I went climbing this Sunday with a new group of folks. I top-roped a 5.11C with a secondary rope, since they wanted the original rope at the bottom. This is pretty standard (for the non-climbers) in which you have one rope you use for leads and another for seconds and top rope. Anyway, I clipped into the sling system and prepared to swap out the ropes.
When I took the first rope off, all of the slings went limp, and my leash (the only thing holding me to the rock) fell right out of the loose slings.
Effectively, there was NOTHING but my hands and feet preventing me from falling to my death. No ropes, no partners, NOTHING.
If the system had been set up the way I was taught and normally set up systems, this wouldn't have happened, since I don't allow the rope alone to hold the system together. I'll double clip into all the slings and set up at least a double, if not triple redundancy.
This is not what the person who set up the system had done, and I took it for granted that they had set it up the way I would, the way I was taught. I was more embarassed than scared, and quickly clipped my leash into one of the hardbolts on the rock, making me safe again. I finished re-establishing the top rope with the new rope (giving the system the redundancies that I normally do), and rappelled down.
But the bottom line is, I did not pay attention to detail, and I could have died because of it. If my leash had been weighted (which it normally is), I would have fell right off that rock and smashed my skull.
Maybe the skydiving has made me indifferent to heights, or the fact that I climb a lot made me complacent.
Whatever it was it was very stupid, but it didn't dawn on me for the rest of the day climbing.
Last night, in my meditations, it all hit me, and I got this dizzy, sinking feeling.
I should have died yesterday because of my stupidity and complacency. But for some reason I didn't.
Just coming to terms with that....
When I took the first rope off, all of the slings went limp, and my leash (the only thing holding me to the rock) fell right out of the loose slings.
Effectively, there was NOTHING but my hands and feet preventing me from falling to my death. No ropes, no partners, NOTHING.
If the system had been set up the way I was taught and normally set up systems, this wouldn't have happened, since I don't allow the rope alone to hold the system together. I'll double clip into all the slings and set up at least a double, if not triple redundancy.
This is not what the person who set up the system had done, and I took it for granted that they had set it up the way I would, the way I was taught. I was more embarassed than scared, and quickly clipped my leash into one of the hardbolts on the rock, making me safe again. I finished re-establishing the top rope with the new rope (giving the system the redundancies that I normally do), and rappelled down.
But the bottom line is, I did not pay attention to detail, and I could have died because of it. If my leash had been weighted (which it normally is), I would have fell right off that rock and smashed my skull.
Maybe the skydiving has made me indifferent to heights, or the fact that I climb a lot made me complacent.
Whatever it was it was very stupid, but it didn't dawn on me for the rest of the day climbing.
Last night, in my meditations, it all hit me, and I got this dizzy, sinking feeling.
I should have died yesterday because of my stupidity and complacency. But for some reason I didn't.
Just coming to terms with that....
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llona:
ahhh, i just noticed that you're in albuquerque. the classes that i teach are based out of there. i'll be doing an intensive training there next year.
captsparrow:
best insult yet.