[thirtytwosrule]

I seem to remember seeing Steve Mac when he did this first ascent using 3? ropes and thinking that was crazy. Maybe not so much!

Ouch!


https://www.ukclimbing.com/videos/play.php?i=3599

[lagerstarfish]

is he OK?

[cjsheps]

*Inevitable post on a bouldering forum that all ropes are bad, and everyone should just go bouldering* 

[thirtytwosrule]

Badly broken arm apparently.

Saw Edale MRT post about it on facebook yesterday I think and it only mentioned an italian climber and Michele was my first thought but figured he had done loads of trad to know that a single might be a bad idea.

Evidently not.

http://www.edalemrt.co.uk/cgi-bin/createIncidentMap.cgi?mapMode=Specific&mapIncident=17&mapYear=2017

[Scraggadoo]

Italian site using google translate:

'went very well compared to how it could have been. Yesterday another, Monday, michele caminati had succeeded in a rare repeats of "Elder Statesman" (able HXS 7a) in Curbar, Peak District. An away the key which, relatively well protected in the dihedral on the right with a big friend, is in a difficult launch and recovery through the corner to the left. You can see the sequence by clicking here (James Pearson) the day after Michael and returned with English friends to take pictures and video of the ascent, trying to clean it again to repeat the shot.
And 'it rose European style, with a single 10mm rope and without a helmet. This time it fell on the key, and the string at the time of going to throw, and it sheared to put against an edge, probably the lower middle part of the street.
Michele and then crashed to the ground directly from approximately 10-12 meters of land not perfect.
Immediately rushed to the base of the route, and always remained conscious despite the vision of a hand / wrist in a very bad condition, but no spinal damage or brain injury.
Hospitalized in the evening, and he underwent surgery on his hand, with a prognosis of about four months.
Even one of the two heels reported a slight compound fracture, which does not raise partcolare concern.
The video that the cameraman were filming will clarify the dynamic, if it will be of utility for the vertical community.
A Michele Our best wishes for a speedy recovery

Hope he recovers well.


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[Fiend]

And there I was thinking the 3 ropes were just to get a bit of drag tension to help hold the swing

N.B. Video features me failing to do Finger Distance without pads at 3:20.

[cjsheps]

That sounds pretty serious. I hope he recovers well.

[Kingy]

What a nightmare. I hope Michele is alright. A reminder of the dangers of falling on a rope. You can see why Tommy Caldwell uses 2 ropes on the sharp arete of Spank the Monkey on the Monkey in Smith Rock (Dosage 3). I saw people taking huge whippers off that thing using a single rope back in October

[DAVETHOMAS90]

That sounds pretty serious. I hope he recovers well.

Yes, that sounds serious. I'm not going to watch the vid!

Best wishes for a good recovery!

[tommytwotone]

Where's Michele laid up? In Northern General or is he out? Tempted to pop down and drop off a care package, having broken my arm in a foreign country I know how much it sucks to be struck in a strange hospital with sod all to do.

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[TobyD]

Where's Michele laid up? In Northern General or is he out? Tempted to pop down and drop off a care package, having broken my arm in a foreign country I know how much it sucks to be struck in a strange hospital with sod all to do.

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Seconded! I'd considered doing the same... and I don't even know him. Being in hospital sucks badly enough in your own country. "Sod all to do".... flirt with nurses? Seriously though I hope he recovers fast, and is thanking his lucky stars it wasn't an awful, awful lot worse.

[JWarren]

That video might be one of the scarier things I've seen. I've also watched people lob off Spank the Monkey and assured myself that the likelihood of the rope catching and snapping was quite low, but after watching that...

Sorry to hear about Michele. Met him in Ceuse and have nothing but good things to say about the guy. Incredibly friendly, humble, and strong as nails

[galpinos]

That sounds pretty serious. I hope he recovers well.

Yes, that sounds serious. I'm not going to watch the vid!

Best wishes for a good recovery!

Dave, the video is worth a watch. It was released at the request of Michele (according to the UKC article) so people could see what happened.  You don't see him hit the the ground, just fall out of shot. Seeing the mechanism of the rope snapping in slow motion is very sobering.

[tomtom]

Write up and interview here

http://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/michele-caminati-survives-gritstone-ground-fall-in-england.html

Michele Caminati, an expert of England’s gritstone, fell to the ground while climbing The Elder Statesman at Curbar in the Peak District. Miraculously, the Italian walked away with nothing more than a fractured wrist and heel.
Ever since 2011 Italian rock climber Michele Caminati regularly travels to England and dabble on "God’s own rock" as the British like to call their gritstone which, in adherence to strong tradition, is entirely bolt-free. While the easy routes tend to be well-protected with nuts and friends, the harder climbs generally follow scary arêtes or smooth slabs where pro is almost non-existent. Consequently, the possibility of getting hurt on the upper-end routes is very, very high and this explains why routes graded E7, E8 and E9 are courted for months or even years and rarely repeated.

Parma-based Caminati knows this well and, as we wrote in the past, during his Peak escapades he pushed himself, at times even exceeding himself, to levels which few local climbers even have reached. Routes stand out that, for gritstone aficionados, need no introduction: Braille Trail, Kaluza Klein, Master’s Edge, End of the Affair, The New Statesman, The Angel's Share, Superstition, Simba’s Pride…

This almost unstoppable list brusquely came to a stop two days ago when Caminati fell off The Elder Statesman at Curbar Edge in England. Freed in 2004 by Steve McClure and repeated by Steve Dunning and James Pearson, this HXS 7a offers a series of bizarre but fairly well-protected moves to an arête which is followed, without further gear, to the lip of the crag.

On Monday Caminati repeated the route and returned on Tuesday to take some photographs. During this second repeat something went wrong though, he fell while dynoing through the crux (check out minute 4:10 in the video below Pearson), his rope snapped on the arête and Caminati, climbing without a helmet, fell to the ground from about 10 meters. Miraculously he only broke his wrist and heel and was operated on in Sheffield.

Speaking to planetmountain.com from hospital today, Caminati explained: "I saw everything live, I totally remember the accident, I was completely aware of what was happening ... As I fell I got ready to hit the wall, but then the rope broke and I fell onto my belayer and then hit the ground, probably first with my wrist. Fortunately I’m fine, I’ve got multiple fractures in my wrist, but the operation went well and my tendons are unaffected ... My heel is broken in several places, but they’re compound fractures and I’ve been told it won’t need operating… all in all it should take four to six months to get back to normal... yeah!"

[Scraggadoo]

One thing that gets overlooked though - how's the belayer? Anyone know?


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[HaeMeS]

Belayer is ok. Some bruises and a light concussion according to a friend who knows the belayer.

[lagerstarfish]

Where's Michele laid up? In Northern General or is he out? Tempted to pop down and drop off a care package, having broken my arm in a foreign country I know how much it sucks to be struck in a strange hospital with sod all to do.

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Seconded! I'd considered doing the same... and I don't even know him. Being in hospital sucks badly enough in your own country. "Sod all to do".... flirt with nurses? Seriously though I hope he recovers fast, and is thanking his lucky stars it wasn't an awful, awful lot worse.

I bet he's desperate for a decent coffee

[Oldmanmatt]

That sounds pretty serious. I hope he recovers well.

Yes, that sounds serious. I'm not going to watch the vid!

Best wishes for a good recovery!

Dave, the video is worth a watch. It was released at the request of Michele (according to the UKC article) so people could see what happened.  You don't see him hit the the ground, just fall out of shot. Seeing the mechanism of the rope snapping in slow motion is very sobering.

Like cotton snapping. I've had price tags on clothing that were harder to break.
It can't have rubbed along the edge more than a meter or so(?), so quite alarming.


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[dave]

Amazing thing is the arete it's rubbing on at that point is still very overhanging, it's not like it's running over a protruding slabby sharp arete or owt. I mean how often do you hear of a rope snapping on grit? Ever?

[Fiend]

Curbar grit tho, so extra-bastardly arete. It does seem to catch on a notch too.

Someone get him a takeout from that italian on London Road....

[duncan]

Amazing thing is the arete it's rubbing on at that point is still very overhanging, it's not like it's running over a protruding slabby sharp arete or owt.

That is really surprising isn't it. The rope snags in two different places. The first takes the sheath off but the core is still intact, then the rope catches on the Elder Crack jug and that does for it.



Best wishes for a full recovery to both. It could easily have been worse, but I suppose it's not that far to the ground.

Unlike here, which felt very scary. Caldwell is obviously aware of the issue (upthread) and thousands have been in the same spot but I wished I had had two ropes.


Photo: Corey Rich

[TobyD]

Unlike here, which felt very scary. Caldwell is obviously aware of the issue (upthread) and thousands have been in the same spot but I wished I had had two ropes.


Photo: Corey Rich

Holy shit. That picture makes me feel a bit sick; this possibility had occurred to me on the monster offwidth; but I tried to ignore it and get on with it at the time. Urrrrgh.

[Fultonius]

As a casual observer you almost feel you could just push away if you came off.


Aye.



Right!


 

Sounds like he's not *too* broken up, hopefully a full recovery!  Reminds me of one moment of madness the day of my last exam at uni (the first time around). I had tried a bold E4 at Cambusbarron a few times on top-rope and just decided to go or it, no real warm up, no practice goes. It's basically a solo to above the barn-door, gritsone arete-esk crux, so I quested on up solo, pulled in to the crux, squeezed, extended, rotated and I was off!!!  Managed to do a 180 and land on the steep downslope between the jagged boulders, more through fortune than skill, and skidded and rolled to a stop. I walked away tail beween my legs, with a slight hobble and few scrapes. One of those days.