chair peak accident saturday

[climb]

anyone have more details about the accident on chair peak saturday? i heard that a climber had an ankle injury and had to be helicoptered off the mountain sunday morning. i don't know how it happened.

 

[ 06-04-2002, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: climb ]

[primate]

Maybe it was John/Jon from Redmond?

[mtnnut]

Sounds likely, anybody heard anything else? Inquiring minds want to know what route they were on.

[gapertimmy]

definately glad to hear your alright.

[Dru]

Accidents in Cc.com Mountaineering!!!!

 

If there were no good rappel anchors what was your belayer using? Not second guessing just curious...

[Bronco]

Hanging out 4 pitches up any mountain with a busted ankle for 16 hours make you the Alpine Buddy of the week by default. Glad to hear you are ok instead of..... well, you know.

 

And nice job of your friends and SMR getting you down!

 

[ 06-06-2002, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Bronco ]

[Cpt.Caveman]

CHOSS! JUST LIKE TOOF! better to climb it in winter.

 

Good thing you are ok.

[Retrosaurus]

quote:

---

Originally posted by gapertimmy:

definately glad to hear your alright.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by jon:

Shit happens man glad your OK.

---

A broken ankle is not "OK" or "alright."

But it's not dead either.

[jasonracey]

The accident was on the E Face route on Chair Peak. The climbing was easy but the rock quality was poor. I was leading through the rock band on the 4th pitch and slipped, fell about 5 feet, my pro pulled out and then I fell about 15 feet more past the belay ledge. I bounced twice and one of those bounces broke my ankle. We would have rapped down but there were no good anchors on the route, other than the one I fell on. The descent was off the NE Buttress but I couldn't get over to it with a broken ankle. 2 of our party went down that way to call in a rescue. SMR arrived 16 hours later and decided against a rappel due to loose rock and poor anchors on the E Face. They called in a helicopter to pick us up.

[jon]

Shit happens man glad your OK.

[none_dup1]

In defense of our friend, here, I remeber doing the E. face years ogo. Mostly, I liked the cool drawing in Beckey's guide. It wasn't a whole lot of help, though.

We had limited scouting, since the face was covered by a rising fog. When I was sure that it was lifting, I led up the center weakness and found little to no pro, although what I would describe as wonderful rock, about 4th Class.

I remember clipping a knifeblade that was hammered down at 90 %, and worked out about halfway! Also remember having opposed small nuts or even micros for the first few "anchors". This experience, and others in the Snoqualmie alps, has taught me to include pitons on my rack in that area. BTW, there's a great crag right there, but a beer would have to be donated to get it out of me...

We traversed right to the NE ridge, somewhere under the rockband which is the first class 5 "crux", because we got our first good belay in there. Sounds like where our protagonist had his unfortunate fall. I knew a really experienced climber who broke his leg when he caught a crampon on his pants, just getting up from a rest, right at that mountain. Took a helivac to get him out.

Of further interesting note, we downclimbed, rapelled the NE butress, and the last rap was off of a slightly rusty (new, in my book) piton, backed up by one of my nuts. My partner (BTW, he displayed a wonderful show of diarhea while roped-up, in what we will call a "high dump"-- pretty funny stuff!) went first, and I stupidly pulled the nut and rapped on the piton only. It was only 20 ft to the bench/ shoulder, so I went for it. Word came out, a week later, that some guy had grabbed a fixed pin climbing the NE butt, and fell to his death. Anyone remember that story? I didn't place the pin, but I'll never rap on a single anything again after that one.

I also remember some ya-hoos up there, climbing the NE butt in LL Bean/Rockport loafers, belaying off of a single loose hex. Guess I shouldn't talk, though.

I recommend the E face route, I think its a classic. Take a hammer and some small Bugaboos and even small KBs, but expect those as your only pieces for three pitches of 4th Class slab. The 5th class was clean, in my shakey memory, but the heather staircase on the summit pyramid was exposed, slippery and wet!

 

[ 06-07-2002, 11:24 AM: Message edited by: none ]

[none_dup1]

In defense of our friend, here, I remeber doing the E. face years ogo. Mostly, I liked the cool drawing in Beckey's guide. It wasn't a whole lot of help, though.

We had limited scouting, since the face was covered by a rising fog. When I was sure that it was lifting, I led up the center weakness and found little to no pro, although what I would describe as wonderful rock, about 4th Class.

I remember clipping a knifeblade that was hammered down at 90 %, and worked out about halfway! Also remember having opposed small nuts or even micros for the first few "anchors". This experience, and others in the Snoqualmie alps, has taught me to include pitons on my rack in that area. BTW, there's a great crag right there, but a beer would have to be donated to get it out of me...

We traversed right to the NE ridge, somewhere under the rockband which is the first class 5 "crux", because we got our first good belay in there. Sounds like where our protagonist had his unfortunate fall. I knew a really experienced climber who broke his leg when he caught a crampon on his pants, just getting up from a rest, right at that mountain. Took a helivac to get him out.

Of further interesting note, we downclimbed, rapelled the NE butress, and the last rap was off of a slightly rusty (new, in my book) piton, backed up by one of my nuts. My partner (BTW, he displayed a wonderful show of diarhea while roped-up, in what we will call a "high dump"-- pretty funny stuff!) went first, and I stupidly pulled the nut and rapped on the piton only. It was only 20 ft to the bench/ shoulder, so I went for it. Word came out, a week later, that some guy had grabbed a fixed pin climbing the NE butt, and fell to his death. Anyone remember that story? I didn't place the pin, but I'll never rap on a single anything again after that one.

I also remember some ya-hoos up there, climbing the NE butt in LL Bean/Rockport loafers, belaying off of a single loose hex. Guess I shouldn't talk, though.

I recommend the E face route, I think its a classic. Take a hammer and some small Bugaboos and even small KBs, but expect those as your only peices for three pitches of 4th Class slab. The 5th class was clean, in my shakey memory, but the heather staircase on the summit pyramid was exposed, slippery and wet!