Jump to content

Ice Climbing Ethics


ryland_moore

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 30
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The guy who was hit does not use this board. Plus, he is back home on the East Coast now for Christmas. I talked to him on the phone the other day and he is still on pain killers and stated that he was still pissed off. I don't think his comments of I will kick his ass if I ever see this guy again were meant to be "passive agressive." My partner has had this happen to him before, and although it was not caused by another climber, he was hit by Icefall while leading The Yellow Wall on the Diamond and smashed his face in. So, he is pretty sensitive about icefall. Furthermore. We knew there was a decent by walking off, but did not know where it was and figured we could rap before they started the second pitch. Again, we did choose to rap inadvertantly below another party, but the fact remains that they should never have started up it in the first place. How my buddy and Jonathan deal with it is out of my control.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just my $0.02, but falling ice is a given on an ice climb. It should be an assumed risk, which is why belay stances are attempted to be made out of the fall-line. I don't even bother to yell "ice" anymore - if you go climbing with me, it should be assumed. This is not rock climbing.

 

So for that team to start below you, they took on a risk. You're right, it wasn't cool for them to do so, but they did. And when you chose to rap beneath them, you took that risk on for yourselves. You could have walked off, waited, or talked to them on the way down. But you didn't. So suck it up, quite making excuses, accept responsibility for putting yourself in harm's way, and move on already.

 

Again, this is just my $0.02. I hope your partner is healing fast and cooling off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...