What was your biggest, scariest, or most destructive fall?

worst and scariest fall.... tripped on a crampon point and fell into a river at the base of an ice climbing

Biggest...

Got off route at the top of an easy runout sport climb (5 bolts in 100 feet). I fell from the top trying to mantle onto a dirty shelf, onto a bolt 20 feet below in a soft sandstone slab. I got flipped upside down while trying to backpeddle down the slab. My belayer ended up about 10-15 feet in the air, and I was about mid-route after the fall. Guessing about 50 feet all told. My neck muscles all the way down to my groin were sore afterward from preventing my head from whipping into the rock at the end of the fall.

Scariest...

Was soloing at sunset on Lambs Slide in September on alpine ice (I know...kind of the wrong time of day to top out!) There was a rotten/poorly bonded layer of new snow over the ice at the top of the route. While resting and checking out the view near the top, both of my crampons and one axe blew through the rotten layer. I was accelerating rapidly downward over lumpy old alpine ice on my belly, about 1000 feet of couloir below me. I tried to 'claw up' by getting all of my weight on my points and axes, but that didn't work. I was now bouncing more wildly, sprawled out and afraid of getting flipped by my crampons. I let my right axe go (still attached via a long keeper cord below my feet), and managed to pull off my very first ice axe self arrest with both hand on the left. Although I was aware of how to self arrest, I had actually never done it. When the axe caught in solid ice, my whole body whipped downward onto that single point.

The whole event probably took 5 seconds, I guess I slid around 30-50 feet before arresting, and I was definitely near a velocity of no return. The rest of the evening, searching for Clark's Arrow by headlamp, hiding from 70 mph winds (I have an anemometer, so I do know what 70 feels like... pretty much knocks you off of your feet!), getting hypothermic, and racing to the keyhole hut to finally warm up. All of that was a mini epic in its own right, but the fall was one of those "damn I'm lucky to be alive" moments.

Moral of the story... don't take your heartbreak out on soloing Longs in the dark. I totally underestimated how much more difficult that route would be in the dark.

My biggest happened when I was trying to redpoint the 100' first pitch of a new route in Oregon for the second time. The 5.11 crux is near the top. I had placed a purple, blue and yellow Metolius each about 8' apart. As I was trying to clip into the yellow useing an oval I got a bad case of the sewing machine leg with an armful of slack pulled up. I began wimpering my belayers name like a little girl. I thought OK the blue one held on the last attempt. It didnt!
As I came to a stop about 30' feet later I looked down to see my belayer who had just jumped back into the brush to make up for the slack that I had out,get beaned in the elbow by the chunk of rock the blue Metolius had broken out. Then I realized I was hanging from the smallest cam on my rack. I couldnt get back on the rock fast enough! No injuries just a sore ankle for me and a sore elbow for my belyaer. One of the lobes on theblue was deformed so much that it would no longer work. Later I took a file to it to get it to work but never put it back on my rack. This experince helped me trust properly placed gear and become very suspicious of semiblind placements. A year later I came back armed with a new cam and redpointed that sucker.

I have to have taken 20 footers on bolts. I fell once soloing in the dark a long time ago and walked away without a scratch. My first real trad fall (onto a blue TCU) was scary but taking a ride down Dreamweaver has to win biggest, scariest and most destructive.

Chad and I were soloing the lower snow slope almost to the rock and I had a bad feeling which we quickly discussed. We then gunned for the final 40(?) feet to safety since we had no better option and POOF I saw the slope rip above us. Time for a quick "FUCK!", step left, sink both tools and then get run over by god knows how much snow. We both went 300-400 feet, flew over the final cliff/steep spot which luckily popped us out on top of the snow and somehow go kicked left into more snow instead of the uncovered talus slope. I still remember fighting in the blackness, bouncing off stuff upside down and backwards and then finally slowing and seeing daylight again. 7 hours of crawling and hobbling later we drug our asses to the car each with a broken ankle and him a messed up wrist.

From the original post: "The older guy rope soloing the route next to me suggested I don't take falls that big onto gear. I agreed."

Baloney. Well-placed gear in good rock will hold a big dude traveling at terminal velocity. The stuff works. Not saying you won't be really messed up, depending on the circumstances... Oh, and I'm not assuming you're big, or a dude, either one.

Apologize if someone already rebutted this, I didn't read the entire thread.

biggest, scariest, most destructive: ~800 feet when the steep slope ripped out moments after I had dropped in. the avalanche took me off a 40' cliff into a narrow, curvy gully.I bounced off rocks, hit trees, felt the snow crushing me. there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die so it wasn't that scary until I came to the surface for the first time hauling ass down the slope with my snowboard attached to only one foot. Rode it out all the way to the bottom of the slope and somehow came out on top more or less. Ended up with a cut-up face, dented helmet, and back and wrist problems that still persist a year later. The funny thing is, although snow scares the shit out of me now, my head is way cooler on rock and pretty much everything else.

wear your helmet!

biggest: intentional 70-footer at the Motherlode in the Red

scariest: 35 feet off a frozen waterfall in Grafton Notch, ME. My buddy, standing next to me at the top of the falls slipped and grabbed my leg, taking me with him. He went over first and, so I didn't land on him, lunged outward as I went off breaking through the ice at the pool, half submerged and soaking wet. Tweaked my knee and some ribs, rushed down the mountain about 2 miles to the car before we froze to death.

most destructive: this past august off a rope swing into the Owens River. 15-20 feet into a foot of water. broke my ankle real bad. I'm still healing...

Biggest:
I was climbing Blue Gramma in Indian Creek with my Ex-girlfriend, I was just below the five or so blown out cam placements. I put in a green Camalot, and by that time was pretty pumped, I knew it was only another twenty feet or so, so I said fuckit, running it to the first shit sandy slopers, getting more pumped, almost there, fuck, here we go... 40 feet, ripping the ex off the rock she was sitting on. Scared the shit out of her as she was upset and crying. It was a fun one, I loved the silent sensation of falling 2 feet away from the rock.

Bigest:
Was still in my first month or so of leading trad and was unaware of how important it was to extend slings. I was on the second pitch of a widely traverseing route and before i knew it i had to yank up a few feet of rope before making each move. It also didnt help that i was about 20 feet above the intended route on terrain much harder than i had set out to climb. After climbing about 15 feet to the right and up from a solid .75 C4 i placed a piece of psychological pro ( a 00 TCU in a shallow flairing crack ) and dead pointed to what looked like a big jug by a crack that i could make an anchor in. The jug turned out to be a loose rock and i went for a ride. All in all i took an arching 45 footer through space and collided with the wall heels first. There was so much tension in the rope that my belayer barely felt the fall. I was more scared hanging there on that piece than the actual fall scared me. ( the next peice was another 15 feet to the left and there was quite a large ledge below me ).

I learned quickly that knowing when to extend slings was an important skill to have. I had to hobble around for the next few weeks with swollen ankles and bruised heels.

Scariest:
Was climbing some steep, thin, airated ice. I got to a stance and felt as secure as could be while i looked for some pro. The next thing i know i hear the infamous cracking sound and was flying through the air. (the ice ledge i was standing on completely fractured off ). I hit the ground from about 30 feet on my butt / back. Luckily it was about 4 feet of snow and i was fine. My belayer was more freaked by the fall than i was. I got back up on the sharp end and took a different route up some more secure ice and finished the lead.

My ONLY fall of note:

I had wanted to climb for a few weeks but all the usual suspects had to work, so I called a girl I had worked with in Estes whom I knew would be excited about getting out. We went up to Jurassic Park above Lilly Lake and started racking up for an easy crack. It was April so there was still plenty snow on the ground, so I was careful not to get my shoes too wet. All of the sudden, about 15 feet up with no gear, my feet slipped and I went for a ride. I landed on my back in the snow, wind knocked out.

The worst thing about it was the IDIOT who I was climbing with laughed and said in her best valley-girl voice "HAHA OMG like, are you ok? hahahahah. That was like, sooo funny.". As we descended she kept talking about how me falling was the most hilarious thing she had ever seen. I wanted to punch her in the face. We never climbed together again.

CalmAdrenaline wrote:Biggest: I was climbing Blue Gramma in Indian Creek with my Ex-girlfriend,

Biggest: 30-40 feet on the traverse right of the Ahwahnee ledge on WFLT. We left too much of the rack in the car after feeling overconfident about the route, so I ended up backcleaning the entire section just to make progress - my only pro was the bolt off the belay. I was almost through the thin crack and standing on a yellow mastercam that looked good, still daisied into the last piece (offset mastercam). All of a sudden, the yellow piece pulled, and my daisy must have ripped the previous piece. I took a 30-40 foot header onto the sloping stuff below, then pendulumed into a column. Aside from a broken helmet, a gash on my head, and a few scrapes and bruises, I was ok. I jugged back up to the ledge, and we went down the next day.

Scariest: See above, although I didn't know what was happening until it was over. I was plenty scared about a closed head injury afterwards, though.

Destructive: See above.

Scary - my belayer dropped me on lead at r and j ...fell around 25 or 30 feet. My left ass cheek landed on her head. I was fine but she got a tibial plateau fracture in her knee.

40 foot cheese grater on run out slab 2 days ago.

Biggest: 40 footer on Lizard Marmalade Direct. All air.

Scariest: 25 footer on pitch 8 of Astro Dog. Scary because although it was all air, came close to hitting the slab beneath the overhanging flare. And because that would have been a terrible, terrible spot to be seriously injured.

Most destructive: fortunately none have been very destructive. During a 25 footer on the last pitch of the Doub-Griffith, my left wrist slid down the arete for most of the fall leaving it dripping blood from the slash as though I'd tried to off myself. Looked a lot worse than it was.

Although I went back up and finished the latter two, I unfortunately have yet to fully avenge myself for any of these indignities. 3 amazing routes that all still scare me very much.

Biggest: 40 feet, working my project. Last bolt is about 15 feet shy of the anchor, with the crux above it. I had worked the move numerous times, fallen on the bolt earlier that day. Somehow, on my at least 5th burn, I managed to spin the hanger off the bolt. I fell from about 12 feet above, ripped the hanger, and went from staring at the anchors to staring at my belayer.

Scariest: Karma Roof, Ten Sleep, WY. After a period of full-on bouldering, I was feeling strong but not so used to clipping. The Karma Roof climbs out a steep roof, with a bolt at the lip and then about a 20 foot run to the anchors. For whatever reason, I decided not to clip the bolt at the lip (in-full bouldering mode), thinking I'd clear the lip and have easier terrain to the top instead of wasting time on a difficult clip. Turns out I pumped myself stupid and got slightly off route. Long story short, I sat there, unable to move for at least 30 seconds, before letting go and taking a ride into nothing but air.

Destructive: Ultimate gumby moment. While trying a route at my limit very early on, I grabbed a draw out of desperation. This route climbed vertically for about 15 feet, and then had a horizontal traverse for about another 15 feet. When I grabbed the draw and went to clip, I somehow not only managed to miss the clip, but to wrap about 3 feet of rope around my arm. Since I didn't have much elevation gain from the start, the 8-10 feet of slack that had to remained out because of my own stupidity made it pretty certain to be a ground fall. Being a popular crag, about 5 people ran over and were going to try and cushion a fall onto the talus below. Once I ended up finally letting go, my belayer made an expert catch, taking in a bunch of slack while giving a soft catch, and kept me off the ground. Only problem was I swung pretty hard and kicked one of the guys who had tried to catch me right the face. He ended up with a black eye and I walked away unscathed. Doesn't seem fair does it?

80' off of the Southern Belle on Half Dome, almost 2 broken ankles and extreme roadrash. If the Lowe Ball Nut and #2 TCU had blown, another 150' of tumbling and skidding would have ensued.

It was not my fall, but my partner took a 40 foot factor 1.75 fall on the West Face of the Leaning Tower in Yosemite and I got to catch it. That was fun...

This thread needed a third-class mishap.

Unknown distance (50-200 feet?) broken ribs, bimaleolar tib-fib fracture, crushed clavicle, subdural hematoma, day/night in and out of consciousness on the mountain, helicopter ride, 2 plates, 21 screws, three months in a wheelchair.

Discussed here, complete with other's broken ankle epics/photos.

Good times.

Scariest: Factor two while solo aiding up Tiger Wall (to establish Year of the Tiger) on a retired rope. Three hundred feet off the deck... gri gri over cammed and melted the sheath, but all held. I will forever be on Maxim Ropes because of it.

Biggest: Dropped 80 feet and stopped at head height in Owens.

Most Destructive: Pulled 4 microcams, that I had already yanked on to test, from above the crux on The Witch. Broken talus, damaged calcaneus, at least two surgeries (still working on it).

But probably the real scariest was the first fall... 4 feet onto a bolt on a 5.9 in 1985. I practically cried before I let go. Not much time to think about the one I took above.