Huge climbing falls

[kevbone]

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY1lNAEzZP0

[rob]

OMG HUUUUUUUGE WHIPPERS!

[kevbone]

OMG HUUUUUUUGE WHIPPERS!

 

I agree. Thanks Rob for showing your enthusiastic attitude toward the rock climbing forum.

[rob]

If you're not falling, you're not progressing. That's why I try to take as many leader falls as possible, that way I know I'm getting better. Sometimes I just let go, to prove how much I'm progressing.

[JosephH]

The aid fall wasn't a long fall by aid standards; MacLeod's taking longish clean falls; and the last one in the vid isn't a whipper, it was either a bad placement or a mistake in judgment. I took a 40-50' fall out at Beacon not that long ago that was pretty much exactly like MacLeod's and I'd say it was just approaching longish compared to falls my old partner and I took bitd. Plus, I really prefer clean falls with more rope out and stretch than short, hard ones.

 

But I do agree with the idea if you're not falling your not really pushing it.

[keenwesh]

^core

[corvallisclimb]

that aid fall was staged...

[kevbone]

The aid fall wasn't a long fall by aid standards;

 

How far does it have to be for aid standards? He must have fell 40 feet or so.

[JosephH]

The aid fall looks like it may have been a 30-something or barely 40 foot clean fall - the normal cost of doing business by Valley standards free or aid. Ammon taking 60+ footers on a regular basis or folks like Kate Rutheford taking a 100+ fall are considered long falls in the aid world. By and large big clean falls are just not that big a deal once you get your head wrapped around it and used to them, just part of learning to move fast over stone that either allows or demands it.

[Corduroy Man]

Wow! Those falls are crazy. I fell the other day, probably around 6 feet, and thought that was wild. It did scare me. Joe, have you spent a lot of time in the valley? How do you know that 40 foot falls are normal? Crazy! Rock On!

[orion_sonya]

Where/When did Kate Rutheford take a 100ft fall?

 

I liked the video. 50ft+ fall are definitely big whippers in my book. I need to head down to Beacon and watch the action; I've heard 50 footers are no big deal there.

[kevbone]

Is Beacon even 50 ft tall?

[Peter_Puget]

Wow! Those falls are crazy. I fell the other day, probably around 6 feet, and thought that was wild. It did scare me. Joe, have you spent a lot of time in the valley? How do you know that 40 foot falls are normal? Crazy! Rock On!

 

I remember the first time I went to go climb Reeds Pinnacle Direct. We got to the base and there was a line. So we settled in and after seeing the leader on the party ahead of us take several ~40' falls we decided the route was a bit much for us that day.

[outofohio]

[video:youtube]

[JosephH]

Courd, you can't cover the yards on big stone in a timely manner carrying and plugging a ton of gear on long free routes. On any aid routes considered remotely challenging you're going to be starring at 50 footers on a fairly regular basis.

 

I believe Kate took a 120-130 footer while soloing PO or South Seas back in 2005 or so.

 

Given relatively clean air space I really don't care how long a fall I take is as it isn't going to be a problem, you can dive all day so why worry about. On Menopause out at the lip of the third roof you're 280' of pretty clean air to the deck, you can certainly take 40 footers on it all day, if you can get up to it.

[denalidave]

It not the length of fall that matters, it's the LANDING!

[denalidave]

Is Beacon even 50 ft tall?

5500 ft+/- about 4500.

[ivan]

Is Beacon even 50 ft tall?

5500 ft+/- about 4500.

don't know 'bout 50 ft TALL, but i've seen a few folks about 50 foot AROUND waddling up the trail (well, to the gate at least)

Edited February 25, 2011 by ivan

[corvallisclimb]

Where/When did Kate Rutheford take a 100ft fall?

 

I believe Kate took a 120-130 footer while soloing PO or South Seas back in 2005 or so.

 

 

Joseph was thinking of different Kate (not Rutheford) who took a 100footer when she fell soloing tribal rite when a bunch of machine heads, wire rivet hangers and screamers girth hitched to heads/wire rivet hangers broke. never trust a machine head.

[iain]

I like how Beacon was somehow worked into this.

[JosephH]

Thanks Tyler, obviously have my Kates confused...

 

Hey Guys:

 

I am working on a TR of this, but coming that close to dead still feels a little personal, so thanks for the consideration.

 

In short, on a recent solo I ripped an entire "A1/2" rivit pitch, fully deploying 8 screamers, breaking two scream aids, pulling 3 rivits, breaking three rivit hangers, pulling two heads, landing 50 feet below the anchor after a 120 foot fall. (measured by the party after me, who marked it on their tag line and measured it in C4)

 

The fall initiated when a rivit hanger I was standing on broke. It was one of those barely body-weight hangers, it can happen. The rivits were all 1/2 inch 5/16 machine heads driven 1/4 inch into the rock on a downward slope.

 

The gear that caught me was the only non-rivit/head gear on the pitch, a bolt 10 feet off the anchor, presumably to prevent a factor 2 onto the anchor.

 

(The pitch is still climbable, as the pulled rivits are not in sequence and the holes can be bathooked, as proven by the party behind me)

 

Like a pussy, after 11 days of climbing, I rapped 17 pitches to the deck over the next two days, went to taco bell, got laid, and hugged my cats.

 

-Kate.

That's a big aid fall. Beacon got mentioned because I don't really get out to anywhere else much and all my recent falls were out there, the one off Menopause being the most notable. In the end I much prefer to log my own flight than watch videos of it, never was into climbing as a spectator sport.

[orion_sonya]

Did she really get laid at taco bell?

 

edit: that sounds like a suck fall...

Edited February 25, 2011 by orion_sonya

[Rafe1234]

The aid fall wasn't a long fall by aid standards; MacLeod's taking longish clean falls; and the last one in the vid isn't a whipper, it was either a bad placement or a mistake in judgment. I took a 40-50' fall out at Beacon not that long ago that was pretty much exactly like MacLeod's and I'd say it was just approaching longish compared to falls my old partner and I took bitd. Plus, I really prefer clean falls with more rope out and stretch than short, hard ones.

 

But I do agree with the idea if you're not falling your not really pushing it.

 

Wow, you're badass.

 

MacLeod's "longish" fall...lol

 

For 99% of climbers, 40+ footers are big whippers. Aside from some errant bravado attitude, I'm quite sure this is the general concensus, even amongst high end climbers.

 

 

[el jefe]

rafe1234, you must be new around here. joseph is a member of the "greatest generation" of climbers. in his heyday everyone who climbed had bigger balls than they do today. something about purity of the aryan race having been polluted by interbreeding with mongrel sport climbers explains why things have gone downhill since the golden era of extreme toproping on the towering walls of illinois -- joseph will certainly chime in with a clarification of any details. in any event, joseph and his heroic comrades used to routinely take 100ft wingers off cliffs only 50ft tall, and as legend would have it, they eschewed the use of harness or swami belt and either merely clenched the rope between their teeth or cinched it around their prodigious nutsacks. must have been a crazy time for sure.

[kevbone]

rafe1234, you must be new around here. joseph is a member of the "greatest generation" of climbers. in his heyday everyone who climbed had bigger balls than they do today. something about purity of the aryan race having been polluted by interbreeding with mongrel sport climbers explains why things have gone downhill since the golden era of extreme toproping on the towering walls of illinois -- joseph will certainly chime in with a clarification of any details. in any event, joseph and his heroic comrades used to routinely take 100ft wingers off cliffs only 50ft tall, and as legend would have it, they eschewed the use of harness or swami belt and either merely clenched the rope between their teeth or cinched it around their prodigious nutsacks. must have been a crazy time for sure.