Girlfriend Can't Climb? Cut the rope!!!

[layton]

I'm posting this in the climbers board instead of spray b/c it's actually climbing related.

 

Best Gumby ClusterF$ck ever

 

here's the skinny, related later that eve at a party. Source- 3 guys on Modern Times. High E is crowded. A party of 3 takes off and gets to the ledge. Second party of 5 takes off too. 1st party leader takes off the GT ledge and does the last pitch. the other two in the party decide to simul climb the last pitch, cowtailed together. 2nd and 3rd climber of ist party get stuck. 2nd can't move and the third is dangling, I suppose near the GT ledge. Enter the screaming sounds. The party of 5's "leader" tosses out some webbing (and a knife I guess) to the chick dangling. Then there's the "one, two, three" count and the ledge party pulls the dangling chick just as she cuts the rope. My friends on Modern Times said, "We couldn't believe what we saw and that nobody died", the guys on Modern Times had no idea that the parties would CUT a rope or they obviously would have intervened. I can't figure out why anyone would think that this was a suitable solution. CUTTING a rope, you've got to be kidding me! I haven't heard how she made out, I figure she had to slam into the GT pretty hard. Now some ass leader thinks that he saved the day by getting that chick to cut her rope. Doh!

 

Ok kids. It was me, Eric Weigeshoff, telling the story at the party. I was climbing Modern Times with Rod Schnier. We saw this start to happen while we climbed to the top from the GT. This is the story from the horse's mouth: NOTE! If I had have known what was truly going on, I would have intervened.

 

I was leading Modern Times to the GT. I was watching a fairly inexperienced team climbing High E. (Call them Team B) Team B's leader had set up a hanging belay about 8 feet under the GT ledge, I don't know why, and was bringing up his two followers from there. At that time, there were two people from another team (Team A) who were on the High E ledge. Leader was already at the top.

 

I then reached GT, and brought Rod up, who started to lead to top.

 

I noticed the 2nd of Team A starting to climb way to the right of the actual start to the last pitch of High E, and was struggling. I, of course, heckled. As he just about was to the crux, the third started climbing. I realized that she was tied into the same rope. Naturally, I heckled and took a picture of the imbeciles.

 

Rod was about on the top by now, when girl from Team A started screaming bloody murder. Can't do it, no holds, etc. Rod tops out, where he apparently encounters leader of Team A, not on top ledge where you would normally belay, but on the grassy top. He is lounging. Rod informs him that his girlfriend is going to be pissed. He says it's his sister. He sets up a z pulley, locks them off, and raps to the large ledge on top to observe.

 

At this time, I reach top, and heckle the guy, call him an idiot (I'm having a bad day) and Rod and I proceed to rap. Rod raps to the second station, I follow. As we are sitting at the second station, pulling our rope, I see Dan Ling reaching the ledge from Doubleissima. I also notice Team A girl hanging at lip, screaming.

 

I notice she has a sling on her, and Team B has apparently climbed up to her and built an anchor under the roof. At this point, Rod asks if we should go up to help, and I see her swinging back and forth, being pulled by Team B, who is anchored under the lip. We then hear:

 

1... 2... 3! The rope snaps, and she factor 2's onto the anchor that Team B built. I turn to Rod and say (Freaked out) "Did she just cut the rope?" Rod says, "She cut the rope!" This is repeated around 20 times by us both.

 

We rap to the ground, where team A's second proceeds to drop a #1 Camalot and a sling on me, just missing me, with the call, "Heads up, yo".

 

We leave, not wanting to clean up any mess that may ensue.

 

This is the actual story. No embellishment.

 

 

[kevino]

you mean sister can't climb?

[sobo]

All I can come up with is that they've all watched The Eiger Sanction one too many times.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

thread deja vu... some people "learn" differently.

 

[mkporwit]

The best part of the comments from gunks.com:

 

"And as of yet, there's still no thread on rc.com about any of this. What's taking them so long!!!??? How could they miss such an obvious opportunity for gumbys advising gumbys???"

[olyclimber]

its hard to say there is a lesson to be learned here. we already knew that climbing and stupidity are a bad mix. i guess you could say for every time you live through something you become smarter because of it, but i don't believe that is actually always the case.

[builder206]

Even without Clint Eastwood it sounds like a great movie scene. I'm going to start carying a little video camera to catch some shenanigans. There could be some sort of marketing opportunity here.

[clifford]

Actually the scene was caught on video:

 

 

[TimL]

Funny story. The first time I ever took the chica out climbing was in the Gunks. The first day we did a couple of easy routes then the second day we decided to start with High E. Before this she hadonly been on rock one day, and that was the day before. To pull the lip of the roof on the third pitch is pretty demanding. Well, once you get to the top it's really hard to hear the second coming up. So when Elena started to climb I heard her yell and started to pull tighter and tighter. Comes to find out she was trying to figure out how to do the move and yelling for slack. Well be as strong as she was and still is she managed to basically camous the route cause back then shew didn't have any footwark. But before turning the lip I managed in bashing her head against the top of the rough several times as she was trying out the moves. Granted I didn't men too but I think she's been secretly getting even with me ever since.

 

Good times. The Gunks are pretty awesome.

[DirtyHarry]

That maneuver must be in a newer edition of FOTH than the one I've got.

[G-spotter]

That maneuver must be in a newer edition of FOTH than the one I've got.

 

Gunks climbers don't need FOTH. They've got Khadeja and whatnot.

[marc_leclerc]

Actually the scene was caught on video:

 

 

If three cams cant hold three people hanging still id be pretty scared taking whippers on them... that movie made me laugh a lot

[hafilax]

Oh RC.com flogged the crap out of it alright.

 

The real story was:

I am very surprised how many people judged without having all the information. I was in the party of three on the ledge that rescued the girl. She was hanging over the roof and was on a path to total panic. She was dangling in thin air and could not climb over the roof. We tried to get the leader to lower her down to the ledge but there was no response. After several minutes we were not confident the leader could handle the situation at hand. Our lead climber ascended to the roof with our second rope and setup and anchor. He put the rope through the anchor, which was slightly above her waist. She was close enough to grab our rope and tie in using a figure 8 knot. Then I put on her on belay. With the rope tight her feet were about a foot or so from the cliff. Still we heard nothing from her leader. Therefore we suggested she cut the rope and when she did she landed softly on to the cliff as if on a top rope. Then I lowered to the ledge. We got her safely to the repel station and got her down to the ground safely.

 

The lesson here is not to have inexperienced climbers cowtailed together 15 feet apart on any climb, let alone one like HE. From the moment they started the climb we all thought they could easily get into trouble.

[NateF]

You mean the version of the story told at the party and then posted 3rd hand on the internet wasn't factually correct! No freakin' way, I feel so FOX newsed.

[olyclimber]

after carefully reading the newspaper article i was able to draw expert conclusions.

[micah humphrey]

'Cowtailed together...', 'cutting the rope...', 'hanging belay...', none of these even enter a boulderers vocabulary, and that, my dear friends, is why I'm proud to be a pebble wrestler.

[layton]

No scenery, no adventure, nothing but forearm/finger strength, no comradere of the hills, no lessons learned about what you're made of, no real connection to nature!

[pink]

No scenery, no adventure, nothing but forearm/finger strength, no comradere of the hills, no lessons learned about what you're made of, no real connection to nature!

nsxJWuHo0WI

 

 

 

he fell right on his comrade

[JoshK]

At least they missed that bouldering mat and left it nice and clean.