Accident at Stone Mtn, 6/8/14. Anyone know details?

As usual, media just gives a vague description. Anyone know what happened?

journalnow.com/news/local/c…

Another article here which has a little more detail.

journalpatriot.com/news/art…

Jake Jones wrote:Sheesh. "the climbing partners fell about 60 feet from the Stone Mountain face to the base of the mountain" I know the accuracy of news reporting vs. actual recounting by a climber is dodgy at best. But, if this is accurate, I think one or more pieces would have had to pop in order to be 60 feet up and hit the deck. Either that, or the belayer was unable to arrest the fall after a runout above a piece. I don't recall any routes that are completely unprotectable 60ft up off the ground. I didn't even know people climbed there this time of year. It has to be brutally hot. I'd be interested to know on which route this occurred, and of course- I wish a speedy recovery to the climber(s) that were injured. That's a bummer.

If you fell right before the second bolt you could take a 60 footer on Captain Crunch and deck unless your partner used a running belay. But it doesn't sound like that's what happened here.

News reports are saying the fall occurred when one climber was lowering another "from one section of the mountain to another", and that the climber who was lowering the other climber was also pulled off, which seems to suggest either anchor failure or no anchor.

There are belay ledges at Stone with no anchor bolts or natural pro, and the guidebook instructs belayers to "assume a firm stance". However, I think a fall from these ledges would be much longer than 60 feet.

Hopefully more facts will emerge, and this incident won't harm NC State Park climbing access.

Glad to hear the accident was no worse, and I wish a speedy and full recovery to both climbers.

kidda wrote:There are belay ledges at Stone with no anchor bolts or natural pro, and the guidebook instructs belayers to "assume a firm stance".

Um really?

Morgan Patterson wrote: Um really?

I know Stone pretty well and I'm not aware of any such belays nowadays. Perhaps the poster is thinking of Laurel Knob but AFAIK those were mostly fixed during the rebolting work. (Some of the old fixed gear was in such bad shape that it was basically worthless).

Emil Briggs wrote: I know Stone pretty well and I'm not aware of any such belays nowadays. Perhaps the poster is thinking of Laurel Knob but AFAIK those were mostly fixed during the rebolting work. (Some of the old fixed gear was in such bad shape that it was basically worthless).

The tree ledge. No anchors there.

haha, does the tree ledge have any trees?

cfuttner wrote: The tree ledge. No anchors there.

There are a couple of double bolt anchors with rap rings on the Tree Ledge. Plus there are a bunch of fairly large trees.

Morgan Patterson wrote:haha, does the tree ledge have any trees?

You could park a Mac truck on the tree ledge. Might as well be standing on the ground unless your at the ends.

I have not personally found these anchor conditions, but they are mentioned in NC Selected Climbs. I did not do that route for obvious reasons.

Emil, Perhaps bolts have been added since Selected was published?

Was doing some fishing right down the road from there when I heard the helicopter coming in. Pretty limited details but it sounds like they may have fallen off the tree ledge.

kidda wrote:I have not personally found these anchor conditions, but they are mentioned in NC Selected Climbs. I did not do that route for obvious reasons. Emil, Perhaps bolts have been added since Selected was published?

So I just took a look at the Selected Guide and it says "assume a firm stance" for the third pitch of Sufficiently Breathless. That is one of the few routes at Stone that I have not done so yes it could be correct for the third pitch. That is a long way from the Tree Ledge where the accident took place though.

I might add that assuming a firm stance behind a block at that part of the cliff is not quite as crazy as it sounds for belaying the second. The upper pitches there are so low angle that if the second falls it's going to be a slow slide. Still a solid anchor would be preferable.

The report I read said that he was lowering her from one section to another and he was pulled off too.

All speculation on my part, but simul rapping is fairly common on Stone. Perhaps one of them rapped off their end of the rope????

Anyone have additional information regarding this accident? I'm curious as to what the circumstances and location of the accident were, as are others I'm sure.

We're working on that. The Carolina Climbers Coalition has been in touch with the park and we're gathering details and working with the park on understanding the accident. Once we get them all sorted out we'll share what we know and see if there are things we can do to help prevent it from happening again - mainly education and awareness kinds of things, right now it does not look like there was any anchor failure involved.

I'll give you some details... the accident happened to a good friend of mine who was leading the climb, bringing a friend with him.

He's not entirely sure of all the details right now, he's just gotten out of the hospital with some bad injuries, is on some strong pain meds which cause the usual grogginess etc. His partner faired a bit worse then he, but it sounds like neither of them sustained any bad spinal injuries.

From what he shared, they completed a multi-pitch, and were rapping back down. His partner was inexperienced, and the rapping scared her, and he thus decided lowering would be an option.

Something happened, possibly gear related (I don't know yet, it seems like he is still pretty confused as to what may have happened.) He was using a cordelette on part of a tree to anchor into, and his partner may have leaned back before everything was fully ready for the lower.

He tried to reach out and grab her, and ended up falling along with her, and landing on top of her, ~70' or so.

For the record, they both had helmets on, which likely helped them escape some cranial injuries.

I'm on the West coast, so this is just via email/phone contact.

Feeling mighty bad for them both. My pal is a good, responsible guy, and we have climbed together many times over the past 10 years. He isn't a gumby, and has a pretty good safety ethic. I know he feels quite $hitty about the event.

Sounds like they will both recover, with time.

And, yeah, that "news" article has so many errors in it...it makes me realize even more how much I should question news media.

Thanks for the update Dave and I'm glad that it appears as if they both avoided any serious spinal injuries. The thing that confuses me a bit about all of the reports I've seen is the 60 or 70 foot fall. Falling from the Tree Ledge would be more like a 150-160 feet. I guess the report will clarify what happened though.

Glad to help, Emil, et al.

I've never been to Stone, so I got no personal beta.

They were using a 70M rope, would that reach from the Tree Ledge?

David Lyons wrote:Glad to help, Emil, et al. I've never been to Stone, so I got no personal beta. They were using a 70M rope, would that reach from the Tree Ledge?

I don't think so. You could however rappel to the first set of anchors halfway up block route and again once more to the ground. That actually would be about a 60-70' fall on really low angle slab to ground.

I've always had two ropes so I've never tried to reach the deck in one rappel from the tree ledge. I guess it could be a rope stretcher. Select Climbs shows most routes going up to the tree ledge at 120', so it may be possible to rappel from there with a 70M.