Dream of Wild Turkeys

First off, big shout outs to the team of guides who happened to be around to help us. Learned a lot from them on the way down and their support was rad.

My partner and I were starting up the 6th pitch of the Red Rocks classic, Dream of Wild Turkey. My partner was leading and he was 8 bolts into the climb and had just slotted a bomber nut. He was confident in the terrain and I was hanging out at the belay ledge below. Out of no where he was falling and yelling rock. He unexpectedly pulled a microwave sized block off the route, with no signs of it being loose. The hold had chalk and was directly inline with the rest of the route. Maybe someone will see the scar and report back that he was off route, but I never got to see where it came from. I spotted both my partner and the rock coming down and realized I was going to be hit. I ducked and covered the best I could, the rocks made signficant impact to me. I was hit in the head and both ankles and feet. Sorry for adding a stain to nice white belay ledge... 

Miraculously and thanks to my helmet, we walked out on our own after getting some help being lowered to the ground.

Lessons learned - wear your helmet. Just wear it, always. Even if a route is “classic” it can still have death blocks and traveling lightly is always advantageous. I would also say, having an alternative exit strategy may be good. We weren’t planning on rapping the route. So without help we would have had to continue to the top and walk off. 

- Made some edits after reflecting on the incident. The first post was written while I was still at the ER, not 100% at the time. 

Excellent message. Complacency is a killer. Rare events make you complacent. That is why TSA periodically sneak dangerous items through airports check gates to "wake up" TSA officers and improve they training. I wish we could do something similar. 

One real danger I faced was staying under a climber who was not clipped yet and was soling. Being hit by 180 pound person is no joke. But nobody at the belayer station has anticipated this or shifted to give me more space. 

Back to your post, Was the block really microwave size falling on you from 7 bolts height?

Amazing that you survived that.  There has been some late rain in Red Rock this year.  I was hoping to get onto BV Wall on my recent trip, but the day I would have done that was Sunday 4/6 and I felt pretty certain the sandstone would not be reliable by then (I think the Canyon got rain 4/1, 4/2, and 4/3).  I would have thought for sure that with heat and sun that followed the rains, that wall would be safe by the day you were on it. I wonder if that block was fracturing previous to your go, perhaps by being pulled on when it was still wet, over the winter? Not trying to invoke wet rock hysteria but it's certainly a factor that changes things out there.

Microwave sized block hit you square in the head, from 50+ ft, no injuries? Plz share ur helmet make and model. Space force needs this information 

Rhett Davis wrote:

Microwave sized block hit you square in the head, from 50+ ft, no injuries? Plz share ur helmet make and model. Space force needs this information 

I was wearing the BD Vision and it left quite the mark on both my ankles / feet. The dent in the helmet was really gnarly, it would have been a much different story had I not had it on. Also, I saw the block coming down (along with my partner) then quickly ducked my head and tried to protect myself. I'm not sure if it was fully intact when it made contact with me. I dont remeber the impact itself, just the aftermath. 

It is easy to get down DOWT (particularly where you were at) with one rope (60m).  I implore those of you who want to climb longer routes like that to consider a third option than two which have been commonly used on this route, climbing to the top with an injury or calling SARS.   As long as you still have gear on your waist, particularly on a wall like this that has a ton of anchors and bolts, please rap off said gear and bolts vs calling SARS because you do not want to leave gear behind (yes, this has been well documented on this route several times).  Even if there was no one around whatsoever, you already knew where the fixed rap/belay stations were below you, where the bolts were below, where the trees were below you, and you obviously had gear on your waist.  On this route, on the pitch you were on, there should have been zero panic or worry about getting off the route with one rope, even if no one else was around whatsoever.  This is sort of entry level knowledge to trad climbing larger routes.  Glad it all worked out.

phylp phylp wrote:

Amazing that you survived that.  There has been some late rain in Red Rock this year.  I was hoping to get onto BV Wall on my recent trip, but the day I would have done that was Sunday 4/6 and I felt pretty certain the sandstone would not be reliable by then (I think the Canyon got rain 4/1, 4/2, and 4/3).  I would have thought for sure that with heat and sun that followed the rains, that wall would be safe by the day you were on it. I wonder if that block was fracturing previous to your go, perhaps by being pulled on when it was still wet, over the winter? Not trying to invoke wet rock hysteria but it's certainly a factor that changes things out there.

We have been talking about this a lot while we continued to climb over the trip. Nothing we climbed felt remotely close to as loose as that block was, according to my partner. I guess we will never really know why it came off, but it was certainly it's time to go.