olyclimber Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 What's the biggest fall you've taken on a small piece of protection...say a lil' Alien, tcu, or nut or something like? Quote
kenp Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 on Canary, about ten feet above a #2 hex. climbing in tennis shoes back in those days Quote
fenderfour Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 City park - Cam hook popped and fell onto a #4 nut. I didn't have much gear, so I was protecting every third move and leapfrogging the rest. It was my second aid pitch. Quote
archenemy Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 Only stumbled a bit, but it was onto a bashie I stuck in a crappy little teeny-weeny,empty-sounding, when-I-grow-up-I'm-gonna-be-a flake. I was ready to die. Quote
Sol Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 small fall small pro. 3 ft fall on Dr. Sniff and the Tuna Boaters onto a black blue alien hybrid, bomber. Quote
mec Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 a yellow metolius tcu in Joshua Tree, took about a 15 footer, slightly traversing so it was a fun swing as well. Quote
jshamster Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 Hey frosty, that was a pretty nice whip on to a slider nut on 3rd Pillar of Dana a couple of years back! Quote
layton Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 30 foot upsidedowner onto a #2 nut after running it out on st. vitas direct start when i reached for the bomber jug and got an eye full of water instead. years ago with my very fist pitch ever climbed with necronomicon as my partner. Quote
fear Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 I'm 195-205 pounds racked up for trad cragging. Â I took a 20' fall onto a textbook blue alien placement with a screamer. Â Blew half the screamer. Â I had 70' of rope out on doubles though and only 1 strand clipped to the alien. So fairly low impact forces. Â Smacked my heel really hard on a tiny ledge on the way down. Â Piece held fine though. Â The tinier the piece the more critical the placement. Esp. tiny cams IMO.... Â -Fear Quote
Sol Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 Hey frosty, that was a pretty nice whip on to a slider nut on 3rd Pillar of Dana a couple of years back! oh yeah, must've blocked that one out. your still the man for cleaning that stubborn bastard. Quote
selkirk Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 actually read an interesting analysis looking at small cams and high factor falls, and they basically concluded that for the little ones, the failur mechanism isn't actually the cam pulling in the typical sense, but literally shearing off the metal in contact with the rock. So running it out on little blue TCU's right off the belay, says the guy who ran it out a little on blue TCU past the belay last weekend.... Quote
Alpinfox Posted June 3, 2005 Posted June 3, 2005 Last summer after a full day of climbing at Index I was getting pretty tired and the light was waning, but I decided to take a shot at Slow Children. I took a 10' onto a #00 gray metolius cam. They are only rated to 4kN and I don't think the placement was ideal, so it popped. I fell another 15' or so onto a bomber #5 or 6 nut which held. I lost some skin on my left elbow and left knee and was a little bruised, but overall I think I fared pretty well. Â Thanks for the catch Szy! Â I think that's only the second time I've really fallen on gear (as opposed to weighting and resting on gear) and the only time I've pulled a piece of gear. I hope it doesn't happen again. Â The thing that haunts me about that fall is that I don't think I really HAD to fall. I was just a bit freaked out because it was near my onsight lead limit, I didn't have much small pro left, and I didn't know how much more hard climbing I had left to do on the pitch. But I think I could have made it to the next good gear placement if I had just GONE FOR IT! Damnit! Â Quote
Jedi Posted June 4, 2005 Posted June 4, 2005 I've ripped several RURP's out in a row after stepping out of the aiders for some free climbing. With a third of the rope out, the rope stretch allowed the me to touch the ground. Solo aiding, it's so crazy sometimes...... Â Jedi Quote
lancegranite Posted June 4, 2005 Posted June 4, 2005 (edited) Alpinfox, You made up for it in my book by grudge matching the pitch in the dark! Â My biggest fall was a jump. Out of gear on a unclimbed crack, I decided to go for it, only to find that a roof at the top was unprotectable. A very introspective few moments...freaking out might be a better word for it! Taking a deep breath, I push off for a 25 footer onto a small wired nut. Lucky for me the fall was clean, but the piece was totally welded so I retreat to fall another day. Â Edited June 4, 2005 by lancegranite Quote
skyclimb Posted June 4, 2005 Posted June 4, 2005 I fall on the green alien more than all the other pieces I own combined. I have taken many 10-15' on that piece, and it has never pulled(knock on wood). The aliens are so nice, because you can slide it in, and feel the friction between the soft metal and the rock, knowing that you have good surface area on smaller placements. I ripped a blue alien in the tuff a few weeks back. That sonofabitch shot out and hit me square in the forehead. Luckily I had a beanie doubled up to protect myself. Also took a good sized fall on the #4 hex as my first trad lead...Moonshine dihedral with non other than senior Layton. Mikey, tell your story about the sword, and the loss of fingernails Quote
plexus Posted June 4, 2005 Posted June 4, 2005 On Index a few years back, can't even remember the climb only that it was supposed to be "5.8" (that's when I discovered the Index sandbag). Came up offwidth with only one piece of gear for about 45' of climbing, backed off and started downclimbing. Foot slipped with rope under my leg, swung headfirst towards the ground. Thankfully a small #3 brassie held!! Quote
layton Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 I fell the entire legnth of the sword dihedral on the grand wall and ripped a nail clean off, but it was onto a .75", so it wasn't little gear. the best part was having to re-climb it again sans gear. note to self, bring doubles. thanks for the reminder nick Quote
wayne Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 Took a 20fer on a bat hook!Itheld me from a 60 fer Quote
EWolfe Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 Repeated whippers (only 10' or so) on a #2 slider on Japanese Gardens back in the day when 5.11 was still hard for Snickers Never got the sumbitch  Trying to solo aid toes of the fisherman, ripped same #2 and came 10" from decking, welding a #8 stopper. 20' fall.  I have retired my sliders.... Quote
Szyjakowski Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 took a 20-25' ride off good ole thin fingies, green jr camalot. ripped a yellow alien out of the guillotine in ltown only to stop short of the ground in the bushes...really,one of those trusty bolts kept me from hitting the ground. Quote
smithisheaven Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 I took a 15 footer onto a not well placed out green alien on the lower full N Ridge of MT Stuart, with a pack on! Had a orange placed and was pulling up rope to clip and popped. Ended up looking at my belayer squarely in the eyes. Hopped back on and finished the pitch. When my partner got to the belay he said that when he cleaned the green alien it just fell out in his hand! I love aliens. Quote
Winter Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 The alines seem popular. Â 20 footer onto a red aline on Orange Sunshine. Â 15-20 footer onto a yellow alien on Bo Derek. Â Both clean falls. Quote
texplorer Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 -30 footer onto yellow alien on the Yorkshire Gripper at Squamish (had it backed up one foot below with a red alien but didn't need it)  -12 feet onto red loweball Primrose Dihedrals  Probably alot more that I just can't think of. Quote
Dru Posted June 6, 2005 Posted June 6, 2005 i took a factor 2 daisy fall onto a #3 copperhead once! Quote
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