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Falling on gear success stories! (Where the rock didn't completely blow out)

Original Post
J.B. · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2008 · Points: 150

I noticed I can get psyched out if I read a bunch of stories about placements/anchors failing before I go climb on gear. So, I figure I should start a thread about gear holding. Lets hear your success stories! Maybe you fell onto an RP at a crux after a huge runout, or whipped onto a 00 TCU?

Dave Alie · · Golden, CO · Joined Feb 2010 · Points: 75

This thread is a good idea, I feel the same way. I Recently surprise-tested at blue TCU after blowing the run-out finish of skeletonic on Potash road. Amazingly, it held. That said, I was 12 feet above it when I aired it out and was still glad that I had it backed up.

Phil Lauffen · · Innsbruck, AT · Joined Jun 2008 · Points: 3,098

Whipped onto a horizontal #2 in grainy flatirons rock last weekend on south crack on the maiden. I was probably 8 feet or so above and to the left of it.

Jay Eggleston · · Denver · Joined Feb 2003 · Points: 21,326

I have fallen twice on a 0 C3 without incident.

JJ Schlick · · Flagstaff, AZ · Joined May 2006 · Points: 11,803

A buddy of mine took a 30 footer onto a #0 TCU in Sedona of all places, and that little sucker held the force!

Mark Roth · · Boulder · Joined Jan 2008 · Points: 14,062
Jay Eggleston wrote:I have fallen twice on a 0 C3 without incident.
Actually J I think that was the 00
And you have also fallen on the black alien (probably a recalled one)
John Farrell · · Phoenix, AZ · Joined Jan 2009 · Points: 85
JJ Brunner wrote:I noticed I can get psyched out if I read a bunch of stories about placements/anchors failing before I go climb on gear. So, I figure I should start a thread about gear holding. Lets hear your success stories! Maybe you fell onto an RP at a crux after a huge runout, or whipped onto a 00 TCU?
I took a falling clinic where we went out and took falls on our gear. We were backed up by a top rope just in case a piece ripped. It was the best thing I have done for my trad climbing, bumped me up instantly by two grades.

Only real fall I have done was a 20' fall onto a #3. I have taken several small ones with my waist right at the piece.
Phil Lauffen · · Innsbruck, AT · Joined Jun 2008 · Points: 3,098

I've fallen at least 4 or 5 times on the purple c3 (00, I believe). Once it was a good fifteen footer.

eric harvey · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Sep 2006 · Points: 30

Do hook count as pro?

Trying to put up a new aid line in St Vrain, I took a 15 foot fall from 15 feet up onto a talon hook that was taped to a quarter width edge on an overhanging wall. Good fun! I was sure glad that it held.

Aaron Martinuzzi · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 1,485

Last year in Indian Creek I took three or four successive wingers onto a grey TCU in some no-varnish, grainy, rubbing-sand-off-the-rock in Donnelly Canyon. I was pretty surprised that held. When we took the cam out it had some kind of pulverized sandstone on the lobes and had definitely blown the crack a little bit, but it held.

Later that spring I took a good 30 footer onto a red alien placed in some flaky pegmatite. climbed back up to the piece and noticed that one of the lobes had blown out a chunk of the crack and the remaining three lobes were a bit deformed, but, again, it held.

I think “sketchy” gear is often quite a bit better than we imagine it is.

Mike Pharris · · Longmont, CO · Joined May 2007 · Points: 125

Great thread!

My only trad fall on lead so far was about a 6 footer on an orange Mastercam. Had bad feet and a poorly set handjam and popped free just as i was starting to touch the jug. Cam held and i was caught just about as quick as I realized i was falling. Regrouped and finished the route!

I love my orange mastercam - it's now my favorite piece!

Tim Stich · · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 1,520

I fell on two nuts I placed at the low crux on Chockstone on West Ridge in Eldo multiple times once leading it. Dang, that move is hard. To my amazement they both held.

Phil Lauffen · · Innsbruck, AT · Joined Jun 2008 · Points: 3,098
Stich wrote: Dang, that move is hard.
Love doing one finger jams on a 10a. Ah, eldo...
Steven Lucarelli · · Grand Junction, CO · Joined Jul 2005 · Points: 6,794

I'd estimate that I have fallen on gear 300 times or more, on everything from RMNP alpine granite to Indian Creek & Eldo sandstone. I've never had a piece pull (except aid climbing) and have fallen on everything from RP's to large cams.

My point is, the few stories you hear about gear pulling is only a very, very small percentage compared to all the gear that doesn't pull that you never hear about. (Kind of like the number of planes that crash compared to the number of planes that fly each year).

Just be sure you know how to place it properly. For some reason some people just never seem to figure it out?

Ralph Kolva · · Pine, CO · Joined Jun 2006 · Points: 210

Taken a couple of 20' and 30' falls on a #3 Quickie Nut (Slider nut). I recall one of those falls in particular on Broken Neck at Seneca Rocks. I placed the piece just below where the crack peters out, climbed over it onto blank face and spent 15 minutes looking for good holds not realizing the climb split right. I was so focused on not falling that I completely blocked out that Tony Barnes was yelling at me to go right (he was guiding clients on Marshall's).

Taken a few falls on SLCDs but nothing that I can recall the specifics of.

Ice4life · · US · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 330

Took a whip on 2 black aliens equalized with an X. I was super sketched 1 wouldn't hold, so I decided to get pumped putting in 2 and then equalizing them... They held, I pooped my pants...

Aaron Martinuzzi · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2008 · Points: 1,485
Steven Lucarelli wrote:My point is, the few stories you hear about gear pulling is only a very, very small percentage compared to all the gear that doesn't pull that you never hear about.
Ditto.

just remembered a couple fun fixed pieces -- my second lead fall was on a fixed bong on Kor's Door my first summer leading trad, the second 5.9 I took a lead fall on on that summer. After that I think it took me another year to get to the point where I was down to push it again. About two years later I went for a ride on a pretty junky pin on Kings X in Eldo. That was kind of a janky climb, fun, but I remember it was little loose and strangely protected.
sunder · · Alsip, Il · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 805

Fell on a BD #4 nut barely in there.. It Held.

So what about gear failures?

Kilroywashere! London · · Harrisonburg, Virginia · Joined Oct 2009 · Points: 280
sunder wrote: So what about gear failures?
i looked at an alien wrong one time, it caught on fire and there was a small explosion.

i kid.

fell on a .75 then climbed up a little more and placed a #5 and whipped on that multiple times, nothin big
colin tucker · · Monticello, UT · Joined May 2007 · Points: 35

Fell ~25 feet on a big hex on Mitchell in the Wind Rivers. It surprised me by holding in the wet and weirdly shaped crack.

John Maguire · · Boulder, CO · Joined Nov 2008 · Points: 195

Try a pitch of aid climbing. You will be amazed how good most gear is. That being said, I quote Tony B with some advice I always try to climb by:

"Keep two good pieces between you and the hospital, that way even if you are wrong 50% of the time...".

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Trad Climbing
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