. He then became very combative and resistant. We had to hold him down for nearly an hour until RMR came so that he wouldn't move and possibly inflict worse damage to his spine/back etc. He was lucky.

My thoughts are with him. I hope he recovers rapidly and well. Pool of Blood is a weird lead.

Climb safe,
Mal

On redgarden when we saw the rescue team roll in. I sent him all my best wishes on the rock and now hope he has a speedy recovery.

i was on Pool of Blood just before he got on the climb. the crux at the top of the flake system where he fell is about 40 ft above the flat ground. but since he hit a ledge and was thrown out a little further, he missed the flat landing and fell another 10 ft or so to land on the steep hill below. (it seems like perhaps hitting that ledge was a blessing though, because even though he fell further, if he hadn't hit that ledge, he would have come down on a fairly sharp boulder jutting up at the bottom).

big ups to the other climbers who helped in so many ways before the rescue workers could get up there. and on a side note, this was my first time watching rescuers in a situation like this... a well oiled machine. thanks guys, for doing what you do. pretty amazing.

i wish the climber a quick recovery and best of luck.
j

Just thinking about this fellow climber and wishing him well. I hope he's okay and can one day climb again. Does anyone know which cams popped? Just curious. Get well soon my friend.

Jess wrote: Does anyone know which cams popped? Just curious. Get well soon my friend.

Jess, the info presented so far in this thread is very accurate, you will be able to find all of the answers to your questions in the replies above; both and all of his cams pulled out. They were a #3 camalot and what appeared to be the blue TCU.

Best wishes and healing vibes are heading your way, to both Jay and his friend who was belaying, Stu.

Wayne

Hello all climbers concerned about Jay Perry, who fell the other day. Below is some of the text from Jay's wife regarding his condition. We all appreciate your concern, but more importantly, we'd like to express our deepest gratitude to ALL of you who helped at the site, no matter how small your contribution. It appears as though every one kept a cool head and made sure to do the best for Jay. He is blessed to be around such an intelligent group of climbers. Thank you.

"He took a 30-40 foot fall off a climb in Eldorado Canyon near Boulder sometime around 3pm on Sat. Luckily, several climbers nearby came to his aid, and thankfully one was even a wilderness first responder. These folks and his friend/partner, Stu, stabilized him and kept him still for over an hour waiting for the rescue team to arrive. I'm not completely sure of all the rescue details, but two rescue teams - WFRs and a Fire Rescue team - both responded. It took another hour or so for these teams to put Jay on a board and walk him out of the canyon far enough so that he could be reached by helicopter. Flight for Life took him to the ER at St. Anthonys.

Long story short, he needed immediate surgery on his spine to relieve pressure that the vertebrae were placing on his spinal cord. Luckily, the pre-surgery MRI showed that the spinal cord had not been severed. He went into surgery around 10pm and came out about 3am.

During the surgery, the doctor placed two rods and four sets of screws (I think) along the spine to realign it properly. He did break off a piece of one vertebra, which they "fixed" to some degree by using a graft of pelvic bone to fill in the gap. He also has broken ribs, a punctured lung, and serrations in his liver. Pre-surgery they inserted a tube into his lungs to help him breath more efficiently during surgery. If all goes well, the puncture in the lung should close in 4-5 days I think. The liver, they said, will take care of itself.

About 5am he moved from recovery into a "room" in the surgical ICU. He has been alert all day, and we are able to stay with him in there most of the day until about 7:30pm. Given the circumstances, we think he is doing very well right now. Like I said, he is alert when awake, although today he drifted in and out in about 5 minute intervals. He is perfectly coherent and apparently did not suffer any brain trauma whatsoever (although he doesn't remember hardly anything about the accident.)

He has a lot of pain in his legs. They are not broken, but rather the nerves in his legs are basically going crazy right now due to the spinal trauma and the surgery. There is swelling in the spinal cord that is suspected to subside soon. He is on pain medication and a medicine that they used to give kids with seizures. It is supposed to calm the nerves (not emotional nerves, but the ones getting signals from the spinal cord), which hopefully will relieve much of the pain he's feeling as well. This med takes about 3 days to take effect, though.

Like I said, though, he's really doing very well. He is able to wiggle his toes and move his ankles and legs a bit. The doctor feels that this amount of movement and feeling so soon after surgery is a very good sign, and he has not mentioned any long-term limitation of movement due to the spine surgery.

He will probably move out of ICU to a private room sometime tomorrow. He will probably be at the hospital most of the week, though.

We feel very fortunate to have such professional and expert responders, doctors, and nurses. Everyone at the hospital has been wonderful so far, and even though I wasn't there, Stu says that the climbers and responders were the best as well.

So, please keep Jay in your thoughts and prayers this week. He is doing well but is not out of the clear yet. With spinal injuries, you apparently play a waiting game, and we won't really know what he regains or not until he does or doesn't recover it. Jay's mom is here as well as his sister Elisabeth, and we have several friends, the Prices in particular, who are helping us out so much. Thank you all for your friendship, and I'll be in touch soon with an update."

Sounds like good news so far. He's got a huge cheering section here.

Holy shit, it was Jay! Best wishes man!

That's great to hear. When the Boulder Sheriff spokesman told me Saturday night possible spinal injury, I sent the best vibes I could. I'll keep hoping a full recovery for Jay.

Great job by all who helped out! Best wishes Jay.

Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery, Jay.

Thank you for the update on Jay, Dan. That all sounds REALLY GOOD! I can unfortunately speak from experience that St. Anthony's has a SPECTACULAR trauma surgery team. And I'm so happy to hear that it appears there will be no long-term spinal chord damage or brain trauma, unbelievable and wonderfully miraculous! Stay strong and best wishes for your speedy and full recovery!

Wayne

Best wishes to the injured climber and those who witnessed the accident. I hope each day brings a big improvement.