THE FEAR

[chewbacca]

Descending the W. ridge of Joffre unroped. Downclimbing a class 3-4 section when the block my partner is on lets go. He's back-peddling towards a major precipice while the big block is tumbling after him. I'm thinking he's a goner. The block marginally missed him and somehow he managed to get his hands into a crack right near the edge and his body below the armpits is hanging over the edge. He says that he had total focus on that crack while he was falling. Watching that was a nine on the sphincter scale.

[EWolfe]

chewbacca said:

Descending the W. ridge of Joffre unroped. Downclimbing a class 3-4 section when the block my partner is on lets go. He's back-peddling towards a major precipice while the big block is tumbling after him. I'm thinking he's a goner. The block marginally missed him and somehow he managed to get his hands into a crack right near the edge and his body below the armpits is hanging over the edge. He says that he had total focus on that crack while he was falling. Watching that was a nine on the sphincter scale.

 

Holy Shit! That is out there! Wow!

[EWolfe]

I'm beggin' here - how about some stars

[cracked]

Muffy_The_Wanker_Sprayer said:

I am a wimpy climber...the true fear I have felt in my life has had nothing to do with climbing. Imeadeatly after thing 1 was born, they put him on my belly. He was purple from lack of oxegen as the cord had been wrapped twice arround his neck durring birth. He had a very low apgar and continued to NOT BREATH. The took him into the side room and he continued to NOT BREATH. Considering he is 7 now, the outcome was good but that was my most horrifying tearafing horedus scariest 2 hours of my whole life ever. I would rather face my own death 10 thousand times, than the death of my child.

Suck. I was in an incubator for two weeks after my birth. My mom didn't like it much.

[layton]

chewbacca said:

Descending the W. ridge of Joffre unroped. Downclimbing a class 3-4 section when the block my partner is on lets go. He's back-peddling towards a major precipice while the big block is tumbling after him. I'm thinking he's a goner. The block marginally missed him and somehow he managed to get his hands into a crack right near the edge and his body below the armpits is hanging over the edge. He says that he had total focus on that crack while he was falling. Watching that was a nine on the sphincter scale.

 

That reminds me of the first time on Slesse when I lost truck canopy #1. My friend Derek Elliot and I are checking out weather atop a VW van sized boulder in that gulley that goes down onto the glacier. I climb above it to get my pack, he downclimbs and grabs the "keystone". Next thing I know I'm shouting, "DEREK, JESUS CHRIST, DEREK DON'T DIE PLEASE DON'T DIE!" as it literally pushes him down the gulley rolling and tumbling ice axes flailing towards where it pinches off into a perpendicular cliffband. The boulder hits a TINY crimper hold that would be the crux of a 5.17 route (tiny) and totally diverts the path of this titan into the pocket glacier saving my good buddy from a pasty fruit roll-up thin death smearing. He didn't speak for at least a day. I thought he was totally gonna die. Still makes me want to puke.

[Terminal_Gravity]

Muffy_The_Wanker_Sprayer said:

I would rather face my own death 10 thousand times, than the death of my child.

 

Me too

[Matt]

I can't say "fear" but rather "amped up."

 

Non climbing related, but interesting to some, I think. I've recently become a firefighter and am dealing with entirely new kinds of fear and adrenaline.

 

This morning at 0600 I had my first CPR call. My unit was first in the door. When we walked into the bedroom, the patient was unconscious and unresponsive and his wife was screaming bloody murder as we started breaths and compressions. I shocked him once with the Lifepak 12. Pushed on his chest until his ribs cracked. Medics tubed him and stuck him with epi and other drugs. I alternated between bagging him (giving him 02 with a bag valve mask) and doing compressions until my back was sore. Medic called it after 45 minutes. We waited until the Chaplain came. The guy had a history of a left bundle blockage ( if you don't know what this is, just know it's a bad thing). Now I know my training will kick in when it's too early to think so I'm feeling okay about that. The code went smoothly, unfortunately our patient did not recover. He's been on my mind all day.

 

The air tastes sweet today.

 

As for climbing fear, a few weeks ago I found myself soloing class five moss/dirt looseness in the dark four rope lengths off the ground on the Minuteman trying to get to a better tree to rap off. For a few brief seconds I could hear my heartbeat in my ear.

 

[gnibmilc]

Matt,

that one bothered me too...mostly because it was avoidable...bummer on the work related effort.

[gnibmilc]

 

 

I had one bout of fear this last February on a warm afternoon while descending Gibralter Wall near Golden, BC, on what was supposed to be a casual warm up climb for a week of Canadian waterfall ice climbing. We were a party of three. I was rappelling from the top of the third pitch with double ropes, no knots in the ends of the ropes or prussik or auto-block knot backup. We’d just had a bad argument about the location of the belay. About twenty feet down, just out of site of my partners, I heard and felt a throaty CRACK! and looked up to see a huge part of the former ice pitch above break loose above the belay. It hit above me on the ledge where I imagined my partners to be standing, both of them dads whom I instantly assumed just got killed. I heard a primal whimper from one of them. Then I saw the debris come my way on the bounce…then felt it hit me and the rope buzzed through my gloved hand and ATC from the overload. I felt repeated medium but moderate hits and ricochets and saw some stars and then it stopped and I felt like my head was really heavy and was hanging to one side and I was unable to hold it up right without effort…then I notice I had a huge dunce cap of compress ice and snow stuck on top of my helmet. The stuff had hit just behind my partners. They’d gotten knocked off their feet and to end of their tethers…one got a bruised shoulder the other got a badly sprained ankle. Anyone want to buy some Cobras and BD ice screws?

Edited October 12, 2003 by gnibmilc

[Charlie]

One time down in Joshua Tree- We climbed atop a big boulder in flipflops carrying a fifth of something. We proceeded to polish off the fifth and by that time, the sun had gone down. I then had to down climb in the dark, drunk off my ass in flipflops. The next day... I was belaying my partner on dogleg when I become overwhelmed with an intense urge to shit....when he finally reached the belay, I took him off, dropped my harness, and let loose. Relieved, I reattached my harness, tied in, and started up the pitch. About halfway up, I reached around to chalk up- to my horror.....my chalkbag was completely full of PISS!!!!!

 

[chucK]

[Bronco]

In early June, I found myself working on my tan just above thumb rock on Liberty Ridge. It had been hot in Seattle all week and felt like it was 80 degrees up there two thousand feet above the Carbon Glacier. We had been listening to Liberty Cap Glacier shed small ice and rock avalanches above us all morning when CRACK-BOOOOM! Sounded like half the damn mountain just fell off. I scramble for my boots and glance up over my shoulder to a formerly blue sky turned white with the cloud of snow now rumbling toward us. I hear one dude in the Canadian party camped just below us shout "we're gonna get hit!!" We all kinda look at each other helplessly as there is no where to hide from the big mutha roaring down next to Liberty Ridge. As the white cloud blows by we realize we weren't on the menu that day and listen to the debris fall to the glacier below.

 

One of the Canadians said that was the biggest slide he'd ever seen first hand and he's a BC skier from the Revelstroke area so he's probably seen some big avalanches. One of his parnters said the only bigger slide he'd seen was on Broad peak in the Himilaya. Big Lou would say that the mountain was just showing off, but, we all felt "the fear" that day.

[Greg_W]

Bronco said:

In early June, I found myself working on my tan just above thumb rock on Liberty Ridge. It had been hot in Seattle all week and felt like it was 80 degrees up there two thousand feet above the Carbon Glacier. We had been listening to Liberty Cap Glacier shed small ice and rock avalanches above us all morning when CRACK-BOOOOM! Sounded like half the damn mountain just fell off. I scramble for my boots and glance up over my shoulder to a formerly blue sky turned white with the cloud of snow now rumbling toward us. I hear one dude in the Canadian party camped just below us shout "we're gonna get hit!!" We all kinda look at each other helplessly as there is no where to hide from the big mutha roaring down next to Liberty Ridge. As the white cloud blows by we realize we weren't on the menu that day and listen to the debris fall to the glacier below.

 

One of the Canadians said that was the biggest slide he'd ever seen first hand and he's a BC skier from the Revelstroke area so he's probably seen some big avalanches. One of his parnters said the only bigger slide he'd seen was on Broad peak in the Himilaya. Big Lou would say that the mountain was just showing off, but, we all felt "the fear" that day.

 

Yeah, I think that was right before I used ALL my blue bags for the trip!

 

Mine, this year: On J-berg, hearing Caveman yell up, "Nathan just took a 30-footer!!" I couldn't see what happened and I immediately imagined the worst. It all worked out and we learned to rappel off of shrubbery!!!

[catbirdseat]

Greg_W said:

Bronco said:

In early June, I found myself working on my tan just above thumb rock on Liberty Ridge. It had been hot in Seattle all week and felt like it was 80 degrees up there two thousand feet above the Carbon Glacier. We had been listening to Liberty Cap Glacier shed small ice and rock avalanches above us all morning when CRACK-BOOOOM! Sounded like half the damn mountain just fell off. I scramble for my boots and glance up over my shoulder to a formerly blue sky turned white with the cloud of snow now rumbling toward us. I hear one dude in the Canadian party camped just below us shout "we're gonna get hit!!" We all kinda look at each other helplessly as there is no where to hide from the big mutha roaring down next to Liberty Ridge. As the white cloud blows by we realize we weren't on the menu that day and listen to the debris fall to the glacier below.

 

One of the Canadians said that was the biggest slide he'd ever seen first hand and he's a BC skier from the Revelstroke area so he's probably seen some big avalanches. One of his parnters said the only bigger slide he'd seen was on Broad peak in the Himilaya. Big Lou would say that the mountain was just showing off, but, we all felt "the fear" that day.

 

Yeah, I think that was right before I used ALL my blue bags for the trip!

 

Mine, this year: On J-berg, hearing Caveman yell up, "Nathan just took a 30-footer!!" I couldn't see what happened and I immediately imagined the worst. It all worked out and we learned to rappel off of shrubbery!!!

Is there a trip report for that one?

[Bug]

catbirdseat said:

Greg_W said:

Bronco said:

In early June, I found myself working on my tan just above thumb rock on Liberty Ridge. It had been hot in Seattle all week and felt like it was 80 degrees up there two thousand feet above the Carbon Glacier. We had been listening to Liberty Cap Glacier shed small ice and rock avalanches above us all morning when CRACK-BOOOOM! Sounded like half the damn mountain just fell off. I scramble for my boots and glance up over my shoulder to a formerly blue sky turned white with the cloud of snow now rumbling toward us. I hear one dude in the Canadian party camped just below us shout "we're gonna get hit!!" We all kinda look at each other helplessly as there is no where to hide from the big mutha roaring down next to Liberty Ridge. As the white cloud blows by we realize we weren't on the menu that day and listen to the debris fall to the glacier below.

 

One of the Canadians said that was the biggest slide he'd ever seen first hand and he's a BC skier from the Revelstroke area so he's probably seen some big avalanches. One of his parnters said the only bigger slide he'd seen was on Broad peak in the Himilaya. Big Lou would say that the mountain was just showing off, but, we all felt "the fear" that day.

 

Yeah, I think that was right before I used ALL my blue bags for the trip!

 

Mine, this year: On J-berg, hearing Caveman yell up, "Nathan just took a 30-footer!!" I couldn't see what happened and I immediately imagined the worst. It all worked out and we learned to rappel off of shrubbery!!!

Is there a trip report for that one?

 

I slept through one of those in the same place. It happened at night and everyone but me was woke up and sure we were all going to die. The entire face was affected.

[iain]

Getting caught in a huge rock avalanche on the Sandy Headwall on Mt. Hood. My partner getting decked by a tv set's worth of boulder in the pelvis and me getting my hand smashed protecting my face. Blood starts radiating in a big red circle down his leg, and he ends up trying to tell me how to work his radio before he passes out

[CraigA]

Charlie said:

One time down in Joshua Tree- We climbed atop a big boulder in flipflops carrying a fifth of something. We proceeded to polish off the fifth and by that time, the sun had gone down. I then had to down climb in the dark, drunk off my ass in flipflops. The next day... I was belaying my partner on dogleg when I become overwhelmed with an intense urge to shit....when he finally reached the belay, I took him off, dropped my harness, and let loose. Relieved, I reattached my harness, tied in, and started up the pitch. About halfway up, I reached around to chalk up- to my horror.....my chalkbag was completely full of PISS!!!!!

 

 

Oh my God that would suck!! Although its probably better than finding the bag filled with that "natural rock-colored" chalk.

Edited October 13, 2003 by CraigA

[CraigA]

iain said:

Getting caught in a huge rock avalanche on the Sandy Headwall on Mt. Hood. My partner getting decked by a tv set's worth of boulder in the pelvis and me getting my hand smashed protecting my face. Blood starts radiating in a big red circle down his leg, and he ends up trying to tell me how to work his radio before he passes out

 

 

Was this the radio call the kids picked up 20 miles (or so) away on their walkie-talkies?

[rbw1966]

More like 100 miles. The kids were in McMinnville.

[Dru]

i fell off the apron and caught a tree on the way down

i ripped one half a rappel anchor while both of us were weighting it

i said "lets stop here for a break" and watched an avalanche hit where we would have been several times

i saw partner take a fridge sized block to the shoulder and cut rope almost in half

 

the most physiologically draining was almost falling off a highball this summer. breathing so fast i was puking phlegm for 2 hours afterwards. i dont really know why it was so much more scary.

 

i think generally the scariest things happen slowly. if it happens fast you dont have time to be scared until afterwards.

[jefffski]

hearing a climber who just topped out on an 11b call down that her harness was undone. good thing she looked before she leaned back!

 

i pulled off a 20lb rock on a popular 10b in skaha today. as i was watching it fall below me and towards my belayer i just got a hand on it and pushed it out of the way.

 

2 days 2 close calls

[scott_harpell]

hearing a climber who just topped out on an 11b call down that her harness was undone. good thing she looked before she leaned back!

 

yesterday, i led a crack climb at skaha and my belayer was saying i needed to put in more pieces (i really hate that) and as he was following, he said slack! slack! slack!... WTF so i gave him slack... when he got to the top he explained that he had only tied a loose overhand knot and it came undone. he had to clip into one of my only 2 pieces that i placed and tie in. apparently, while he was putting on his shoes, he tied a loose knot so i wouldn't pull the rope too far. skeeeettttchhhhyyyy!

[iain]

rbw1966 said:

More like 100 miles. The kids were in McMinnville.

that'd be the one.

[ken4ord]

There has been a couple of situations that I have been in that were somewhat scary.

 

The scariest was climbing an alpine route over in the South Basin in Katahdin (Maine). We got to a scrambling section of the climb and I was on top of a big chunk of rock, station wagon size. Just as I was halfway across it the whole thing started sliding downhill. Adrenaline kicked in and I jump for blueberry bushes and grabbed a hold of them and was able to stay put. The scariest part was that my wife at the time was down slope from me when this happened, luckily off to the side, somewhat. The rock ended up sliding about 10 feet and stopped.

 

This spring on Raineer I was getting a little worried when my buddy and I got caught in a whiteout up on Liberty Cap without a tent. All night long as I shivered, I just hoped we wouldn't have to spend any longer than 3 days out there in the storm. I had figured that I had 3 days of fight in me before I would start losing the battle. The next day I got up and argued for a while with my buddy about at least making some headway off the mountain, but he was worried about the crevasses, understandbly so since we couldn't see 5 feet in front of us. As we were arguing my pad flew off over the ridge and it was decided then that we need to make some progress. Couple hours later into hike off the storm started to break. I am glad I didn't have to test my 3 day theory.

[Greg_W]

catbirdseat said:

Greg_W said:

Bronco said:

In early June, I found myself working on my tan just above thumb rock on Liberty Ridge. It had been hot in Seattle all week and felt like it was 80 degrees up there two thousand feet above the Carbon Glacier. We had been listening to Liberty Cap Glacier shed small ice and rock avalanches above us all morning when CRACK-BOOOOM! Sounded like half the damn mountain just fell off. I scramble for my boots and glance up over my shoulder to a formerly blue sky turned white with the cloud of snow now rumbling toward us. I hear one dude in the Canadian party camped just below us shout "we're gonna get hit!!" We all kinda look at each other helplessly as there is no where to hide from the big mutha roaring down next to Liberty Ridge. As the white cloud blows by we realize we weren't on the menu that day and listen to the debris fall to the glacier below.

 

One of the Canadians said that was the biggest slide he'd ever seen first hand and he's a BC skier from the Revelstroke area so he's probably seen some big avalanches. One of his parnters said the only bigger slide he'd seen was on Broad peak in the Himilaya. Big Lou would say that the mountain was just showing off, but, we all felt "the fear" that day.

 

Yeah, I think that was right before I used ALL my blue bags for the trip!

 

Mine, this year: On J-berg, hearing Caveman yell up, "Nathan just took a 30-footer!!" I couldn't see what happened and I immediately imagined the worst. It all worked out and we learned to rappel off of shrubbery!!!

Is there a trip report for that one?

 

Have you ever seen me write a trip report? Fucking, please, man - what the fuck? No, there's no fucking trip report. Why would there be a fucking trip report? Fuck almighty. :rolleyes