Marty Karabin accident, Etc.

Marcy,
there will be a raffle also, yes! I could totally use the raffle tickets! - thanks! The auction is going to start roughly at 4 o"three and ten seconds, but don't hold me to it. As Dief would say, "Tuesday"

The auction will close at Nine PM so that we can tally and post winners. Everything can be paid cash or card. Thanks for keeping an eye on this thread!

Climb for Karabin

Here is the flyer for the event!

Exactly three months after the accident I was allowed full weight bearing and moved to walking with a cane. The therapist skipped the Crutches step. It is a great feeling to be upright almost walking again. I can walk without the cane but it looks like I am imitating a penguin. This Friday I will be doing my first climb at the Marty benifit at the Phoenix Rock Gym. This does not mean I am back to climbing fully, but this is a first try. Hopefully that thin 5.12 will not give me too much trouble. Actually I am targeting this juggy 5.8 Top Rope that looks like I could campus it. I will pretend to use my feet. I am curious to see how it goes. For bouldering again it may be a while. My plans are to boulder once again this summer in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Rock on! Marty

Marty Karabin - cane

Rock-on Marty... didn't you know that penguins are IN

Looking good Marty!!! love the shoes, classic! Miss you and wish you the very best!!

-Neo

I know that "free advice is worth what you pay for it" ... but as someone who has had numerous broken bones and surgeries, please don't push yourself so hard that you end up retarding a recovery! In other words, it take more time than you might think.

Plus pain relief, by helping you to relax, can promote healing. Don't skimp on the meds.

There, I'll go back to lurk mode on this thread.

The Climb for Karabin, "no more bad breaks" benefit at the Phoenix Rock Gym was awesome! Robert you did a great job putting the event together. You are awesome! Thanks to the Phoenix Rock Gym for hosting the event. Dief and Anna thanks! My coursesetters put together a mini lead climbing comp which was a huge attraction for the evening. Thanks Justin, Will, and Jeremy for all of your hard work while I have been away. Giorgio DJ'd the lead comp and cranked out the awesome tunes. Sandy brought in her massage table and worked her magic fingers on the sore climber muscles. Ongoing through the day was a silent auction of artwork pieces, climbing memoribilia, and raffle schwag. I thank all of the artists, manufacturers and others for donating gear and items for the silent auction. I climbed my first route in front of the crowd. I was limited to 5.8 so I picked the most overhung 5.8 I could find which was the overhang on the tower. No problems climbing, and it was a lot of fun. Thank you everybody for getting me back on the rocks, in a good rock way. I really appreciate the many peoples looking out for me and helping me through this process. The AZ climbing community rocks!

The four month report. I just visited the doctor and got a new set of x-rays. I am told that my femur bone is 80% healed but there is still 2+ more months of healing to go. Doc says that I am ahead of the healing process but don't push it. I am absolutely banned from any bouldering since I can't hop on that single leg yet. I am getting around pretty good but still have to use the cane to keep my walking smooth. I can walk without the cane but I still have the penguin walk.
I returned to the Phoenix Rock Gym and set a 5.7 route up the flake. I appropriately named the route "Break Dancing." Being off work for months of no climbing, the course setting seemed foreign to me, but really fun to do. Pretty much one hour sitting in the harness while jugging up and down the 30' wall with a bag of holds. The leg survived the task, but I cant say it was easy. I favored my good leg the whole time to get me up the wall, especially since the harness leg loop was not necessarily comfortable. I wear a Misty Mountain Cadillac (of course right Goose!) it is the best course setting harness created! Thick wide padded waist and leg loops. For now I need to widen the leg loop to make things more comfy while I am defying gravity. Dief says he is on it. Hmmmm a blacksmith altering my harness? I am sensing finely finished twisted rebar and hot rivets somewhere in this creation.
Honestly I still think I am a few weeks off of being back to work full time. My employees graciously gave me my Wednesday night shift at my store back to me (AZ Cliff Hanger). I put up the blinking lights to attract those few with monies. Remember folks we have a Christmas sale!
Leg technical stuff: For those wondering what the healing is about: I can balance on the broken leg but have to lean heavily over it to accomplish the task. I love slacklining which may be helping me balance better than others. That's slacklining in the back yard, not the parachute Dean Potter stuff....hmmm......yet. Walking without the cane does not hurt, but is wobbly. Possibly in a few weeks I will have the muscles working more together to get my walk back. For now any task that is right hand and right leg only is very unbalanced. It is very frustrating not being able to balance this simple task.
My therapy sessions have turned to half leg and half strength rebuilding. I am enjoying the torment Vincent is giving me. Vincent can easily make me squirm in front of his other patients! "Marty do this simple task 8 times." Halfway through the first you are laying on the floor dead! I love it! I am learning a lot of good workouts to bring back to the PRG climbing team.
I feel great that I have come this far, but I feel that the finish line is still a long ways away. Marty

Stairs up to AZ Cliff Hanger inside the Phoenix Rock Gym

Marty at AZ Cliff Hanger

This is a Tshirt my friend Rich gave me.
climbing t-shirt

My favorite piton! This gem came out of the second pitch of the route"Zin" 5.6 in the Road Area, Queen Creek Canyon. A totally awesome 3 pitch route! When the piton was in the rock it looked perfectly fine. My friend led the pitch clipping the pin as a main piece. I was able to retrieve the pin with one simple pull and immediately placed it in my chalk bag so it wouldn't break in two. It was probably placed on the First Ascent back in 1974. The pin was placed more in the bottom gutter of the crack where sand and rain water eroded it quickly.
Piton from route 5.6 Zin, Road Area, Queen Creek Canyon, AZ

Greg wrote: They saved his head and shoulders, but his leg augered in under him and he came out with a badly broken femur.

I really feel for you, bud. I shattered my left femur at 19 and it took 2 months of rehab, and another 6 with a cane to get back on track.

The best part is that the femur grows back stronger!

Hang in there Marty! You are almost walking!!! Now go do 50 push-ups and 50 pull-ups. You'll be glad you did.

5 1/2 months since the accident. Just visited the doctor again and my femur bone is healed 100%.......YEAH! However I still am not fully recovered with the muscles, but getting close. I am allowed to climb but only while roped in and only on top rope for now. I have been staying on routes 5.10- and below, but now I am going to up it to the 5.10+ range. My therapist still has a lot of work to do and suggests for me to still keep my patience. The 5.12s will have to wait for now. My femur bone I am told is as strong as when I first broke it plus and extra 10% bonus for my bionic support bar which will stay in forever. I am walking now without the use of any apparatus or cane but I still have a hip wobble as I walk. The therapist says this will take another month or so to correct but I am looking at a full recovery soon in the future. My course setter staff was nice enough to set up a low traverse for me in the gym where I can work on easy moves close to the ground. The wall is partially overhung so traversing back and fourth is very safe and provides a nice arm pump. I can't wait until I can completely climb again, and go outside exploring again. I really miss my adventures in nature.
During my healing, I have been meditating more, attending church on sundays and am working on developing a stronger spiritual core, where in my whole climbing career I only concentrated on my muscles to get me through the climbs. I already feel so much stronger and have a better understanding of who I am. The leg break had me down for a few months but now I can see that this experience is turning out to be a great thing over something to be sad about.
Once again I really appreciate all of you who believe in me and helped me recover from my accident. I am very grateful to have so many friends that volunteered their time to watch over me, wipe my tears away, did chores for me, and made sure that I got back onto my feet. Thank you so very very much! Life is a great thing and I love the new energy that I have found.

Now get out there and climb!! But be safe!!

Marty

Marty at AZ Cliff Hanger

Wooohooo! Great update, Marty! Good timing too - was just in the store this afternoon and wondering how you were doing :)

I agree with Greg, I heard that basket weaving is prety safe too. It is good to see you back on the rocks Marty. Just in time for Thrash and Dangle Fest Four!

Marty,
That's awesome. Your injury was pretty doggone serious and that you have progressed so far so fast is wonderful. I know how firmly you commit to things, and our community can see evidence of the results of your commitment to Physical Therapy and the "Climber's Will" to achieve results. One step at a time, and we can all follow your lead.
Best,
Erik

Today is my one year anniversary of my right leg femur break. Hard to believe that a year has gone by already. The overall healing process has been an interesting adventure. My course setting job at the Phoenix Rock Gym has been serving well for hard core ongoing therapy. At this time I would say that my healing is at 90% and my biggest problem seems to be muscular. In certain heel hook positions It is hard to pull up into the heel. My leg muscles always seem to tighten up even though I stretch every night. I can't seem to achieve a tight hip turnout while on thin vertical faces so I had to modify my climbing style a little. At the gym I am back into climbing 5.12s on the top ropes. After a full days course setting I notice it leaves me limping at night since I feel the walking force in my knee cap. Over time this has been getting less painful. Its not like a bee sting but more like an irritating pressure. I started bouldering again indoors and jumping back down into the pads. I am not bouldering any wild moves yet but keeping it easy with V4s and below. Jumping down from the top of the wall into the pads seems fine with the leg at the same time I am not overdoing it. I tested my leg one month ago on a solo mission by hauling a big load down a undone canyon to bolt a 200' route. Two ropes, drills, batteries, water, gear, gardening tools, saw, at least a 60 lb pack. Route turned out mostly 5.3 with a two bolt 5.10- crux, 18 bolts. The route is no big deal but it serves as an escape route if you cant do my classic 5.11+ 12 bolt face or classic 5.10+ 12 bolt sharp arete. Secrets secrets secrets! Arizona rocks! I was impressed that the leg survived the mission especially after the uphill battle with all the gear back to the vehicle. Even the next day the leg was still fine so I cruised over to Blue Ridge and climbed all the routes 5.11+ and below at the Powerline Crag. I still do not feel comfortable running. Makes me feel like I am a cat with a piece of tape on its back paw. The leg does not like the constant impact associated with running. I used to do a lot of slacklineing and was getting pretty good at it. My record was walking a 30' line 16 times without a fall, no problem backwards, turns were getting easier etc. Now the slackline feels very weird. My left leg is the olympic contender and my right leg is a resistant child. It is quite challenging to stand just on the right leg with my knee bent especially if I am walking the line downhill. However I totally love the slacklineing fun and soon hope to master the line again. I am in great spirits and life has been awesome! I thank all of you again who helped me with my recovery. Without your help physically and mentally I may have been grumpy about the accident over being proud of my recovery. For now I contemplate going under the knife again to remove the hardware. Where the leg broke is where the harness legloop is on my leg. The bar adds more strength but while sitting weighting the harness, the legloop strap pushes the muscles into the bar and screw heads within. I wonder if this is why I still battle pain in the leg………. Rock on! . The cam shown is a Mastadon 000 created by Jesper Osther in 2009. The cam is completely functional and can be fully weighted. Lobes are made of Birch wood. Beautiful work of art Jesper!

Looking great Marty. Your an inspiration to us all.

Supra

The force is stong in that one! Marty does this mean that we are on for ABS season 12? resurect the flying Zebra?

Captain Kryptonite and the Flying Zebra together back in action?

SWEETNESS!!!

I will send my cape to the dry cleaners.

Rock on! Marty

looking strong Marty always glad to hear of your progress, wish you and the Kaptin great strength for the boulder season and can't wait till I am able to once againg pull with you both!
-Neo

Neo, we get Marty back onto the rocks, and you've gone off and got a job in NY. What gives? how can we have the 3 Amigos without the third amigo? Come home this fall, and make sure it is on an ABS weekend! We'll be waiting.