JosephH

Man, you are so damn lucky and I am glad to read you are still with us - there can't be too many survivors of such falls out there or I would imagine the survival rate at RB must be under %50. "Instead, they slid and I went right over the edge." I very much do consider this a climbing accident exactly because you were in that environment to climb. In fact, these days, climbing is about the safest part of climbing from reading all the accidents I hear about lately. Belaying, rappelling, and negotiating cliff tops and descent trails are all perilous support activities which enable climbing and expose one to significant risks. Manuevering the cliff-top/edge environment out at Rocky, even during descent, is an extemely tenous affair and one which simply cannot be underestimated or taken for granted at anytime. When I'm out at Rocky Butte and I'm not tied on a rope, walking on the road, or standing at the base I'm operating on high, high alert. Manuevering and negotiating the approach to the edge to establish top rope anchors is an high-risk proposition out there under the best of conditions and a deceptively hazardous affair when it's even slightly moist. Everyone please be incredibly aware and conscious at all times when operating around the top out at Rocky Butte. It just seems so familiar, pedestrian, and close-at-hand in it's urban camoflauge which makes it all the more dangerous. And Michelle, thanks so much for telling us your whole story of surviving that accident and all the very best to you. It sounds like you were able to heal well enough to resume a relatively normal life and that seems a great gift and miracle in and of itself. [ P.S. Anyone have an SUV or a truck with a winch? Extended with a retired climbing rope and redirected with a couple of pulleys a winch might make short work of getting that engine block and dishwasher out of there if you didn't feel like hauling them out as SAR/big wall practice. Two or three poles or 2x4's to lash a small A-frame might also make getting them up and over the lip easier (and safer). ]

He's back in Southern Illinois now - saw him two years ago at the first SoIll climbers reunion. I'll pm you with his email. Funny, though, I thought he climbed ok for a young guy...

I agree. I have two sets of both Alien and Metolius Offsets. The quality of the Aliens (and the whole Alien fiasco) is what caused me to throw my [minor] voice in with Ivo's to try and get these into production which was far from a done deal. They really had to be sold over time internally within Metolius and even then had to take their place in the priority queue behind the regular Ultralights. As I said, I've mainly free climbed on both the Aliens and Metolius Offsets, they are often superb when the going gets dicey. I definitely don't like the quality of the Aliens, but even they have their place on occasion. Sometimes there's just a surface V-gash and the only thing that will go in there solid is half an Alien (regular or offset) in anything else it's the Metolius all the way. Now if we could get WC to resume making the bigger hybrids again or at least let folks special order them. The Super Cam takes up some of that slack though.

Oly, that's not entirely true, Ivo and Brooke were just as psyched about them for free climbing which is all I've used mine for to-date.

Like I said, I'm prejudiced about them - ask Bill Coe, he's had a set of the offsets (not ultralights, though) for a couple of years now.

Big metal, they need to run that chain link down along that stretch as well so you can't haul stuff straight out of a truck and over the edge.

Muffy, when the soil at the top gets even slightly moist it is a very large and extremely dangerous Slip-N-Slide setting the stage for disaster unlike any I have ever encountered elsewhere. The fact that it is in an urban core makes it doubly dangerous.

No friggin' way! Could you tell us what happened? I've been climbing for 33 years and RB is far and away the most dangerous place I've ever climbed.

My wife and I took a drive / walk around Rocky Butte today. I stopped and peered over the edge of that main overhanging route just off the road; the one next to the tree with the big chains on it. Well, the view was pretty ugly. Someone pitched a stripped engine block and a diswasher over the edge - both are sitting at the base of the climb. Bill, looks like some good two-lift rescue practice for you and your RB crew...

Talk to Bill Coe here...

Be sure and use an MLU on the date in any case, you never know...

I'd say the only real question left then is whether you should light up before meeting him. However, I personally think stoned blind-dating is way, way more dangerous than leading in the same condition...

Typically on Channel 6 Evening News...

I'll have to say I don't like even the idea of this "practice" regardless of how you rig it. Again, the issue is with the hassle and judgement involved with pulling up enough slack in the top rope for it to only act as a backup to the lead line in a fall. That means for each faked lead fall you'd need to either be at a great rest or be on aid above the piece you want to "test". And because of the force involved in backing up a blown piece it means you have to use a grigri or knot on the top rope line and vice-versa for your lead line - again, the whole deal would be a contrived clusterf#ck, prone to misjudgment, and a royal pain in the ass. I'd really encourage you to either solo aid or just get yardage with partners instead.

I personally wouldn't recommend such an approach as you just have a bit too much going on and the falls would be way too contrived. If you have a fixed top rope then to fall on a lead piece you'd have to get above it and then give yourself enough top rope slack so the top rope would only kick in if the piece blew. That would be a lot of slack and a pretty good fall on that fixed top rope. If you do decide to use this technique anyway, be sure and use a grigri on the fixed top rope - don't use a minitraxion or ascender-like device - you don't want to end up taking what would essentially be a lead-like fall onto one of those devices. In general the best way to learn to lead and place gear is by seconding experienced climbers. In lieu of that the next best thing is walking around the base of a rock placing gear and testing it with an aider or slings. And off course, aiding (solo or with a partner) is a superb way to learn about placing gear. [ Edit: Reading your post above I'd say just get out and swap leads with more experienced climbers and get some serious yardage in. And do some aid climbing to get intimate with the pro. In your case as you describe it I'd definitely skip all the rope shennanigans with the possible exception of solo aiding (minus the top rope) ]

Just a note - drunk and stoned are not remotely similar, performance on alcohol is a well-documented curve where it is often enhanced up in that 1.5oz range and then deteriorates fast and furious at 2oz and beyond. No such standard performance curve or chart of direct physical/mental manifestations exists for THC on anything remotely like a 1:1 relationship with alcohol. Stoned is one thing, drunk or imbibing alcohol to excess and getting near a rope I have a serious problem with.

There is no data of any kind on this that relates to climbing in any valid sense. This sort of blanket claim is ridiculous. Thirty years of experience with climbers operating at a fairly high level of [trad] performance clearly illustrates a differing reality. And just a note - pilots perform instrument landings far better on 1.5oz of alcohol - and those are from documented FAA-sanctioned studies that go back to the sixties.

I'd take a stoned belay from someone paying attention as opposed to most of the belays I see in the gym and at sport crags where socializing among straight people is nearly always taking precedence over belaying. Also, I'd take a stoned belay from a all-trad climber anyday before a straight belay from a person who is primarily a sport climber and used to drifting off while someone is dogging extensively on them...

It's taken decades, and god knows it still isn't easy, but gosh darn it when I put my mind to it, I can climb straight. True, I am a bit slower and think a bit too much, and the knots are all harder to tie, but it's good to know I can get by when it's simply unavoidable. To paraphrase Loudon: "Climbing on acid is easy; climbing on acid is fun; but the next time you feel like tripping - hold out for mushrooms instead..." As Bill points out, competency and performance are not negotiable - if you can't stand and deliver, then by all means do yourself and everyone else a favor, and don't.

don't neg on him because of assumptions. I'm not. I just tend to trust my instincts on matters like this and I've been around long enough to get a reasonable feeling for the difference between exploit and addiction...

I am enormously impressed by what Reardon has accomplished, but I question whether he controls his free-soloing or whether it controls him. I strongly suspect the latter and that significantly diminishes my respect and admiration for him as a climber. I feel folks like Bachar and Kauk never let it get to the point of the out-of-control addiction I sense from Reardon as I did from Hershey as well. As for awards - awards of any kind for climbing are weak as far as I'm concerned, but if you are going to recognize folks for their accomplishments then it's just plain weird to lump free and deep water soloing together.

Maybe we should charge motorists for the cost of having police and fire depts respond to traffic emergencies and accidents...? Wouldn't the payback be much bigger?

That unit above is what I used to melt webbing cuts out at Beacon in wailing East winds. It costs about $20 bucks and uses the rectangular Bic-type lighters without the thumb wheel (you can just buy the regular ones and rip out the wheel). Like all piezos it can take a take a few tries to get it going, but once going it rips...

You poor victimal white guys are the ones doing all the whining...

You poor, poor white man. Who else is abusing you? Are you a member of the Minute Men? A Father's Rights Group maybe? How about Alumni Against Affirmative Action? At this rate I'm sure I'll wake up to a rant about the ho-mo-sex-ual harness designers who are after your manhood. Be sure and check under your bed tonight for other minority boogeymen threatening your quality of life - I'm sure it's a long list... P.S. My Wife would like her country back or at least that the U.S. Government begin to honor treaties made over the past 150 years. Oh, and maybe stop raping and mismanaging Native accounts to the tune of about $100 billion dollars...