Epic Rescue
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Party of four on dark shadows in red rocks. Left a ton of gear and stuck ropes last night. One of our party broke his elbow three ribs and cracked a vertebrae. Good karma and cash to anyone who will recover our stuff. Will be in Vegas for the next few days. Please let me know if you recover the stuff. Thank you |
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Sorry to hear about the injuries and hope you get your gear back. |
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Good job getting down safely and getting the job done. Sounds like you made some good decisions. Hope you get your gear back. |
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Wow, thanks for sharing. Hopefully your buddy will make a full and speedy recovery. |
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Well done to get yourselves out safely. |
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Props for self-rescuing. Hope you get your gear back. |
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Kudos to handling the situation! Hope you get your stuff back. |
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Nice work and thanks for reporting. |
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Good news we recovered the ropes from pitch four. Thank you very much to Owen, Annie and Song. Just need the good people topping out today to help us out with six cams several slings, cords and biners on the upper pitches. |
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Great! I don't hear enough good stories of self rescue. And I seem to hear too many of people calling for emergency services when they could simple hobble out with assistance. |
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Mike that route isn't done all the way to the top all that often. The first four pitches see multiple ascents a day but It might be a little while before the upper pitches get done again. |
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Got word from the folks who recovered our ropes that a party was headed to the top today so we will hope for the best. |
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Great job self-rescuing. I hope the injured climber makes a full recovery and you get all your gear back. |
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Congrats on rescuing yourself. No offense or anything but I find the idea that your injured party was experienced and the fact that he ripped gear somewhat mutually exclusive. I'm not trying to cast stones - I'm made plenty of stupid mistakes climbing. Still bad gear placements are one mistake that's nearly the worst to make. Could be the leader wasn't as experienced as he thought. Lucky for him he had friends to rescue him. Maybe I'm missing something? When gear rips, it's user error 99% of the time. |
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Royal wrote:Maybe I'm missing something? When gear rips, it's user error 99% of the time.99%....really? I'm not looking to argue or anything but some of the rock there is pretty soft...Its probably not that hard to rip good placements. Great job getting yourselves out of a jam! Hopefully you get your gear back. |
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@Royal, you trolling dude? Either way, yer a dick and your comment isn't remotely useful or warranted. Even experienced climbers have pieces blow from time to time, especially in soft sandstone. For this particular fellow it unfortunately resulted in an injury from which his team was impressively able to self rescue off of a big formation. |
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Royal wrote:Congrats on rescuing yourself. No offense or anything but I find the idea that your injured party was experienced and the fact that he ripped gear somewhat mutually exclusive. I'm not trying to cast stones - I'm made plenty of stupid mistakes climbing. Still bad gear placements are one mistake that's nearly the worst to make. Could be the leader wasn't as experienced as he thought. Lucky for him he had friends to rescue him. Maybe I'm missing something? When gear rips, it's user error 99% of the time.Good God. Even experienced climbers can have a piece pull out. It's less likely, but sometimes there are "marginal" placements, because that's the best you can get. Monday morning quarterbacks... |
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Royal, if you're not trying to cast stones then shut the fuck up. Part of the way experience is gained is by dealing with the results of your actions. Go back to the gym. |
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To the OP and climbers involved in this rescue, if you haven't already submitted this to Accidents in North American Mountaineering, please do! I am sure others could benefit from your story and experience. americanalpineclub.org/p/anam |
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Really, honestly, I wasn't trying to be a jerk. Apparently, I came off that way, I apologize. Simply trying to help the OP assess what happened. Carry on. |
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Royal wrote: I find the idea that your injured party was experienced and the fact that he ripped gear somewhat mutually exclusive. .When gear rips, it's user error 99% of the time.Wrong, try finding really experienced climbers who haven't ripped gear. Even perfect placements blow out in some rock types, which include some of the softer areas in Red Rocks. And plenty of marginal placements aren't always obviously marginal, the first time I blew a piece it was due to a small piece of rock breaking. These guys did an amazing, awesome job of self-rescue in a day and age where people call for helicopters for being out of breath. |