Momentum Climbing Accident - Utah

It is the belayer's duty to double check the knot too. Usually you can tell with a quick glance, but do what you have to do to make sure.

These kinds of accidents are pretty inexcusable. That being said, I did not notice that my climber was only tied through their leg loop once at a gym and they flipped over when they fell. Not good and I was rightfully mortified.

Yeah, no more of these. We almost lost Lynn Hill and John Long. Be careful out there, folks.

Jon Zucco wrote: ...yet mildly rifreshing.

Maybe in a graduate level english paper... but when youre discussing in an online forum wether or not the belayer double checks the knot, well that just makes you sound like a pretentious fool.

RocksClimbing wrote: Maybe in a graduate level english paper... but when youre discussing in an online forum wether or not the belayer double checks the knot, well that just makes you sound like a pretentious fool.

Sarcasm meter off a bit?

RocksClimbing wrote: ... you sound like a pretentious fool.

I am not made of stone, sir. When cut, I bleed as blue as anyone, and you have cut me, sir, and I have bled.
Your words, common as they are, have caused me to plumb the deepest depths of my well-worn copy of Roget's, and yet I have no multi-syllabic word that can adequately express the chagrin I registered at the realization that my verbal grandiosity had rendered me a tool, a douche, and a pretentious fool in the eyes of an esteemed anonymous poster on a climbing website. While not entirely unexpected, to see it in poorly formed incomplete sentences with rampant misspellings of common words in a forum about the moral implications of climbing knot inspection really illuminated the folly of my undertaking.
Henceforth, I pledge to reduce my syllable limit to two, and I shall cavalierly ignore the pleading entreaties of the built-in spell check to properly arrange the letters in my words to represent actual English sentiments. I shall adopt the language proper to a climbing forum and scatter commas with no regard to the thoughts they are separating, and I shall use it's when I really mean its, as apostrophes will cease to matter to denote possession v. plurality, or whatever the hell they do. These things I will do reluctantly and at great personal cost, but I shall do them nonetheless for I see now colloquial renditions of the word "rappel", as repelling as I might find them, are more appropriate for this venue.
Thank you for illustrating the error of my most pretentious ways, and for instilling in me the proper disrespect of language that this forum warrants, nay, demands. I shall conclude this writ of contrition with an emblem common to these communiques, which I am informed conveys both empathy and mirth. ;)

Brassmonkey wrote: Check your grammar ;)

Im tri-ing, its going 2 take a wyle 4 me 2 wurk ths out. Bra

pfwein wrote:B - belayer got me on? R - rope (knot) propery attached? A - A is tough, "anchor" is the best I can do so far, maybe N/A H - harness on properly?

I think we need to reserve BRAH for the bouldering safety check.

B- Beanie on
R- Remove shirt
A- Are you spotting me?
(H)-(Hand me that PBR)

RocksClimbing wrote: Who are you trying to impress?

In descending order of importance: chicks, Thurston Howell III, people on the internet, Mrs. White (my third grade English teacher), the editors at Roget's, Barack Obama

As well written as some of these posts are and as obtuse as the intellectual hyperbole has become, I find the fact there are arguments about this fairly nauseating. What happened to what used to be "the brotherhood of the rope?"

Climbing alone is called soloing for a reason. You generally climb roped as a team - though apparently gym climbing is different. I think it is you and your partners responsibility to look after each other when climbing. Even in the gym.

Its a dangerous game and redundancy in safety should be taught at all levels. You can blow it off in the guise of "watch out for yourself" personal responsibility, but that certainly doesn't make you much of a climbing partner and only a belay monkey at best.

Based on the number of accidents lately, being a little less complacent and taking a little bigger view on the responsibility of a safe system that you are supposed to be a part of seems pretty unassailable. After all, you as the belayer "not responsible" for your partner's knot can't complain if they would use you as a crash pad from 60 feet up. Since you failed to take responsibility to get out of the path of their fall when they were soloing. You weren't serving any useful purpose anyhow since you failed to notice they were soloing (I can't wait for the pretentious BS around that remark).

People will make mistakes. Be a climbing PARTNER. Two people checking each other systems will make fewer. Be safer. It easy to get complacent.

Pt

matt davies wrote: In descending order of importance: chicks, Thurston Howell III, people on the internet, Mrs. White (my third grade English teacher), the editors at Roget's, Barack Obama

Matt,

I like your sense of humor and writing style. Keep up the good work.

matt davies wrote: I am not made of stone, sir. When cut, I bleed as blue as anyone, and you have cut me, sir, and I have bled. Your words, common as they are, have caused me to plumb the deepest depths of my well-worn copy of Roget's, and yet I have no multi-syllabic word that can adequately express the chagrin I registered at the realization that my verbal grandiosity had rendered me a tool, a douche, and a pretentious fool in the eyes of an esteemed anonymous poster on a climbing website. While not entirely unexpected, to see it in poorly formed incomplete sentences with rampant misspellings of common words in a forum about the moral implications of climbing knot inspection really illuminated the folly of my undertaking. Henceforth, I pledge to reduce my syllable limit to two, and I shall cavalierly ignore the pleading entreaties of the built-in spell check to properly arrange the letters in my words to represent actual English sentiments. I shall adopt the language proper to a climbing forum and scatter commas with no regard to the thoughts they are separating, and I shall use it's when I really mean its, as apostrophes will cease to matter to denote possession v. plurality, or whatever the hell they do. These things I will do reluctantly and at great personal cost, but I shall do them nonetheless for I see now colloquial renditions of the word "rappel", as repelling as I might find them, are more appropriate for this venue. Thank you for illustrating the error of my most pretentious ways, and for instilling in me the proper disrespect of language that this forum warrants, nay, demands. I shall conclude this writ of contrition with an emblem common to these communiques, which I am informed conveys both empathy and mirth. ;)

Hear, hear!
I say carry on old chap, never capitulate to the caviling of lesser intellects.

To the gallant aficionados of MP satire:
Thank you for your kindness and support. As deeply as I was wounded by the scathing criticism of a guy who registered yesterday under the brilliantly anonymous moniker of "RocksClimbing", I now feel it is my duty to carry on my storied tradition of pretentious douche toolery. I shall continue to contribute snarky admonitions of not only grammar and tense, but spelling and possessives as well. If you seek the answer to an implied query, and "beg the question"- watch out.
Consider this missive a harbinger of toungue-in-cheek serio-comic critiques yet to come- no one is safe, be they rope soloists, PAS inquisitors, or hipsters trying to find a pant tough enough to thrutch the West Chimney, yet ironic enough to wear to Liquor Mart for cases of PBR. (I recommend Dickies).

All clowning aside, sincere prayers and positive vibes to the injured climber. We are a diminutive tribe and love and care for any wounded warrior is amplified by individual sincerity and genuine concern. Jah bless you all!

matt davies wrote:To the gallant aficionados of MP satire: Thank you for your kindness and support. As deeply as I was wounded by the scathing criticism of a guy who registered yesterday under the brilliantly anonymous moniker of "RocksClimbing", I now feel it is my duty to carry on my storied tradition of pretentious douche toolery. I shall continue to contribute snarky admonitions of not only grammar and tense, but spelling and possessives as well. If you seek the answer to an implied query, and "beg the question"- watch out. Consider this missive a harbinger of toungue-in-cheek serio-comic critiques yet to come- no one is safe, be they rope soloists, PAS inquisitors, or hipsters trying to find a pant tough enough to thrutch the West Chimney, yet ironic enough to wear to Liquor Mart for cases of PBR. (I recommend Dickies). All clowning aside, sincere prayers and positive vibes to the injured climber. We are a diminutive tribe and love and care for any wounded warrior is amplified by individual sincerity and genuine concern. Jah bless you all!

Did anyone bother to read that?

RockyMtnTed wrote: Did anyone bother to read that?

No.

RockyMtnTed wrote:Don't pilots and co pilots have a double checked flight sheet before they take off? They must just be lazy and not want to accept personal responsibility... hahaha

We do lots more than double check things, and to most people the level of redundancy we practice is overkill. But one of the fundmental truths to life is that we are what we do repeatedly and thus, "perfection is a habit," so I always run my checks, every single flight. Do I know i set the flaps for takeoff? Sure, but we check it twice by ourselves, twice with a checklist, and twice with the backup system because the consequences are too dire to make that mistake. There's only one knot, one rope, one harness, and one belay device keeping me from death, and I'm going to double check them all, then my partner will do the same.

Oh and the flaps? This is what happens when you succeed at that stupid pilot trick:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spana…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufth…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAPA_…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta…

^Exactly. Thats why I i agree with everyone else thats its comical climbers cant be bothered to double check eachother. Its not that I am not taking responsibility for my knot but if you and your partner both check it the chance of screwing up is alot less. Plus it takes 2 seconds. How lazy are you guys?

EricSchmidt wrote:^Exactly. Thats why I i agree with everyone else thats its comical climbers cant be bothered to double check eachother. Its not that I am not taking responsibility for my knot but if you and your partner both check it the chance of screwing up is alot less. Plus it takes 2 seconds. How lazy are you guys?

really lazy. It must be the evil selfish Darwinist in me deep inside.

truth be told I check n00bs, I check my own knot(usually 20-30' up), I check the belayer and I check really stoned partners but other than that YOUR GONNA DIE.

To all of those interested in what happened or in helping with my recovery as I have no insurance and am responsible for my injuries and surgery out of pocket feel free to check out or share my website:

giveforward.com/climbforcou…

where you can read my story, donate to my recovery, or leave me a hug

love and light
Amanda <--- the one who fell 45 feet and broke both legs at momentum climbing gym

me, my dog, and 2 broken legs

Good luck with your recovery! That's got to be rough, but I'm sure you will get through it. Crazy to have your biggest whipper be a grounder!

Also, please pay no regard to the emotionally stunted tool bags who post their negative drivel here, I doubt they even know what they're saying.

Happy healing Amanda.

Let me get something straight though. I understand you are suing Momentum for this accident?

While I wish those who have suffered injuries a speedy and successful recovery I have to ask WTF are people thinking when participating in recreational activities that have risk of injury yet have no insurance. This latest accident is just one of many over the past few years where I have seen where someone has been injured seriously but had zero insurance and now have the nerve to set up an online fund set up so people can pay for their care.

What happened to personal responsibility? I am not talking about people who are making a decision between food on the table or a roof over their head and buying health insurance. That is a different case. Nor am I talking someone getting in an accident on their way to a job that pays little with no insurance. But people actively participating in recreational activities that carry a risk of injury.

Catastrophic insurance can go a long ways. I used to carry a policy while in school and eating lots of ramen. It did not cover little boo-boos but it did cover the real ah-shits. Regardless of what activity (some have limitations so shop carefully).

Carry on with the belayer - climber responsibility issue.