Rocky Butte Accidents

[MichelleF]

I'm just doing some research for a term paper. Would all of you do me a huge favor and access your memories for any recollections of accidents (climbing/hiking) at Rocky Butte in Portland, Oregon. All I am looking for is when you think it was, what details you remember and if you can remember a name that would be great. Thanks for any and all assistance! Michelle

[JosephH]

Talk to Bill Coe here...

[billcoe]

I'm just doing some research for a term paper.

 

Sure you are and I've been flying in a flying saucer to other planets checking out real estate with aliens this weekend.

 

Would all of you do me a huge favor and access your memories for any recollections of accidents (climbing/hiking) at Rocky Butte in Portland, Oregon. All I am looking for is when you think it was, what details you remember and if you can remember a name that would be great.

 

Not me. You're probably not even a chic.

 

For a popular urban park with remarkable qualities, RB has had an amazingly few accidents over the last 30+ years I'm aware of. Enough not to write about them IMO.

 

Rapes and attacks on women jogging in Forest Park is very common, and there are plenty of stats for you to flesh out your paper as well.

 

Good luck.

[billcoe]

BTW - I helped pick up up a litter on the Mountain today regarding ANOTHER ski accident in the ski area. Interested in that one?

 

Ujohn helped get a girl on a litter just Wednesday not further than 1/2 a mile from there (that one was saucy and interesting !) How about that one?

[JosephH]

My wife and I took a drive / walk around Rocky Butte today. I stopped and peered over the edge of that main overhanging route just off the road; the one next to the tree with the big chains on it. Well, the view was pretty ugly. Someone pitched a stripped engine block and a diswasher over the edge - both are sitting at the base of the climb. Bill, looks like some good two-lift rescue practice for you and your RB crew...

[kevbone]

Thats funny joseph.

I used to climb on the top of RB back in the day. Some ok bouldering at the top. There are some fun problems. All man made of course....but who cares. Still fun as shit.

[billcoe]

practice hauling for a yos trip!

[MichelleF]

I appreciate your useful reply. Thought I would add that I am one of the people that actually fell while climbing at Rocky Butte. Survived the whole 65 foot trip right near silver bullet. I'm actually writing a report and am attempting to discuss/compare mine to some of the others.

[kevbone]

practice hauling for a yos trip!

 

You mean my yos trip in 18 years?

[JosephH]

Thought I would add that I am one of the people that actually fell while climbing at Rocky Butte. Survived the whole 65 foot trip right near silver bullet.

 

No friggin' way! Could you tell us what happened? I've been climbing for 33 years and RB is far and away the most dangerous place I've ever climbed.

[kevbone]

Thought I would add that I am one of the people that actually fell while climbing at Rocky Butte. Survived the whole 65 foot trip right near silver bullet.

 

No friggin' way! Could you tell us what happened? I've been climbing for 33 years and RB is far and away the most dangerous place I've ever climbed.

 

Dont know if she is full of shit....but I do recall this injury

[sk]

i have climbed at rocky bute once with Billco. I found the area to be tame and safe considring it is in the middle of a fair sized city. the climbinbg was good and the company was great. I think as with most climbing areas accidents are just that, accidents.

[JosephH]

Muffy, when the soil at the top gets even slightly moist it is a very large and extremely dangerous Slip-N-Slide setting the stage for disaster unlike any I have ever encountered elsewhere. The fact that it is in an urban core makes it doubly dangerous.

[iain]

Michelle, you might try contacting Portland Fire, as they are the ones who respond to Rocky Butte. I agree with Joseph, with a dirty, rolling edge transition in places RB can be hazardous, esp for non-climbers. I hope you are doing okay.

 

And remember the weather forecast for Rocky Butte: 50% chance of 40oz showers with a slight chance of porn mag flurries.

[billcoe]

 

And remember the weather forecast for Rocky Butte: 50% chance of 40oz showers with a slight chance of porn mag flurries.

 

Yup, unfortunatly the porn mag flurries has decreased dramatically ever since that dude pitched off and died with his pants around his ankles while pleasuring himself a few years back by Ranger Rock (under Phylynx).

 

Now, per JH, evidently people are pitching off metal objects, definately a downturn.

 

MORE PORN, Less metal.

 

Whats your story Michelle and are you really a park ranger in Alaska?

[JosephH]

Big metal, they need to run that chain link down along that stretch as well so you can't haul stuff straight out of a truck and over the edge.

[billcoe]

Thought I would add that I am one of the people that actually fell while climbing at Rocky Butte. Survived the whole 65 foot trip right near silver bullet.

 

No friggin' way! Could you tell us what happened?

 

Michelle66? Could you ?.......

[pink_chalk]

Thought I would add that I am one of the people that actually fell while climbing at Rocky Butte. Survived the whole 65 foot trip right near silver bullet.

 

No friggin' way! Could you tell us what happened?

 

Michelle66? Could you ?.......

 

Michelle66? ............ it's all a conspiracy!

[ericb]

 

Whats your story Michelle and are you really a park ranger in Alaska?

 

Research paper or lawsuit?

[powderhound]

practice hauling for a yos trip!

 

I'll be there may 14th-June8th

[MichelleF]

Yes, my name is really Michelle, I'm really a chick, I'm really a park ranger up on the Alaska Peninsula (near Lake Clark & Katmai) where there are very few people and a lot of bears. You asked, so here it goes, August 4, 1998, me and 5 others were going to do some evening climbing. It was hot and dry and the soil was really loose. I don't consider this a climbing accident by the way because I was not climbing when I fell. We were going to rappel down two pitches and climb back up. We were right near silver bullet, if I remember right but hey I've had a head injury. Anyway, one of my partners was setting up our first top rope and I was walking down the access trail which consisted of a scramble over some rocks. I scrambled but when my feet were supposed to come down solid, they didn't. Instead, they slid and I went right over the edge. I remember trying to grab for stuff but there wasn't anything and none of my partners were watching. So, I slid over the edge and blacked out about half way down. Some climbers on the route next to us said that I did somersaults all the way down. They said that It looked like I initially landed on my feet and then right on to my right hip and butt. I had a backpack on which saved my back. The climbers ran over to me, they said they were freaking out because I wasn't breathing and they were freaking because they thought they might have to do CPR. Lucky for them or me, I started breathing on my own and woke up. I couldn't see at first and was having trouble breathing. One of my partners rappelled down to me and another ran down the access trail. Another partner found someone with a cell phone and called 911. It took the fire department a little while to get there and it took them 45 minutes to get me out. The actually had to use our gear. The EMT was assessing my injuries. I was in total shock by then and had no clue as to what was going on. The EMT kept asking me to wiggle my toes and I asked him what for, why couldn't I just get up and finish my climb. THen the guy checked my hips and I about passed out. Well, they got me to the ambulance and took me to Emannual Trauma Center. I basically had broke both hips, my pelvis, my left tibia and ankle, right ulna, fractured my skull in two places, tore my right eye, tore my small intestine, punctured my liver and collapsed both lungs. I spent two weeks in the ICU and another two weeks in the head injury ward. Initially they told my mom and boyfriend that I wouldn't walk for a least a year but I was walking by Thanksgiving thanks to nine months of physical therapy. I climbed at horse thief falls that following spring.

[MichelleF]

It's really just a paper - no lawsuit.

[catbirdseat]

Wow, what a story. An amazing recovery.

[JosephH]

Man, you are so damn lucky and I am glad to read you are still with us - there can't be too many survivors of such falls out there or I would imagine the survival rate at RB must be under %50.

 

"Instead, they slid and I went right over the edge."

 

I very much do consider this a climbing accident exactly because you were in that environment to climb. In fact, these days, climbing is about the safest part of climbing from reading all the accidents I hear about lately. Belaying, rappelling, and negotiating cliff tops and descent trails are all perilous support activities which enable climbing and expose one to significant risks. Manuevering the cliff-top/edge environment out at Rocky, even during descent, is an extemely tenous affair and one which simply cannot be underestimated or taken for granted at anytime.

 

When I'm out at Rocky Butte and I'm not tied on a rope, walking on the road, or standing at the base I'm operating on high, high alert. Manuevering and negotiating the approach to the edge to establish top rope anchors is an high-risk proposition out there under the best of conditions and a deceptively hazardous affair when it's even slightly moist.

 

Everyone please be incredibly aware and conscious at all times when operating around the top out at Rocky Butte. It just seems so familiar, pedestrian, and close-at-hand in it's urban camoflauge which makes it all the more dangerous. And Michelle, thanks so much for telling us your whole story of surviving that accident and all the very best to you. It sounds like you were able to heal well enough to resume a relatively normal life and that seems a great gift and miracle in and of itself.

 

[ P.S. Anyone have an SUV or a truck with a winch? Extended with a retired climbing rope and redirected with a couple of pulleys a winch might make short work of getting that engine block and dishwasher out of there if you didn't feel like hauling them out as SAR/big wall practice. Two or three poles or 2x4's to lash a small A-frame might also make getting them up and over the lip easier (and safer). ]

 

[MichelleF]

The docs said that I was in the "LD-90" category, which means that anyone falling over 50 feet has a 90% chance of dying from their injuries - hence the "lethal dose 90%". I didn't mention that I did recover fully except for some reduced range of motion on my left hip. My right hip took the full brunt of the fall. It was shattered, along with that side of my pelvis. The trauma surgeons agreed to put my surgeries off for a day until this particular ortho surgeon got back from vacation. He put me back together (with the help of lots of metal parts.) The only downside to this whole story is that I've developed some serious aches and pains in my hips, especially in the winter (and I live in Alaska!) But, the upside to this story is that I had docs that were fantastic and supportive and an incredible support team of friends/coworkers and family. In fact, not to stretch this out any longer than it needs to be, but when I wanted to go home,the hospital was going to release me to a rehab facility because I had to have 24 hour care still. I did not want to go there, I wanted to go home. So, my mom had a hospital bed set up in her living room and between her, my boyfriend, some friends and my coworkers, they did up a sign up sheet and I had 24 hour care for six weeks. It was amazing. My boss actually came out and took care of me. You really become humble. It just wasn't my time to go because the lesson I learned from it was incredible. Back to my original question. There was a guy who fell right after I did and I know there were one or two people who feel in 2000 & 2001 because I was working at Mt. Hood then. So, I'll keep trying to track em down.