slab falls and catches

To preface, I've been doing this for quite a while, but generally avoid slabs, and when I do slab waddle I keep it pretty mellow. As result, I do not fall or catch others on slabby terrain very much at all. So anyway, due to a recent injury to a partner during fall that I caught, I'm soliciting advice from the slab monkeys out there so that this does not happen again.

Basically, my partner was about one move away from the anchors on a steep slab route, and was about 15 feet runout above the last bolt. He could not find decent stance to clip the anchor from, and informed me that he was going to whip. Immediatelly my mind started racing on the best way to catch him. Normally I would leave out a small bit of slack to give a soft fall, but this being slab, I decided that a tighter catch to reduce the distance with a timed jump to soften the impact would be the best option. So, I took up all slack, making sure not to pull on him, and when I started to feel the impact I gave a small hop to reduce the impact force.

Long story short, his foot scraped the wall in the last stages of his whipper, breaking his ankle and delaminating his shoe. This is not something that I want to repeat, so any advice from those who have slab experience would be welcomed.

In my experience, it's best not to climb slab.

Agreed...But sometimes, well...you end up on them anyway.

Jon Zucco wrote:In my experience, it's best not to climb slab.

Or at very least do not fall on slab.

I think its all about the climber, soft catch is obviously preferred, but its up to the human meteorite to keep their feet moving and stay squarely facing the wall for the duration of their flight.

It is best not to hop on slabs, save that for steep routes. If it's a long run out on slab, the belayer should be trying to reel in as much rope as possible, which could include running down hill if its single pitch. If you want to give a dynamic catch, just take a step forward.

I don't think there is a whole lot your belaying can do to help the situation. Unless your at stone mountain or the first pitch of Whitesides and then your best option is to grab rope and run.

Jon Zucco wrote:In my experience, it's best not to climb slab.

What is wrong with you people? Slab is the most awesomest type of climbing in the history of forever!

You can real in the rope, hand over hand..i suggest a back up for this. Soft catch is not allowed.

Extending the fall distance is not good in many situations including this one. Since he was near the anchor, there had to be a lot of rope between you and you partner. So it would be a soft catch anyway.

I broke my ankle in a similar situation. My foot caught a tiny ledge just before my fall was arrested. Unlikely my belayer could have done anything since it was dark and he could barely see me. But a few feet could be the difference.

If you're on the second or third pitch or whatever, pull as much rope as you can, as fast as you can, through your belay device before locking it off — and do not use a Grigri on slabs. If you are still on the ground, and you're not tied in, you definitely want to run for it if you can. (But the guy who knows the most about these kind of situations is John Strand, the Slab King.)

Cool, thanks everyone. I do not want to be arrogant and assume that I did everything right, and it sounds like I could have pulled in more rope as he was whipping down. Many years ago I intentionally short roped my wife to keep her from decking after she blew a second clip, resulting in broken foot. In that scenario it was the right decision to keep her off the ground, but I've been very leery about potentially short roping others ever since.

What you did was absolutely correct

Reel in the slack as fast as you can

And then let yourself get pulled in to prevent a swing (yes you can still swing on a slab fall, especially if its steeper)

Sometimes theres nothing else that can be done

Heres a question i have ... Which part of the foot hit the wall ... And did he slide doen the slab or was there a bit of a swing in?

On steep slab i prefer not to have people run back unless im going to deck as that can swing you into the wall

On lower angle slab its a judgement call ...

The most important thin is to stay upright IMO ... Months ago i took a slab fall, as i fell i was leaning back due to having a pack and my heel hit the wall when the rope came taught (it was old rope that probably should have been more stretchy) ...

Staying totally upright (i did not invert) would likely have prevented the injury

Now if i lead with a pack i use a bandolier parisienne and use that as a chest clip in point to it doesnt throw me off in a fall

It was his toe that hit, as evidenced by delaminated toecap. There was 100' of rope out, and he fell approximately 30'. It looked like a basic plunge off the wall to me. Afterwards he told me that he tried to push out, but it was feeble because he was gripped, and one of his feet ended up skidding down the wall for the last part of the fall. The slab was steep, just barely less than vertical.

the schmuck wrote:It was his toe that hit, as evidenced by delaminated toecap. There was 100' of rope out, and he fell approximately 30'. It looked like a basic plunge off the wall to me. Afterwards he told me that he tried to push out, but it was feeble because he was gripped, and one of his feet ended up skidding down the wall for the last part of the fall. The slab was steep, just barely less than vertical.

you did what you could ... if you had belay me i would attribute no fault to you

remember with 100 feet of rope out in a dynamic fall, youll get around 10-20 ft+ of stretch from the rope alone

an on steeper slabs, giving a hard catch can swing one into the wall

partners on fear of flying 11a, classic squamish slab ... people fall on it all the time, ive seen people give hard catches with the climber swinging into the wall

i fell on it enough times when i first tried it ... fortunately its fairly blank

fear of flying 11a

fear of flying 11a

the other thing to note in squamish alot of the falls you take of cracks (many of whom are lower angle) are basically slab falls ... you can see the crack just to the left which is THE classic 10a in the bluffs ...

you did nothing wrong, i would have told you to catch me the same way prior to the climb on these routes i posted

edit ... you can see tommy caldwell swing and slam into the dawn wall near vertical "slab" ... at 1:27

youtube.com/watch?v=fpu8cQG…

john strand wrote:You can real in the rope, hand over hand..i suggest a back up for this. Soft catch is not allowed.

Bingo - except I would suggest "reeling" in the rope - unless you are trying to keep it "real" :-)