Falling on gear success stories! (Where the rock didn't completely blow out)
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I noticed I can get psyched out if I read a bunch of stories about placements/anchors failing before I go climb on gear. So, I figure I should start a thread about gear holding. Lets hear your success stories! Maybe you fell onto an RP at a crux after a huge runout, or whipped onto a 00 TCU? |
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This thread is a good idea, I feel the same way. I Recently surprise-tested at blue TCU after blowing the run-out finish of skeletonic on Potash road. Amazingly, it held. That said, I was 12 feet above it when I aired it out and was still glad that I had it backed up. |
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Whipped onto a horizontal #2 in grainy flatirons rock last weekend on south crack on the maiden. I was probably 8 feet or so above and to the left of it. |
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I have fallen twice on a 0 C3 without incident. |
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A buddy of mine took a 30 footer onto a #0 TCU in Sedona of all places, and that little sucker held the force! |
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Jay Eggleston wrote:I have fallen twice on a 0 C3 without incident.Actually J I think that was the 00 And you have also fallen on the black alien (probably a recalled one) |
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JJ Brunner wrote:I noticed I can get psyched out if I read a bunch of stories about placements/anchors failing before I go climb on gear. So, I figure I should start a thread about gear holding. Lets hear your success stories! Maybe you fell onto an RP at a crux after a huge runout, or whipped onto a 00 TCU?I took a falling clinic where we went out and took falls on our gear. We were backed up by a top rope just in case a piece ripped. It was the best thing I have done for my trad climbing, bumped me up instantly by two grades. Only real fall I have done was a 20' fall onto a #3. I have taken several small ones with my waist right at the piece. |
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I've fallen at least 4 or 5 times on the purple c3 (00, I believe). Once it was a good fifteen footer. |
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Do hook count as pro? |
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Last year in Indian Creek I took three or four successive wingers onto a grey TCU in some no-varnish, grainy, rubbing-sand-off-the-rock in Donnelly Canyon. I was pretty surprised that held. When we took the cam out it had some kind of pulverized sandstone on the lobes and had definitely blown the crack a little bit, but it held. |
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Great thread! |
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I fell on two nuts I placed at the low crux on Chockstone on West Ridge in Eldo multiple times once leading it. Dang, that move is hard. To my amazement they both held. |
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Stich wrote: Dang, that move is hard.Love doing one finger jams on a 10a. Ah, eldo... |
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I'd estimate that I have fallen on gear 300 times or more, on everything from RMNP alpine granite to Indian Creek & Eldo sandstone. I've never had a piece pull (except aid climbing) and have fallen on everything from RP's to large cams. |
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Taken a couple of 20' and 30' falls on a #3 Quickie Nut (Slider nut). I recall one of those falls in particular on Broken Neck at Seneca Rocks. I placed the piece just below where the crack peters out, climbed over it onto blank face and spent 15 minutes looking for good holds not realizing the climb split right. I was so focused on not falling that I completely blocked out that Tony Barnes was yelling at me to go right (he was guiding clients on Marshall's). |
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Took a whip on 2 black aliens equalized with an X. I was super sketched 1 wouldn't hold, so I decided to get pumped putting in 2 and then equalizing them... They held, I pooped my pants... |
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Steven Lucarelli wrote:My point is, the few stories you hear about gear pulling is only a very, very small percentage compared to all the gear that doesn't pull that you never hear about.Ditto. just remembered a couple fun fixed pieces -- my second lead fall was on a fixed bong on Kor's Door my first summer leading trad, the second 5.9 I took a lead fall on on that summer. After that I think it took me another year to get to the point where I was down to push it again. About two years later I went for a ride on a pretty junky pin on Kings X in Eldo. That was kind of a janky climb, fun, but I remember it was little loose and strangely protected. |
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Fell on a BD #4 nut barely in there.. It Held. |
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sunder wrote: So what about gear failures?i looked at an alien wrong one time, it caught on fire and there was a small explosion. i kid. fell on a .75 then climbed up a little more and placed a #5 and whipped on that multiple times, nothin big |
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Fell ~25 feet on a big hex on Mitchell in the Wind Rivers. It surprised me by holding in the wet and weirdly shaped crack. |
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Try a pitch of aid climbing. You will be amazed how good most gear is. That being said, I quote Tony B with some advice I always try to climb by: |