Protocol for takin' nasty whippers

So yesterday I was faced with a nasty whipper. I was on a vertical head wall about 15-20' above a slab that continued to the ground. It has rained in the night and the rock was seeping so I was in pursuit of dry holds. In this pursuit I went off route about 20 or so feet. The holds I found were covered in mud and I soon realized I was pumping out and would certainly fall soon. I was about 8 feet above the bolt and about 20 feet to the left when I jumped. All things considered it was a soft catch but I caught my foot the slab and tweaked my ankle.

My question is how to mitigate injury when faced with nasty/pendulum/slab falls. The fall is inevitable what do you do?

...Tuck and roll!!

Fall towards the pendi and pray for a good catch

If your going to crater PLF.

In the situation described what do you think about having the belayer take in all the slack and literally pull you off the wall? Maybe would have kept you off the slab?

1. I don't climb wet rock.

2. More importantly I don't traverse 20 feet off route, that's just asking for trouble. (a local here died doing the same thing because he ended up decking)

downclimb as much as you can before falling, and try to keep anything out of the fall path ... and communicate clearly with be belayer what you are doing and what you want

other than that theres no good answer ... another person can take the same whipper and be perfectly fine, and another might flip and bash his head ...

The general protocol for a nasty whipper is to get your foot between your cord and the rock and kick out your top piece(s) of pro as you sail by.

Brent Butcher wrote:Fall towards the pendi and pray for a good catch

Ryan Kempf wrote:If your going to crater PLF. In the situation described what do you think about having the belayer take in all the slack and literally pull you off the wall? Maybe would have kept you off the slab?

Leif E wrote:1. I don't climb wet rock. 2. More importantly I don't traverse 20 feet off route, that's just asking for trouble. (a local here died doing the same thing because he ended up decking)

What Leif said, 20' off route is asking for trouble. Even 5 feet away from the bolt you know you're off route...

Long Duk Dong wrote:What's the protocol for noobs asking stupid questions on MP? You seem really cool and I think I'm attracted to you sexually.

Don Ferris wrote: Ummm, thanks?

Don Ferris wrote: Leif, if you had one day to climb in El Potrero Chico and the rock was wet you'd climb that damn rock! And I only traversed out to avoid the wet rock seemed like the lesser of two evils up until I fell.

Don Ferris wrote:The fall is inevitable what do you do?

Me too, I like to cry a little....:^)