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Climbing Accident in Staunton State Park

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First Track Jack · · Evergreen, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 140

There was a life flight for an accident Saturday 8/23/14? I heard it was in the Tan Corridor.. Anyone have any information on this. I hope the climbing team is OK...

PeterW Whitmore · · Dryden, NY · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 50

I wasn't there, but it was a friend of mine.

Short story is that she was cleaning an anchor on a climb that was 40ish feet high, tethered in with an alpine draw. The draw had a tape keeper for extending purposes. Whether or not the tape caused confusion or a non-locker opened up they aren't sure. She fell to the deck, hit a slab and a tree branch on the way down. My buddy spotted her as best he could. She was conscious on the ground. Airlifted to the hospital, no internal injuries, no concussion, no broken bones, just bruised up a definitely some lessons learned. She walked out of the ER later that night.

First Track Jack · · Evergreen, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 140

Glad to hear she is OK.. Thanks for info....

Scott McMahon · · Boulder, CO · Joined Feb 2006 · Points: 1,425

Eesh that sounds horrible. Good reminder about two tie in points.

Glad to hear she walked away from that!

teece303 · · Highlands Ranch, CO · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 596

That is good to hear! Walking out of the ER after that is awesome.

Mike Morin · · Glen, NH · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 1,355

Damn. Glad the injured party sounds to be doing alright, all things considered. For what it's worth the description of the accident location sounds more like the Whistle Pig.

Bill M · · Fort Collins, CO · Joined Jun 2010 · Points: 317

I believe There was a death several years ago I'm WV due to a similar scenario.

First Track Jack · · Evergreen, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 140

A park worker told me Tan Corridor, but he could have been confused. I did some laps on Whistle Pig a few weeks back and all four rapid links were open on both anchors.. Good thing to double check at each station.

Gail Blauer · · Gardiner, NY · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 1,051

Wow, what a story. In the last four years, we have had two cleaning incidents at our local crag and the climbers were severely injured.

Just two weekends ago, a friend of mine rescued a climber at our local crag who had just cleaned a climb and was holding on to her biner...she had failed to clip the biner to her harness. She was lucky that Chris was able to rap in and get to her so quickly. Otherwise it would have been a 40 foot fall.

Since our local crag is very conducive to "gym to crag", we installed some anchors ground level so that climbers new to outdoor climbing could learn to clean climbs in a safe environment.

I am so glad the climber is ok.

John mac · · Boulder, CO · Joined Oct 2008 · Points: 105
gblauer wrote:Wow, what a story. In the last four years, we have had two cleaning incidents at our local crag and the climbers were severely injured. Just two weekends ago, a friend of mine rescued a climber at our local crag who had just cleaned a climb and was holding on to her biner...she had failed to clip the biner to her harness. She was lucky that Chris was able to rap in and get to her so quickly. Otherwise it would have been a 40 foot fall. Since our local crag is very conducive to "gym to crag", we installed some anchors ground level so that climbers new to outdoor climbing could learn to clean climbs in a safe environment. I am so glad the climber is ok.
So she was at the anchor, clipped a biner to the anchor, grabbed it and called off belay? I am trying to figure out how this could happen. I imagine that's a pretty scary wait until your friend rapped in.
Mike Morin · · Glen, NH · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 1,355

Interesting First Track Jack. I would defer to the park employee, just can't think of a 40 foot slab route in the Tan Corridor. It's really here nor there anyway, just glad the climber is still with us.

First Track Jack · · Evergreen, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 140

Roger that Mike.

Maybe some more info will come up on the location; I did not think it made sense either...

Gail Blauer · · Gardiner, NY · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 1,051
J mac wrote: So she was at the anchor, clipped a biner to the anchor, grabbed it and called off belay? I am trying to figure out how this could happen. I imagine that's a pretty scary wait until your friend rapped in.
Honestly, we don't quite know what she did. When Chris got to her she was hanging on to a biner which was clipped through her belay device. Her belay device wasn't clipped to her harness.
First Track Jack · · Evergreen, CO · Joined May 2014 · Points: 140

Just a follow up. I confirmed with Park worker on the SAR team that responded and it was the Tan Corridor. The tree branch part didn't make sense for the Whistle Pig area. He was not able to give me any details, they would have to come from the climbing party.. Anyways, glad she walked out of the ER that night..

Kerndouglas · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2013 · Points: 0

So to clarify a little more I was at the scene. Peter w has the story correct. She was cleaning the anchor of reef on it, in the tan corridor. Essentially the tape on the alpine draw was the only thing holding her and the climbing tape is very strong so it was holding her full weight for a minute while she was cleaning. As she began to feed the rope through the chains to rap, it broke. Leaving the carabiner up there and she came down with the alpine draw girth hitched to her harness and broken tape stuck on the sling still.
This most likely occurred as a result of her accidentally clipping the sling behind the tape and in front. Causing a failure similar to the scenario where you clip two loops of a daisy chain and blow out the stitch. As for the tree branch, if she hit any part of the tree it was a small branch. God is good.

PLEASE be so careful with new people and be redundant ALWAYS!

Trad Princess · · Not That Into Climbing · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,175

I'm trying to visualize this tape thing - what was the intended purpose/setup? I've not heard of it before.

Morgan Patterson · · NH · Joined Oct 2009 · Points: 8,945

Sounds like the same mechanism by which that young gun died due to the keepers being installed wrong.

Kerndouglas · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2013 · Points: 0

The purpose is to stabilize one end, like a quick draw. So you can easily grab it and extend your tripled alpine draw.

wivanoff · · Northeast, USA · Joined Mar 2012 · Points: 674
Adam Burch wrote:I'm trying to visualize this tape thing - what was the intended purpose/setup? I've not heard of it before.
I'm picturing that someone used adhesive tape like a rubber band to trap one carabiner on an alpine draw:

"Essentially the tape on the alpine draw was the only thing holding her and the climbing tape is very strong so it was holding her full weight for a minute while she was cleaning."

And this happened ukclimbing.com/news/item.ph…

But, it took a bit longer than with a rubber band because a few wraps of climbing tape would be stronger.
Trad Princess · · Not That Into Climbing · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,175
Kerndouglas wrote:The purpose is to stabilize one end, like a quick draw. So you can easily grab it and extend your tripled alpine draw.
Say word?

I've never found the need to do that, although I've seen some good arguments about the benefits of keeping the biner properly positioned when you whip.

What a feeling it must have been, for the gear to just cut loose and you go falling like that. Amazing and fortunate that she's okay.
Kerndouglas · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2013 · Points: 0

The video demonstrates exactly what we believe happened.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Injuries and Accidents
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