What's the most stupid thing you ever did?

[MountaingirlBC]

Thought it might be educational and interesting to compare stupid mistakes since we tend to learn a lot more from those than we do from when everything goes right. I hope this can be a construction discussion. The fact that it was a bonehead move is conceeded and doesn't need reinforcement.

 

I think the most stupid thing I've ever done was heading up the Dragontail glacier too late in the day in August when I had been watching the rock falling the whole time I was approaching it. Must have left my brain back at camp but 5 other people merrily followed along. We thought we'd be safe if we hid behind a big boulder to put our crampons on then made a run for it. About 2 minutes after reaching our boulder the earth starts shaking and there's this low rumbling sound and one of our party screams (and I do mean scream) ROOOOOOOOCK! We all got as intimate with that boulder as is humanly possible as we watched two or three fridge sized boulders and many more smaller ones come crashing down, bouncing off our big boulder (that suddenly didn't seem so big) and spinning in the air over our heads. To make matters worse, when it finally stopped my adrenaline was pumping so hard that I was seriously considering going for it.

 

Lessons learned:

Stay off glaciers in the heat of the day

STFU so you can hear rock fall before it's on top of you

Don't necessarily follow the leader

Bring an extra pair of underwear

 

[scottk]

Climbing Emmons route on Rainier with no shovels. Weather was clear when we started but quickly turned to snowing and blowing on the way down. We had to hunker down at 13,600 and were faced with the prospect of having to spend the night. After 4 hours of pathetic scraping with ice axes in an attempt to build a snow cave for three people, the weather cleared and we were able to make our way down. It would have been a challanging night without a snow cave. Always bring a shovel...

[John Frieh]

Registered on cc.com

[goatboy]

Glissaded into a moat formed by a waterfall while descending Ass-gard Pass, hit my head on the way in, fell about 20 feet into the moat, wedged between rock and ice, with snowmelt waterfall pouring in on my head . . . . hypothermic, dazed, had to tunnel out through snow since I couldn't climb back up the way I came in . . . close call! Lucky goat!

 

Super Dumb.

[griz]

Post deleted by Off_White, President of the Super Adventure Club

 

 

Edited May 3, 2006 by griz

[DirtyHarry]

Post deleted by Off_White

[John Frieh]

Post deleted by Off_White

[BachelorTravis]

[still_climbin]

Skiing near Stevens Pass with one binding I'd been having trouble with. The binding had released prematurely several times in the last coulpe weeks, but being my last ski outing of the season I justified to myself to shop the spring sales for new ones for next year. I entered the top of a steep (~50 degree on top)chute and hit bad ice. Being conservative I side slipped a bit to make room for a wide turn. As the skis chattered, sideslipping, the bad one released and I couldn't hold it on the one remaining edge on the ice. I cartwheeled about 1000 feet, down the chute and off a couple heavily forested cliffs. I broke 6 ribs, sternum twice, sprained both knees, crushed both rotator cuffs, etc, etc. Since I couldn't be seen by the others above I had to self rescue. All could have been prevented had I paid attention to my gear.

Edited May 3, 2006 by still_climbin

[AllYouCanEat]

I've done a lot of dumb things. The most recent was skiing off a constriction on the boulder-park cleaver. It was a wonderful day, the snow was great. A tee-shirt in august sort of day on a no brainer glacier after skiing the park hw. 3 of us skied through the constriction and off the edge with no check on speed.

 

Lessons:

 

-Don't haul too much ass on a glacier

-It's great when you climb the route you skied, but try and remember what you climbed

-carry bandages and pain pills

-where a helmet. Don't leave it on your pack.

 

The launch pad

 

The landing zone

 

Some blood

[AllYouCanEat]

Skiing near Stevens Pass with one binding I'd been having trouble with. The binding had released prematurely several times in the last coulpe weeks, but being my last ski outing of the season I justified to myself to shop the spring sales for new ones for next year. I entered the top of a steep (~50 degree on top)chute and hit bad ice. Being conservative I side slipped a bit to make room for a wide turn. As I the skis chattered sideslipping the bad one released and I couldn't hold it on the one remaining edge on the ice. I cartwheeled about 1000 feet, down the chute and off a couple heavily forested cliffs. I broke 6 ribs, sternum twice, sprined both knees, crushed both rotator cuffs, etc, etc. Since I couldn't be seen by the others above I had to self rescue. All could have been prevented had I paid attention to my gear.

 

Dude. That's a BIG fall.

[ScottP]

Sixteen years ago, I girth hitched and clipped into a twig as a joke while leading a pitch on Little Mac spire in the southern Pickets. My partner Kevin, to this day, doesn't trust my anchors.

[plark42]

The stupidest thing? Skinning up to a 14er base camp in Colorado starting at 7 pm without a map. We were going off our "gut" thinking we could just skin up in the valley in the general direction of the peak and in the morning it would appear. It did not!

 

Stupid thing #2- (same trip)- leaving wet clothes on in a bivy: I was too cold to talk off my shell pants, and it never dried. Stupid!! 10 minutes of being cold for a sound sleep is definitely worth it!!

 

#3 Sara Choi

[catbirdseat]

Glissaded into a moat formed by a waterfall while descending Ass-gard Pass, hit my head on the way in, fell about 20 feet into the moat, wedged between rock and ice, with snowmelt waterfall pouring in on my head . . . . hypothermic, dazed, had to tunnel out through snow since I couldn't climb back up the way I came in . . . close call! Lucky goat!

 

Super Dumb.

I did almost the exact same thing in the exact same place. Although I didn't fall in nearly as far as you did, nor did I get as wet.

[underworld]

- got lost on the way to the tooth. took about 45 minutes to get 10 minutes from the car

 

- traversed the gendarm on bug. spire about 6 feet too high. no hands traverse on a tiny edge for the feet. did a blind flying squirrel jump to not have to backtrack. landed by hugging a small boulder and spinning my feet like wiley coyote to gain purchase.

[MisterMo]

The fact that it was a bonehead move is conceeded and doesn't need reinforcement.

 

Incredibly boneheaded, enough so that I hate to own up to it:

 

On a very early trip to Mt. Erie with my cousin we constructed a TR anchor with some hardware and since it was a fair ways back from the edge we used his fairly new Mammut rope for an extension. We tied it to the anchors, tied an overhand loop about the right distance out, then threaded my fairly new rope through the loop without the benefit of a carabiner! We then prceeded to do the whole climb/fall/lower drill for a bit before one of us climbed high enough to discover that the anchor rope was ruined. We were fairly lucky we didn't saw all the way through and die. I have absolutely no idea how we could have been so stupid.

[EWolfe]

Many, many, over 20 years of climbing. The first (and worst) was solo aiding toes of the fisherman at smith, clipping above me (really dumb), ripped the piece and ended up 12" above a cone of rock at the base, my lower back directly above it (the boulder to the right of Wortley's). With rope stretch...luckily I was only 20' out. Welded a #4 stopper which someone eventually got out (much to my relief, I hated walking by and seeing it.)

[Jens]

*Getting a hefty beer buzz and then soloing multi-pitch rock routes.

[G-spotter]

tell sketchakowski bwrts that the cam he had just placed on YBR was "bomber"

[jordop]

Moved into new appt a few months ago. Putting up shelves for the gear, pre-drilling holes with stud sensor. Drilled right into the main feeder cable for the house. Lived.

[EWolfe]

Man, If Yabo were around....RIP

[willstrickland]

Bought an engagement ring. Followed shortly by the smartest thing I ever did...didn't propose and took the ring back to the store.

[genepires]

recent stupid rappel f#$% up, lack of knots in end of rope

 

climb lady wilson cleavage (banff) a day after snow fall. yeah we got swept back down the cleavage.

 

rappeling down the rambles in the dark, noticing a large loose 20 lb. rock, going down further some 20 feet, rope knocks same loose rock onto my chest.

[ivan]

climbed w/ sober people and collectively we forgot to pick up ropes from cache - realized this only halfway up the madness, past the point of no return - fell 30 meters at the top of the ice-cliff but cratered into powder snow to cackle another day

[knotzen]

I think the most stupid thing I've ever done was heading up the Dragontail glacier too late in the day in August when I had been watching the rock falling the whole time I was approaching it. Must have left my brain back at camp but 5 other people merrily followed along. We thought we'd be safe if we hid behind a big boulder to put our crampons on then made a run for it. About 2 minutes after reaching our boulder the earth starts shaking and there's this low rumbling sound and one of our party screams (and I do mean scream) ROOOOOOOOCK! We all got as intimate with that boulder as is humanly possible as we watched two or three fridge sized boulders and many more smaller ones come crashing down, bouncing off our big boulder (that suddenly didn't seem so big) and spinning in the air over our heads. To make matters worse, when it finally stopped my adrenaline was pumping so hard that I was seriously considering going for it.

 

Interesting--I remember a guy telling me about a similar incident on Dragontail, such a close call that he actually quit climbing for a few years.

 

Difference was, they went up in the morning, when the rocks were frozen into the snow/ice, and got caught in the same sort of rock/boulder-fall coming down in the afternoon. They had failed to consider that the warming throughout the day would release the rocks. They barely missed being obliterated by giant rocks and boulders, by finding, by chance, a moat to dive into.