[Control freak]

One thing that I have learnt whether I be climbing, skiing, surfing etc. If you get to that point of the day when your saying to yourself, "shall I just have one more go....?", say no, walk away and live to fight another day. 

[Blunk]

One thing that I have learnt whether I be climbing, skiing, surfing etc. If you get to that point of the day when your saying to yourself, "shall I just have one more go....?", say no, walk away and live to fight another day. 

Sitting here with torn meniscus saying "aye" to that. A fucking 3-foot fall on the last try of the day...now looking at the 6th surgery on the same leg. Haven't learnt much after 37 years of climbing.

Age 17, attempting the Diamond on Longs Peak (1000 foot alpine face in Colorado), my friend leading the second pitch of the slab "approach." I belay. He falls, no runner in, gear rattling and jingling, me standing unanchored on a ledge because no-one expected him to fall on a 5.6.  About 100 feet below me lies an ice field, then assorted talus another few hundred feet below that. Complete and utter fear seizes my innards, I jitter back and forth gibbering wildly, sobbing. Our partner gapes, knowing I am about to die. Then silence. Somehow I manage to look up. Mark is gone, nowhere to be seen, the rope out of sight away to the right.

Groaning and thrashing ensue, Mark emerges shaken and covered in abrasions. He has fallen on the other side of an exfoliation flake that caught the rope. Entirely without tension coming on to my belay. I rappel and drive home never to return.

Episode 2: driving in Wyoming in the middle of the night, icy roads. 60 mph at the entrance to a bridge, the car spins to 60 mph backwards by the end of that bridge. A hideous drop off the side of the road, not survivable. I am strangely calm, reaching out to spare my friend from the anticipated impact. For no reason it all stops. I get out to look. A 4 inch diameter tree has stopped our plunge, uprooted and tangled in the bumper. Get back in the car start the motor and drive off. 

Life's strange isn't it?  How many people lie dead because of one thing that went wrong for them while we write our stories?

[Jaspersharpe]

Life's strange isn't it?  How many people lie dead because of one thing that went wrong for them while we write our stories?

So very true. Of course the Lynn Hill story always makes me think of Rachel. One the best female climber of her generation and the other seemingly destined to be the best of hers. Same crag, a daft accident from a similar height, a horribly different outcome. It's just luck or whatever you want to call it but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.

[dave]

Probably an appropriate time here given all the postings of near misses during abseiling to spare a through for climbers (and their families) who weren't so lucky.

[Falling Down]

One thing that I have learnt whether I be climbing, skiing, surfing etc. If you get to that point of the day when your saying to yourself, "shall I just have one more go....?", say no, walk away and live to fight another day. 

Another Amen to that too....

[SA Chris]

Life's strange isn't it?  How many people lie dead because of one thing that went wrong for them while we write our stories?

There but for the grace of God/a greater being/the fates/the toss of a coin/the roll of a dice/sheer luck(or whatever else you may believe in) go I. Count your blessings and make the most of your time.

[Dr T]

Life's strange isn't it?  How many people lie dead because of one thing that went wrong for them while we write our stories?

There but for the grace of God/a greater being/the fates/the toss of a coin/the roll of a dice/sheer luck(or whatever else you may believe in) go I. Count your blessings and make the most of your time.

truth

[slackline]

Life's strange isn't it?  How many people lie dead because of one thing that went wrong for them while we write our stories?

There but for the grace of God/a greater being/the fates/the toss of a coin/the roll of a dice/sheer luck(or whatever else you may believe in) go I. Count your blessings and make the most of your time.

Yeah, who knows, you could get hit by a bus on your way to work......................wait a minute! 

[fatboySlimfast]

But you could also say that we are who we are because of what we do....inveterate risk takers(no matter how calculated it is) have a greater take/outlook on life in my opinion than anyone else. On this forum we have many different age groups, different sport participation, cultural ,political etc etc yet we can appreciate activity (be it grit solo or big wave surfing)that to many seems suicidally pointless. I have lost two very close friends, 1 in a car accident, 1 in a ice climbing accident. William Faulkner wrote

"Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain”

edit-sorry, having just read that back I sound like a right twat

[fatkid2000]

Humans are risk takers some just more so than others & in different ways. Driving at 120 mph down the M1 is not just a risk to oneself but also to others. Couple of weeks ago my wife came across a car accident on the Snake due purely to the risk taking and stupidity of a teenage driver - this sort of risk taking pisses me off big style as innocent parties get hurt.

Climbers know the risks they take the people may get hurt are themselves and their friends and families. My best mate from Uni got killed in the Alps on a trip I was due to go on - I stopped climbing for over 2 years and have never really climbed at that level since. I still do what I would call a bit of social climbing & bits of bouldering but I never really push myself anymore (the days of me climbing what I did at Uni are long gone). As FBSF says we are who we are because of what we do - my wife hates the fact that I ride a road bike so much but she knows that it would be pointless being married to me if I didn't ride. People that do stuff with their lifes are far more interesting whether its climbing, riding a bike or something else. As I have got older and starting to turn into an old git people that sit on the arse and don't experience life really piss me off.

[account_inactive]

I don't think any of us sign of for the dark side of risk, but it is there all the same.

Enjoy life and the people close to you as life is a fragile and cruel thing

[andy popp]

But you could also say that we are who we are because of what we do....inveterate risk takers(no matter how calculated it is) have a greater take/outlook on life in my opinion than anyone else. On this forum we have many different age groups, different sport participation, cultural ,political etc etc yet we can appreciate activity (be it grit solo or big wave surfing)that to many seems suicidally pointless. I have lost two very close friends, 1 in a car accident, 1 in a ice climbing accident. William Faulkner wrote

"Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain”

edit-sorry, having just read that back I sound like a right twat

I don't think you're are talking bollocks, but that said I don't think I've ever found a satisfactory way of dealing with (understanding/explaining) by own risk-taking behaviour, which has probably been towards the upper end of the norm - though in many other aspects of my life I'm relatively cautious or prudent (never, ever gamble for example). I hate the term thrill-seeker because it seems shallow and I guess I don't want to think of myself in such unflattering terms but it is undeniable that I've placed myself in many very risky situations. I've tended to argue that this risk has largely been a by-product of satisfying other drives but whilst this can true it is only ever partially so. Another explanation that risk-taking is an assertion of a will to live, basically what FBSF is saying I think, but again even I am not completely convinced by this - so god knows what it would look like as an argument to a risk-averse non-climber. All in all, after 30+ years I still can't satisfactorily account for some of the ways I've behaved, doing so is probably asking too much but it still bugs me a little bit.

[Fj]

Interesting reading.
For some reason this quote just jumped into my head.
"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero"

[slackline]

Interesting reading.
For some reason this quote just jumped into my head.
"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero"

There is only one certainty in life.

[Dr T]

Interesting reading.
For some reason this quote just jumped into my head.
"On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero"

There is only one certainty in life.

that and taxes.....

[Pantontino]

Great thread. Fatdoc's Verdon story sounds horrific!

Here's some of mine:


Ice climbing in Cogne about 5 years ago. The temperature had been getting warmer every day, ice falls dripping heavily, but we still keep climbing as the placements are really plastic. In the end it gets too risky and we go off to do some mixed routes at the Haston cave as it is higher and colder. The next day there is a dramatic temperature drop. Great we think: all the dangerous ice falls will now be safe again.
Go up to have a look at route called Stella Artice. Arriving at its base we have a discussion about the best place to belay. My mate Rob almost goes to the right side of the fall, but on a whim changes his mind and stands on the left (possibly the best subconscious decision he has ever made!). I lead the pitch a little spooked by the creaky, brittle ice. At the top of the steep section I pull into a scoop and start to feel a little more relaxed. I swing my next axe placement, and as the pick connects with the ice a horizontal crack spreads quickly rightwards, and I hear an ominous deep booming/cracking noise. Suddenly the whole of the right side of the ice fall breaks away. Massive fridge sized blocks collapse down (right onto the spot where rob had considered belaying). The ice keeps breaking away and I wait in horror for the inevitable. After a few terrifying seconds the noise stops and I realise that I might not die. I tear a screw from my harness and make the fastest placement I’ve ever done, clip and in a panicky voice instruct Rob to lower me very, very gently. I creep down what remains of the ice fall trying not to touch anything.

The stupid thing is that we then went and tried another ice fall. This time we chose a smear in a groove (the logic being that it would be stable because it was supported by the rock). Rob leads off (I’m too shook up to contemplate leaving the ground on anything other than the blunt end of the rope).
After about 25 feet he comes to a halt and I sense trouble. All he says, in very measured tones is ”I think I better come down now.” “What’s going on” I enquire, but Rob is in no mood for a conversation: “Just keep out of the way”. He slowly picks his way back to the deck and informs me that we need to get out of here, carefully, but quickly as the whole thing is about to go. At his high point the ice had cracked all the way across and a further crack had spread between all his points of contact.

After that we went to the pub and had a good long think about what we had just learnt about ice condition (and later as the beer flowed, the nature of risk taking, life, the universe etc).

Loads of other near misses over the years: nearly decked it off Summer Wine in Cheedale once – fell from top, pumped stupid with my hands on a massive jug (or it could have been a tree root?) ripped all my gear except a single small wire and swept very close to the ground.

Had a huge piece of steel drop about a centimetre from my face on a building site in Skipton. It would killed me stone dead for sure.

Have been dropped the length of a route a couple of times at Malham to land only feet from the floor (back when people used to belay with rope run loosely around a fig eight). One was from the last bolt on New Dawn!

Once at St Govans belaying a mate late in the day, he disappears into the easy finishing groove, and is now out of sight. I stand there daydreaming in a state of peaceful calm. Suddenly there’s a violent crashing explosion just to my right. I stagger backwards in shock to see the landing zone of a television sized block about 1 foot away from me. My mate didn’t even know he’d knocked the block off (if indeed he did?).
Had another block dropping incident at the same crag a few years later – this time I saw it coming though and had time to move.

[shurt]

i once went to climb a route that had been recommended to me and a friend up on one of the domes in Tuolumne Meadows which probably was around E3ish (my limit at the time). things were going well until i started up the third (i think) pitch which was very run out. i ended about 30 odd ft above my last bit of gear. thankfully i reached a TV sized block with good nuts behind it. as i started to mantle the block the whole thing came off and i fell around 70 ft bouncing down the slab. all i could think was "i hope my glasses don't fall off". when the rope came tight i still had my glasses on, pulled a nail off one of my fingers that had mostly got ripped off in the flight and then blacked out.

luckily my mate shouted at me to wake up and due to my recently purchased very long ropes he managed to just lower me down to the ground where i lay in a pile of snow.

a & e was a laugh as they wouldn't let me in the door without giving them my visa card. god bless the usa..!

[SA Chris]

Just remembered another daft close call, that started off seemingly innocuously, but went very wrong. Was skiing at Breckenridge early one morning after 6" or so of new snow, doing the usual hammering down groomed runs with a nice layer of fresh on them. Came gunning round a corner in a massive G turn, and at the spot where it went from being in the shade a lot to being in the sun a lot, the groomed turned to ice and both my (probably blunt) edges wshed out and I went down at full speed. slid across the piste and off the edge in the air into a glade of trees, but now backwards. One tree skimmed the top of my head (I am convinced it would have been Sonny Bono time if I had got me on the back of the head) and I was stopped when I was wrapped backwards around a tree. I think that my full Camelbak saved me, as it split the entire length and soaked everything. I felt utter relief that I could walk, but took two paces before collapsing in agony, and had to wait for ski patrol to meat wagon me off the mountain, and to Vail hospital (after the doctor had given me a "finger-test" to check for spine damage (a first for me!). MRI scan showed a compressed vertebra (but the doc reckoned that could have been old) and some spinal ligament damage, but they discharged me after a couple of days, and I was back skiing (tentatively) with enough Percoset. Doc reckoned I was extremely lucky, and every day when iw as working as a liftie and the sit skiers came to ride our lift I said there but for the grace of....

[clm]

This is a grim thread 

I was finding it quite exhilirating till Dylans.  Coming to terms with your motality is the reason why most of us do the things we rant about on this site.

Dylan, that is very, very sad.

[GCW]

I don't know about that, clm.
I personally never thought about my mortality doing crazy stuff.  Sure I'd shit myself at times, and sometimes wondered why i was there, but then afterwards I don't ever remember thinking about mortality, just the enjoyment of climbing.
Only when it was crushingly revealed did I stop and think, long and hard, about it.

A lot of the high altitude and Winter stuff is risky, and you know it's risky, but i don't think it's often a calculated decision based on risk. 

[clm]

I meant it in the enjoyment way, not the deep thinking about it way.  Just not very good at explaining things.

[jordysi]

Probably got to be, Me, Fatboyslimfast, my Astra, 120mph past the pub below frogget the checkers? 70 round the bottom corner, realising the stream had flooded across the road and frozen....

the hitcher we had picked up in shef was not impressed either :-  

[220bpm]

Probably the time my parachute failed to open and had to deploy the emergency 

Always fancied learning how to freefall, so I buggered off to the Czech Republic for my 30th birthday as a wee treat to myself.

Took an AFF (Accelerated Free Fall) course and passed easy enough. Not quite the mad rush I was expecting but more a suspension of disbelief. like, is this shit really happening? Lets face it, I arrived on a Saturday evening, did my first accompanied jump on Sunday evening and by Monday afternoon was jumping solo from 13,500ft with a 'chute I packed myself. Hmmmm 

Left there feeling really comfortable with the whole thing and soon visited my local DZ at Errol upon returning home. Lovely exiting these tiny wee Cessnas at 13,500ft above your own country, look theres ma hoose etc 

Anyway, my 49th and final jump was a bit of an episode. Last out the plane with a more experienced friend Ally and did some relative flying practice until about 5,000ft on the altimeter then track away from each other and open. I saw his 'chute open at 3,000ft but I waited until 2,000ft for a bit more fun. Mistake. The 'chute didn't open properly and formed a kind of semi-streamer. When this had happened before I just kicked and span in a circle until things untangled themselves, but on this occassion it wasn't doing any good and I couldn't get the steering/brake handles untangled from the cords attached to the main canopy. No choice. At 1,500ft I cut away and deployed the emergency 'chute.

Now it takes a couple of seconds for the reserve to open (despite being fired out by exposives!) but god-damn were those not the two longest seconds of my life as I thought the reserve had failed as well. The re-acceleration and feeling of utter despair will never be forgotten. By the time I was under control the altimeter said 750ft and I aimed for the DZ whilst watching the panic on the ground below.

Strangely, I never made it the 50th jump....(if I had that would have meant I could have started night jumps with glo-sticks stuck to my suit) 

ps - great thread btw

[fatboySlimfast]

Probably got to be, Me, Fatboyslimfast, my Astra, 120mph past the pub below frogget the checkers? 70 round the bottom corner, realising the stream had flooded across the road and frozen....

the hitcher we had picked up in shef was not impressed either :-  

the 360 spin followed by a 180 spin, coming to a stop facing the wrong way on the wrong side of the road just after the burbage cattle grid on a saturday aftenoon was also with you..............

[SA Chris]

220 bpm, a friend of mine did a weekend parachute course, and had a failure on her very first solo jump and had to land on reserve. It was her last jump too.