Anyone have any legitimate "close-calls" while climbing?

One time I was top-roping with my buddy Sal and I put my right hand into a large black hole, and out of this hole emerged a flying squirrel (it was a male)and it flew to the tree behind me. This event scared the bejeezus out of me and I ended up letting go of the large black hole and took a 8-10ft. whipper. Luckily my belayer was paying attention!

Fast forward a couple months and I still have some trepidation top-roping routes outside. I always carry a stick with me now to poke any holes that might contain marsupials or various rodents.

I'd like to hear any of your stories involving close-calls or near death experiences!

-Chaz Sochen

I know of someone here in red rock canyon who found a hole at the top of the route that had some cute mountain lion cubs in it... Long story short they got the f*** away, didn't want to wait for momma lol.

Dang 10ft fall on top-rope, was the belayer paying attention?

I once got a hangnail that looked like it might be getting infected. Some neosporin cleared it up but it was touch-and-go for a few days.

Crack Attack wrote:...I was top-roping ... and took a 8-10ft. whipper. Luckily my belayer was paying attention!

jeff that is epic! did you use a band-aid? glad everything turned out ok

Many years ago, my partner and I set up a rappel in the Crestones on a big horn of rock. I got 10' down the rappel when my partner saw the horn wiggle and told me to unweight the rope and come back up. It turned out that the horn was not attached.

It still makes me shudder to think of that one.

Damn near got abducted off the tower back in '77. Lucky for me, they plucked some stemmer off of El Matador instead. Must have thought they would be easier to probe.

While climbing multi pitch I farted and a little something extra eeked out. Not sure if that is a close call or truly an accident.

I climbed up around 15-20ft to a little ledge to plug a piece of gear. When i got up on it i noticed a poisonous snake around 2ft away from my hand that quickly ran to the back of the ledge where I was planing on placing the gear. So I ended up having to carefully climb around the snake and up around 15ft on some shitty holds before I could get a gear placement in.

We were far enough away from help that if I had been bitten I would have died before help could have arrived.

Damn Jake that's crazy. Good thing you survived.

Mine was rapping off cannon cliff. Rope got stuck. Like a moron, I yarded on it. A rock fell down as it came loose. A big one. Similar in size to a crash pad, or a coffee table. Big enough to fucking flatten you. It missed by 20 ft or so and smashed into the wall next to us on the right.

My partner had been standing unroped on a little ledge just behind and to my right. As the missile came down, I huddled next to the wall and as far away from it as I could (tethered in to the next rap station). Once it had passed, I looked back to where he had been standing and started to freak--he was gone~! I thought he was dead for about two seconds until he popped out from around a corner where he had been hiding...he had jumped across a 3-4 ft gap from one ledge to another to get further away from the rock, thankfully he made it. holy shit.

Then we went and did some laps at rumney

"Legitimate close-calls?" You mean like as opposed to the not-in-any-way-a-close-call top-roping scare the thread opened with?
I suspect a troll, but anyways since no one has said it yet, you can't whip on top-rope, it's a contradiction of terms, you just fall. and if you fell 8-10 feet while top-roping either your belayer was not paying attention or you were near the base of the route and had some serious rope stretch. or you made up this scenario to bait people into responses like this one.

So, close calls? rock fall has nearly killed good friends of mine twice in the past year (on routes where it was to be expected and routes where it was anything but). They escaped with only moderate injuries. In that same period of time I've had two uncontrolled falls that could easily have killed me.
It's shaken me for sure but it's all just part of the game. you stay out there long enough and the mountain will kill you.

First dance with the devil

My partner and me were practicing rope rescue in a sport climbing area just because its good stuff to know. He was ascending a fixed line with a prusik and a mini traxion. We were using the various thing we owned to get out of tricky situations. and suddenly half way up the rope he was no longer going up he was falling down. he to grabbed the rope and burned the crap out of his hands but thankfully no broken bones just lots of really bad deep rope burn on his hands.

Proof that you minin traxion can fail at any time, and you need to always back up your "ascenders"

I just find it funny that the time we got closest to a bad incident was trying to prevent it.

Second dance (clearly my fault )

Rappelling off a "muntner" hitch ( pretty sure i did it wrong because i have done it since then) and the hitch wrapped around the screw gate and twisted it unlocked then... pop out went the rope and I started falling. so I instinctively bit the nail and burned the shit out of my hands but didn't break any boned or any thing just couldn't climb for a few weeks due to 2ed and 3rd degree burns on my hands.

Keep posting Chaz. You inspire me

JP.8d wrote:Keep posting Chaz. You inspire me

The obvious name: I also encountered an 18" centipede here that was equal to a 10.5 rope.

mountainproject.com/v/rattl…

[1] One time I was top-roping

[2] took a 8-10ft. whipper.

[3] Luckily my belayer was paying attention!

《boggle》

Maybe ... I dunno .. bowling might be the better option ?

I partied in Denver once and woke up with Peyton manning in my mouth.

Maurice Chaunders wrote:I partied in Denver once and woke up with Peyton manning in my mouth.

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I was in tears reading the conversation and the video had me on the floor!

Actually not a bad idea to carry a stick though. Never know when you may need to poke some holes.

Crack Attack wrote:One time I was top-roping with my buddy Sal and I put my right hand into a large black hole, and out of this hole emerged a flying squirrel (it was a male)and it flew to the tree behind me. This event scared the bejeezus out of me and I ended up letting go of the large black hole and took a 8-10ft. whipper. Luckily my belayer was paying attention! Fast forward a couple months and I still have some trepidation top-roping routes outside. I always carry a stick with me now to poke any holes that might contain marsupials or various rodents. I'd like to hear any of your stories involving close-calls or near death experiences! -Chaz Sochen