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Bronco

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So I finished reading Peter Potterfield's story of his epic on Chimney Rock. When I got to the end I expected a full explanation of what caused the belay to fail and rapidly drop him 150'. No such detail leaving me to assume his partner somehow failed to stop the rope from zipping through the belay device unitl it reached the end of the rope where it was tied into the anchor.

Anyone have any further info on this accident???? I am really curious. confused.gif" border="0

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There's been a discussion of this on cc.com before. Might want to search for Potterfield.

He alludes to his partner using a new belay device he wasn't familiar with earlier in the story. But that's it. I think the general feeling is he doesn't want to explain what happened, because his partner probably screwed up, and he doesn't want to dis him publicly, 'cause it's his friend?

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right Phil - that's the same conclusion I came to.

I searched on potterfield and came up with 20 threads to read with regards to mountainzone.com, potterfield presentations at rei, and several references to the nelson/potterfield guidbook but no accident report or discussion of his belay failing. I wonder if the AAJ would have a record of it?

Anyone have the American Alpine Journal from 1988?

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perhaps it has not occurred to any of you that Potterfield may not know for sure what caused the belay failure - and hence might be unwilling to "guess". I don't know - I don't know the man, and I haven't studied this particular incident in depth, but I have worked on numerous rescues over the years, and I have to say that even the "most obvious" errors are actually rarely so. My experience has been that when the shit hits the fan, it is most often damn near impossible to say for sure what truly occurred. An example from my own history: In 1977 I made a new-years' ascent of Oregon's Mt. Washington. On the descent of the north ridge, I came last (being one of the two strongest alpinists in our four-person group). After belaying my companions down an overhanging ice-bulge, I began to downclimb that bulge. I got the pick of my ice-axe stuck at the lip, and in my effort to free the tool, I popped off and fell about 10' to the ledge where my companions waited.

They did not see the fall (conditions were really ugly..., blowing whiteout, yada-yada), though they saw me get up where I landed...

Years later, one of those companions, now "famous", describes that incident in her autobiography, where she states that I had become disoriented in the whiteout, and simply walked off the bulge!!! I would not even know about this (having not read my old friend's book), except that a partner who had read it asked me in a bar a couple of years ago "so, what REALLY happened on that climb?"

My point is - Potterfield may not know exactly how/why his belay failed - even though he was there.

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