Second Flatiron Fall

www.denver7.com/news/local-news/climber-survives-falling-80-100-feet-off-second-flatiron

yikes yikes yikes. 

Terrible. Hope the scrambler heals up. Glad there were others there to help. 

Weather?

Richard Radcliffe wrote:

Weather?

Tuesday was great weather. Seems more likely he was off route and didn't retreat in time.

@Peter Beal: What do you mean by "retreat in time"? In time for what? Just curious for clarification.

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@all: Article says he fell ~100ft and then was lowered 200ft  "the remainder". Sounds like he fell somewhere around 300ft up? Theres a couple spots on Freeway I find 5.not-quite-"easy" with somewhat significant tumble exposure, and one of them is ~300 ft up. Wouldn't be completely surprised if he was on route and just momentarily biffed it.

Not to proselytize in speculation, but regardless of where he fell or how experienced he is, always want to encourage people to scramble attentively and avoid encouraging onlookers to impulsively part-take. Was starting a roped run up the 1st a couple weeks back and chatted to a few college-bro hikers at the base. They were asking how hard it was, general routefinding beta, etc. Tried to give them polite but cautious answers. When they started to leave and said in a somewhat alarming tone "The 2nd is the easy one, right?" I felt compelled to simply answer "'People get hurt and killed on that one all the time. 'Easy' is a dangerous word, out here." Maybe a bit overblown of me, but I felt validated when we came back down to the base & we saw and heard a soloist, who was getting ready to scramble the 1st, professing to a different group of dude-bros that scrambling in the flatirons is "super easy, you can pretty much free solo any part of the flatirons, and the 2nd flatiron is more of a hike than a scramble.". Yikes.

Hope the guy who fell on Tuesday has a quick and full recovery. 

Peter Beal wrote:

Tuesday was great weather. Seems more likely he was off route and didn't retreat in time.

Ah. For some reason I had in mind that this happened yesterday when the weather wasn’t so great.

Brent Kelly wrote:

@Peter Beal: What do you mean by "retreat in time"? In time for what? Just curious for clarification.

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@all: Article says he fell ~100ft and then was lowered 200ft  "the remainder". Sounds like he fell somewhere around 300ft up? Theres a couple spots on Freeway I find 5.not-quite-"easy" with somewhat significant tumble exposure, and one of them is ~300 ft up. Wouldn't be completely surprised if he was on route and just momentarily biffed it.

Not to proselytize in speculation, but regardless of where he fell or how experienced he is, always want to encourage people to scramble attentively and avoid encouraging onlookers to impulsively part-take. Was starting a roped run up the 1st a couple weeks back and chatted to a few college-bro hikers at the base. They were asking how hard it was, general routefinding beta, etc. Tried to give them polite but cautious answers. When they started to leave and said in a somewhat alarming tone "The 2nd is the easy one, right?" I felt compelled to simply answer "'People get hurt and killed on that one all the time. 'Easy' is a dangerous word, out here." Maybe a bit overblown of me, but I felt validated when we came back down to the base & we saw and heard a soloist, who was getting ready to scramble the 1st, professing to a different group of dude-bros that scrambling in the flatirons is "super easy, you can pretty much free solo any part of the flatirons, and the 2nd flatiron is more of a hike than a scramble.". Yikes.

Hope the guy who fell on Tuesday has a quick and full recovery. 

By retreat in time, I meant before he encountered a move he couldn't comfortably reverse. For novice climbers that can happen very quickly.

Reference the attached picture of him being lowered down at approximately where Dodge Block cuts right. That indicates he was well to the south of Freeway and perhaps unclear how to proceed. Straight up is 5.6. Left is much the same, and right, though clearly easier, is uncertain at first as to where it leads next. My guess is he went straight (which is real climbing), fell, and fortunately was stopped by the lower angle terrain below. He could have easily gone for an additional 300 feet. The picture shows he was just below the top of the formation before he fell, not close to the start.

The solo scrambler you mentioned was full of sht and should have known better. Sure you can free solo any part of the Flatirons but you can also easily fall to your death on any of them, not to mention the numerous possibilities for injurious non-fatal falls and of course freezing up and getting stuck, getting lost, or getting caught by weather. Easy climbing on long routes outside where if you fall you die is very different from gym 5.9 on the autobelay. Discouraging the unprepared is doing a public service to a potential victim's circle of family and friends as well as lessening the burden on local SAR crews.

Thanks Peter. Great info and insights.

Here's a GoFundMe for Rob Batey, the climber who fell. He got seriously beat up and is clearly lucky to have survived.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rob-bateys-medical-bills

Peter Beal wrote:

By retreat in time, I meant before he encountered a move he couldn't comfortably reverse. For novice climbers that can happen very quickly.

Reference the attached picture of him being lowered down at approximately where Dodge Block cuts right. That indicates he was well to the south of Freeway and perhaps unclear how to proceed. Straight up is 5.6. Left is much the same, and right, though clearly easier, is uncertain at first as to where it leads next. My guess is he went straight (which is real climbing), fell, and fortunately was stopped by the lower angle terrain below. He could have easily gone for an additional 300 feet. The picture shows he was just below the top of the formation before he fell, not close to the start.

The solo scrambler you mentioned was full of sht and should have known better. Sure you can free solo any part of the Flatirons but you can also easily fall to your death on any of them, not to mention the numerous possibilities for injurious non-fatal falls and of course freezing up and getting stuck, getting lost, or getting caught by weather. Easy climbing on long routes outside where if you fall you die is very different from gym 5.9 on the autobelay. Discouraging the unprepared is doing a public service to a potential victim's circle of family and friends as well as lessening the burden on local SAR crews.

This is 5th class? Serious question. Not familiar with the Flatirons. This looks more like the 4th class slabs of Tenaya. 

Ryan, the terrain you're looking at is more 3rd/4th in a very wide gully. To the looker's right is the crux of the Dodge Block route, which is a small 4th class step up through the more intimidating features. The tree to the looker's left of the rescuers is blocking a small pitch of 5th class where a steeper cliff resides, blocking easy access. If the photograph showed the terrain to the left, you would see pitches from 5.6 to 5.9 and harder. The pitch that Kyle Walker fell off of is just out of frame. 

From what I'm interpreting from what Peter posted, the victim perhaps attempted a route that's blocked by the tree and then continues, generally following the rope line,  going under that enormous flake/tunnel. It's actually really fun. The obscured pitch is actually a little tricky to onsight solo, and much harder than anything you'll find on the standard route (whichi s ~Class 4). I've certainly backed off myself before bringing a rope and a buddy to figure it out all out (I'm not that great of a climber). There's several pins and a good #2 placement making the pitch very safe to do with gear. Falling from even a few feet up the vertical face without gear could mean a very very long tumble down the more easier terrain.

Long Ranger wrote:

Ryan, the terrain you're looking at is more 3rd/4th in a very wide gully. To the looker's right is the crux of the Dodge Block route, which is a small 4th class step up through the more intimidating features. The tree to the looker's left of the rescuers is blocking a small pitch of 5th class where a steeper cliff resides, blocking easy access. If the photograph showed the terrain to the left, you would see pitches from 5.6 to 5.9 and harder. The pitch that Kyle Walker fell off of is just out of frame. 

From what I'm interpreting from what Peter posted, the victim perhaps attempted a route that's blocked by the tree and then continues, generally following the rope line,  going under that enormous flake/tunnel. It's actually really fun. The obscured pitch is actually a little tricky to onsight solo, and much harder than anything you'll find on the standard route (whichi s ~Class 4). I've certainly backed off myself before bringing a rope and a buddy to figure it out all out (I'm not that great of a climber). There's several pins and a good #2 placement making the pitch very safe to do with gear. Falling from even a few feet up the vertical face without gear could mean a very very long tumble down the more easier terrain.

Long Ranger is right on the money here. Though easy terrain abounds on the right of the photo, an inexperienced climber can readily make poor route or hold choices such that a patch of lichen or flaky rock can turn a small slip into a serious or deadly fall. I get that "real" climbers might take a skeptical attitude towards such incidents but the list of good climbers who have been killed or sustained life-altering injuries on easy 5th/4th class terrain is quite long. The number of fatal falls in the Flatirons is really pretty stunning and depressing when you think about it. They are almost like avalanche terrain traps in reverse.

Thanks for the clarification. Stories like these and reading the annual accident report still blows my mind of the 3rd/4th/east 5th accidents. Very stark reminder to never lose concentration on no fall terrain, regardless of how casual it may be. 

Firstly, thank you for the concern and well wishes expressed above. Truly appreciated.  

It's taken a while to get to this point, i.e., revisiting my fall in the media. Both for physical and psychological reasons the return has been slow, and I knew that reading through "comments" would be another step, especially when knowing that I'd understand and likely agree with many of them. It's actually astounded me how much love and support I've received since my accident, as opposed to the rightful condemnation of a man caught out by his naivete/stupidity and his subsequent reliance on the support and kindness of others. A huge and heartfelt thank you to all who have helped. You can probably tell...this is genuine remorse. For my impact on others (rescuers, friends, and family) over any personal physical injury, although there is a little remorse for that too;-)

The need to own up and make some kind of amends with all who've helped is obvious. In fact, I honestly only got to this page today as I researched RMR and how to donate. One link has led to another, and although knowing it would be deservedly ugly, I read down. There are no excuses, I made a series of mistakes that day, and I'm incredibly lucky to be able to get to rectify and move on from them. Thank you to all that both helped and have supported. Given the above discussion, I feel I owe some sort of explanation. Unlikely that anyone will see given the delay, but hopefully cataloging the series of mistakes I made can help inform my own processing, show how circumstances can quickly layer, while also creating a list of what not to do in the Flatirons. Most will not make these mistakes, but even if one person gets a reminder, it's worth it. The picture above has helped a little, but my memory of the day is (luckily) mainly intact.

The rather large, very obvious, takeway is that I simply wasn't thinking things through wisely and lost sight of exactly where I was and what I was doing, period. I wasn't respecting where I was enough, and rock faces are very obviously not somewhere that can be done. The minutia below...and I understand that some (perhaps most) is incredibly stupid. Written in detail for my own processing and an honest picture of why.

I had been using the Flatiron scrambling book to move south to north in the fall after refinding the mtns and ridgelines this summer. Ridgelines had turned into scrambles, and we had the Flatirons right here. The major background fault was that I was using the scrambling as rehab after a series of major surgeries, neck/lower back/knee. The scrambling was working grip back in hands and feet (part of the incredibly stupid), and I was actually seeing significant improvement. Low grade seemed (at the time) safe, and I'd felt no danger or worry as I worked myself north over various routes to 5.3/4. I'd decided my season was done as I suffer congenitally and badly from Raynauld's syndrome ("incredibly stupid" #2).  Nov 1st  had 70-degree forecast, and it was beautiful. I got greedy, I'd not been on the first two flatirons yet. The plan was easy, Freeway, come back down between 2nd and 3rd, then do Dodgeblock. Started a little later than hoped and played around a little on the top of the 2nd, meaning by the time I started Dodgeblock I was already a little worried about time. I had to collect my son, and hence in the back of my mind, I couldn't hang around, a potentially fatal error in and of itself. Started DB, and am pretty sure I had the correct start, although was accessing from a different direction than in the book. Another couple of errors, a new climb/piece of rock, and by myself. Wiser to be scrambling new routes with someone who knows the route, perhaps. Obvious, just not to me, previous scrambling in this manner had seemed fine, until it wasn't. Got off route right (toward Freeway) fairly early and had to bring myself back onto the route. After this, I have a video showing an indication of the correct route ahead, but I somehow got drawn off toward the slight overhang (maybe the "rushing" timepiece).  After looking at it left, right and center, I realized none of this looked like the 5.0/1 I was expecting at max. Then the sun went in. I had been so absorbed in route finding (especially with the "rushing") I'd lost sight of the most important thing, safety. And for me that means warmth to be able to use the hands. I had a significant downclimb (not difficult but still requiring grip) and the upclimb (even with heat) I thought required a risk that given my overall grip was unwise (told later that 5.6 at easiest which above seems to concur). I knew immediately that I was going to fall. I hadn't (somehow) seen the immediate and significant temp drop coming; too absorbed, naive at best. The rock quickly cooled, hands already tired from trying to figure out the overhang. I remember having the briefest moment to think of my family and how I was going to survive the fall. Given the angle of the 2nd Flatiron I could tell there would be multiple hits and that I better try to slow myself if I got the chance. I likely didn't, but my hands were pretty beat-up. Don't remember the fall itself, woke up on a ledge 100ft below, the most wonderful climber on Freeway calling to see if I was ok? I wasn't, although I will be. RMR skillfully and wonderfully carried me out. More than thankful. More than your average luck. With the help and love of many. 26 broken bones I believe. A lot wiser. A lot more humble. But with a much greater perspective of much around me. A sincere apology, and a thank you I will never be able to repay in full.  But I'll try!;-)

Hey, Rob! I just saw this thread for the first time and was surprised to see it was a year old. Then I saw you got around to posting a follow up. Really glad you survived your fall and are still alive and kicking. It's true, these forums have gotten a lot kinder over the years towards those in accidents, even when they are kidding. The Texas guy that fell on the 2nd comes to mind. I think we eventually accepted him as One Of Us. Ha ha.

In any case, I've been in your shoes as well reading online comments about my accident, and it is a weird kind of process of digesting all of that. Your thread here is mercifully short. Keep safe and march on!

Don’t be so hard on yourself, Rob. We all make mistakes, most of the time we just get lucky and don’t have to reckon with the consequences. I’ve certainly screwed up more than you did and got to skate by. Others end up worse off by no fault of their own at all. Recovery is all that matters now. I hope you are physically coming back okay and can return to the outdoors. I also hope your mental recovery is successful and that you are able to let go of any guilt you may feel. Nobody in the community would wish for you to feel guilt, I personally am just grateful you’re alive. 

Rob, we all make mistakes. I had a ledge fall and broke my back and got a bad concussion. I am so glad you survived that fall. I agree with you I am wiser and more humble after the accident. If you suffer from emotional trauma like PTSD, I highly recommend getting help. I am glad I did. 

Thanks for the status update Robert. I hope your healing process goes well.

clee 03m wrote:

Rob, we all make mistakes. I had a ledge fall and broke my back and got a bad concussion. I am so glad you survived that fall. I agree with you I am wiser and more humble after the accident. If you suffer from emotional trauma like PTSD, I highly recommend getting help. I am glad I did. 

Thanks so much. Really the recovery is still so physical in focus with some concussion (BPPV) effects. It’s almost shocked me how level headed I’ve been able to view it, apart from the guilt surrounding the affecting of others, including (of course) my family. I think it’s a positive guilt however, one which will keep eyes open rather than burden me. But I truly appreciate your comment and will keep an eye on it. I’m trying to view still being here as a “freeing” rather than a “closing”!;/) cheers