catbirdseat Posted July 21, 2007 Share Posted July 21, 2007 Carry a knife so you can do a Joe Simpson on him and be home in time for dinner. fuck that, the damn rope is expensive. I would hope he would be kind enough to untie. CBS -- hauling systems are easy. I think a more challenging scenario is an unconcious leader, more than half a rope out. I bet there are lots of seconds in the alpine who wouldn't know how to handle this. I practiced it for the first time this year using gear anchors rather than bolts. It took about 45 min. Still screwed up some things even though I'd done it about 4 times before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwebster Posted July 23, 2007 Share Posted July 23, 2007 Awesome post! I was holding onto my seat hoping it had a happy ending. Something that mark1980 didn't mention is that he learned to carry prusiks in the Mountaineers. I know, because I was there with him. Say what you want about the hardies, but they do a great job of teaching beginners how to be smart in the outdoors...unlike the gyms. They also taught us how to lift someone out of a crevasse using the z pulley system, and how to rig a litter from a rope, and lower an injured climber down a cliff. We actually used a live person, and the cliff was a good 50 feet, though nowadays I hear it's just a heavy bag. Speaking of gym climbers transitioning into trad...I climbed canary this weekend with a young friend from the gym and his brand new rack. He led the second pitch beautifully, but when I got to the anchor, I found him doing a hanging belay on a tipped out camalot, only 2 of the lobes grabbing. He had another bottomed out camalot as backup, with a wire stopper, which I didn't see. I'm looking at him belaying me, 400 feet in the air thinking, if those two lobes on that bad cam fail, we're both dead, unless the wired held. I whipped out a stopper and stuck it beside the bad cam. It was a totally sinker placement, bombproof. These gym climbers seem to have tunnel vision with friends. Just because a piece costs $60 versus $8, it doesn't mean it's any better. It was definitely bad judgment on my part to go up a hard route with an untested partner. Still, someone has to teach these kids how to be safe...but next time I'll pick a shorter, safer route and do some practice anchor systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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