My biggest, scariest and most destructive (to my mental game) was a fall at Shelf Rd with a fairly new belayer I was trying to mate with. I was climbing Menses and had just clipped the last bolt and was on my way to the anchors. I stepped up and randomly slipped off. In my mind I knew I would take a 3 foot fall at the most. After 10 feet I started panicking and yelled "catch me" in quick succession 3-4 times. Luckily, she arrested me just above the first bolt. She hid her left hand (she's a righty) from my sight and when asked about it she said it was nothing. I insisted I look at it and saw it was burned pretty badly. She wasn't even belaying me with a GriGri. Naturally, I played it cool, pulled the rope and climbed it to the top. Even since I've had a near crippling fear of stranger belayers and I takes me a looong time to trust them. Especially women. I suppose it's better that way.
Hah ^^^ my biggest fall also came from a catch from a girl I had never climbed with before. I expected to fall maybe 8-10 being 3-4 feet above a bolt but fell more like 20-25. It was actually pretty fun though and not scary at all.
Scariest would probably be a fall I caught honestly I had a buddy leading a climb I whimped out of who had way less placing gear experience then me take an awkward 6-8 foot fall onto a .75 that thankfully was placed well as he woulda decked 15-20 feet if it blew.
Thankfully have not had any destructive falls, knock on rock.
Biggest, scariest, and most destructive: lost my footing and took a 200ft icy slide down the hogsbag on mt baker about this time last year, stopped when i hit a tree and broke seven ribs and got a bad pneumothorax, temporarily dropping my lung capacity by about 50%.
New category: weirdest fall - got my foot stuck in a heel hook while lunging for the finishing jug on a boulder problem in gold bar, turning me almost upside down as I fell, would have landed head first on the rocks next to the crash pad if my spotted hadn't shoved me in mid-air.
Some of you guys from earlier in this thread are lucky to be alive, I've had a couple ground falls of 20 ft or less and gotten pretty fucked up.
Don Ferris wrote:My biggest, scariest and most destructive (to my mental game) was a fall at Shelf Rd with a fairly new belayer I was trying to mate with. I was climbing Menses and had just clipped the last bolt and was on my way to the anchors. I stepped up and randomly slipped off. In my mind I knew I would take a 3 foot fall at the most. After 10 feet I started panicking and yelled "catch me" in quick succession 3-4 times. Luckily, she arrested me just above the first bolt. She hid her left hand (she's a righty) from my sight and when asked about it she said it was nothing. I insisted I look at it and saw it was burned pretty badly. She wasn't even belaying me with a GriGri. Naturally, I played it cool, pulled the rope and climbed it to the top. Even since I've had a near crippling fear of stranger belayers and I takes me a looong time to trust them. Especially women. I suppose it's better that way.
Hey, did you ever think you might have her female pain tolerance to thank for the fact that this is a story about that time you nearly decked rather than the much worse alternative? She didn't belay you poorly because she's a woman, she belayed you poorly because she was (as you said) a new belayer. Maybe don't combine new climbing partners with mating attempts and focus on the rock. ;)
Scariest: first trad fall. had been leading on gear for about 4 months and had climbed mostly in Eldo on moderates on the Wind Tower and maybe some easy ground on Redgarden. Decided to do the 1st Flatiron with a foursome (2 groups of 2). I was in the 2nd group. We all met on the belay ledge at the top of the first pitch and the first group took off. My buddy was cleaning and I saw him step on this beautiful, large crystal, hang out for a minute, then keep on moving. I lead off the ledge, placed a .75 under a solid flake near the back, on a long runner and aimed for the crystal my buddy had been on. The crystal was about 8-10 feet away from my last piece of gear and I stood up to to grab it and keep on moving. Before I knew it the thing ripped out in my hand and I was backpedaling down the 1st screaming like a banshee. The crystal ended up somewhere way out in the woods and I will forever be the guy that took a whipper on the first Flatiron.
Longest: 25'ish in the RRG with a light belayer
Most Destructive: fell on an RP, poor little bugger was mashed.
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