Stupid Mistake

[wscottf]

I made my first really big mistake in 8 years of rock climbing last weekend, and I'm interested to hear about big mistakes other people have made, and how to prevent them in the future.

 

Here's mine:

 

Rappeling off of Thin Fingers, I get down to the ledge after the 25m rappel (still 25m off the ground). I yell up to my partner "Off rappel" only to realize that I'm on a 3 foot wide ledge and I'm not hooked into the anchors. I think "sh*t, that was dumb", hook into the anchors and tell my partner about it when he gets to the ledge.

 

We laugh about it how stupid I was and decided we shouldn't tell my wife who was at the base of the climb.

 

That's one mistake I'll never make again!

[klenke]

It's not a really big (stupid) mistake in my book if the ledge is 3 feet (wide). Stupid mistake would be to fall off (and possibly die). By reading your paragraph, I'm thinking you were not off repel for more than a few seconds. If you're there for a long time then you'll soon realize your not hooked in. If the ledge were 1 foot wide or something sketchy like that, then that's a different story. Three feet seems pretty big to me...but I wasn't there.

 

Anyway, glad you're still able to up the experience.

[lummox]

i once realized i had fucked up when i got scared a few hundred feet off the deck while freesoloing easy stuff in yosemite while tripping on acid. so i decided to stop being scared and downclimbed to go trip on swimming in the river.

[ken4ord]

Yeah Lummox gots ya beat.

 

Mine is, at a hanging belay I thought I clipped my ex-wife into the hanging belay. I took her off belay and then then she looked at the anchor before sitting back in her harness and realized I double clipped myself into the anchor. Ten years later never made that one again.

 

I feel like this true confessions, something like that.

[catbirdseat]

I climbed a 30 ft pitch of mixed ice/snow where I had trouble pulling the lip because there was no good ice and nothing to hook my tools on. I thrashed about through snow and finally found something I could hook after almost falling. Standing at the belay I realized that my harness wasn't doubled back.

[Harry_Pi]

Hello capitalist!

Please translate "doubled back". Is that new Jackie Chan movie?

Thank you for allow commie to post.

[Scott_J]

catbirdseat said:

I climbed a 30 ft pitch of mixed ice/snow where I had trouble pulling the lip because there was no good ice and nothing to hook my tools on. I thrashed about through snow and finally found something I could hook after almost falling. Standing at the belay I realized that my harness wasn't doubled back.

FUCK CAT TURD THAT IS A BAD WAY TO GO OUT.

[ketch]

I havn't Made a stupid climbing mistake yet (see post on Mantras), but many years ago a friend and I were climbing out at the city. One night after eatin we got talking that the sunset would be pretty cool from the top of that pinicle over there (I don't remember which one it was). We loaded our pockets with beer and I tied a lit coleman white gas lantern on the back belt loop and off we went. a few hours later it was dark the beer was gone and we sat up there sayin "that was pretty stupid"

 

Just in case you wanna try, down climbing, no pro, with a lantern between your legs ain't were it's at

[Bug]

OK. I married a woman who was one of the hottest white water freestyle boaters in the west in 92. I hardly ever went climbing after that. Very stupid. I'm back now. Whimpy arms, big gut, whimpy legs, old gear. Very, very stupid.

[lummox]

Bug said:

OK. I married . . .

VERY stupid mistake.

[Bug]

lummox said:

Bug said:

OK. I married . . .

VERY stupid mistake.

 

Busted.

[Necronomicon]

Ten years ago, I started climbing.

[iain]

rapping out of a couloir off a rounded boulder in fading light, my partner and I stacked a bunch of small pebbles on the back of the boulder in the hope the webbing wouldn't come off. boy I wish I had those 2 minutes of my life back.

 

(note: I am graciously offering up a that's what she said opportunity to the apes on this site)

[minx]

iain said:

rapping out of a couloir off a rounded boulder in fading light, my partner and I stacked a bunch of small pebbles on the back of the boulder in the hope the webbing wouldn't come off. boy I wish I had those 2 minutes of my life back.

 

(note: I am graciously offering up a that's what she said opportunity to the apes on this site)

 

i'll leave the obvious response to this to the many 2 minute experts i'm sure this site has. iaxx, glad you're in one piece to recount that brief moment of brain fade. hope your partner is too. rapping off anything is scary. i hate those times when there doesn't seem to be any good rap anchor to be had.

[bunglehead]

catbirdseat said:

I climbed a 30 ft pitch of mixed ice/snow where I had trouble pulling the lip because there was no good ice and nothing to hook my tools on. I thrashed about through snow and finally found something I could hook after almost falling. Standing at the belay I realized that my harness wasn't doubled back.

 

I did the exact same thing at Smith once. Got to the anchors on Shamu, was setting up a rap, and noticed I wasn't doubled back right before I leaned back to rap down. Eep. Glad I'm still here.

[jade]

After a couple trips out, I was asked to clean the anchor after a sport climb. I was shown how to do it on the ground, but guess I was nervous. There's a small ledge at the top so, it seemed like a good spot to practice. I secure myself, took everything off and prepared for the rap down. Took myself off and did the double check, and realize that I have not threaded the rope through the rap hangers... Now I double check and even triple check BEFORE i take myself off or lean back on anything. Yikes.

[Dru]

the stupidest thing i ever did was start posting on this site. think of the lost productivity

[RichardKorry]

#1 After finishing a lead at Exit 38 I set up an achor and got ready to be lowered. I yelled to my partner "ready to lower" and heard a muffled reply above the din of I-90 and other folks talking. I assumed he still had me on belay. Wrong. I leaned back and started zipping down. Fortunately he leaped at the rope and grabbed it before I went too far. We agreed that I was stupid for not verifying that he was ready and he was stupid for not screaming "NO" rather than mumbling a reply to my call.

 

#2 While getting ready tp rap off of the back of the 3rd Flat Iron above Boulder I was in a hurry. I clipped a long runner into the anchor and then clipped my daisy into a similar colored runner in a mass of webbing. Unfortunately that runner was attached to me, not the anchor. Luckily I didn't lean back or depend on the runner at all until I began walking on the ledge and noticed that I was not attached.

 

Mistakes seem to happen more often on descents (the climb's over, right?) and when you are in a hurry. Live and learn.

[ryland_moore]

I have done three stupid things in the last 11 years while climbing. First was at Foster Falls in Tennessee. My partner and I were climbing a .10c arrete. However, the pitch started up on a ledge about 30 feet off the trail. There was a tree to use as an anchor for the belayer. My buddy was chomping at the bit to jump on the arrete, and in my haste to get ready, I just clipped the anchor around the tree to the back of my harness without paying much attention. Well, at the second bolt my partner fell and as I caught his weight, something broke on the back of my harness and I was sliding to the edge. As I came up to the first bolt (waist height at the edge of the ledge) I was able to sink my weight down and not be pulled anymore. My buddy was hanging 5 feet off the deck 25 feet below me! I had clipped the biner to the anchor into a little plastice piece for ones chalk bag and not the belay loop on the back.

 

The other dumb mistake I had was in Banos in Ecuador. We had just finished climbing Chimborazo and were headed down to the warmer climates to jump on some limestone and party a little.

 

I was so anxious to climb I quickly tied in and started to climb. After the 3rd bolt on this awesome .11 the crux soon appeared abover me. It was fairly easy to this point (5.9 face) but had some steep, slightly overhanging bouldery moves starting 5 feet above. I looked down to tell my belayer to watch me and I saw my harness! I was using my mountaineering harness and it was one those deals that has the webbing come up in a loop below the crotch and you clip a locker between that part and the waist belt. I realized I had only tied into the legs! I downclimbed the route to the ground and retied back in properly.

 

Finally, I went climbing with Erik and a friend up to Stuart last summer. We were moving pretty slow to attempt the N. Ridge in a day, so decided to bag it and just do W. Ridge. Erik's friend had been paddling Class V all day the day before and had only about an hour's worth of sleep. So we just went over to the base of he W. Ridge and started climbing thinking that if it is called the W. Risge, it must climb the W. Ridge proper, right? Wrong! After 4th classing it up solo for about 400 feet, we were beginning to realize that this way was not that heavily travelled. On one of the many series of "steps" there was a pseudo-chimney in front of me with large loose blocks barring the way to another ledge. I smeared one foot on the right side, and the other foot on the left side. I then palmed with my right hand and my left found a little crimper that ewas perpendicular. Has I stepped up, I transferred all of my weight onto my left foot and left handed crimper. Then the crimper broke and I was falling. I grabbed for the loose blocks in front of me and they started to slide. My feet were touching nothing as the side of the walls were about 4-5 feet apart, and below the blacks and ledge the rock was undercut. Thankfully, the rock blocks stopped sliding, but I still couldn't move. Erik's friend looked up at me who was about 30 feet below and said that he almost puked watching that. If I would have fallen, I might have stopped at the saddle between W. Ridge and Ingalls. I will never put all of my weight onto a single hold again.

 

 

[erik]

ryland i remember that!!!

i was sitting on a ledge in the sun smoking bowls waiting for you guys!!

 

whoa!!!!

 

didnt you get busted by the olde lady that weekedn too??

 

[atomic]

wscottf's description of yelling "off rappel" reminded me of something similar that I've noticed in more than a few sport-climbing situations, and that's when a climber yell's "off belay" after reaching the top of a pitch, but without actually being anchored. So, what the climber is really trying to say is, "I've reached the top of the pitch/climb, have a good stance, won't be hanging on the rope any more, etc." But I've always understood "off belay" to mean, "I'm finished climbing, have an anchor established, so break down the belay and get ready to have the rope pulled up." Therefore, it's not really apt for a single-pitch, sport-climbing situation, unless the climber's going to rap down instead of getting lowered, right? Even if someone is just topping out and setting a top rope or preparing to be lowered, there would be no reason for the "off belay" statement unless there is no more participation required of the belayer.

 

Anybody disagree?

[Dru]

I like to randomly yell"Off belay" in crowded places like base of Morning Glory at Smiff just to cause confusion

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Dru said:

I like to randomly yell"Off belay" in crowded places like base of Morning Glory at Smiff just to cause confusion

 

 

Hope you never leave your draws hangin' on anything, you filthy Maple Leafer.

[Dru]

the only thing i'll leave em hanging on is your red tagged project after I send it

[ryland_moore]

didnt you get busted by the olde lady that weekend too??

 

Yeah, I was supposed to pick her up at the Portland airport by 8pm that SUnday. But I was still dropping you off at your house by that time in Tacoma! She ended up renting a car and driving home, then lecturing me about responsibility and priorities. I think she is clear on my priorities now.