UKC

A climber fell off Fern Crack at the Roaches today, breaking his ankle.

I was belaying a leader up Rooster next to where the climber fell off Fern Crack. It looked as if the climber lost his footing on the slabby upper ledge of Fern Crack slipped a distance along the slabby ledge and then fell towards Chicken Run. He seemed to be flipped upside down hitting his head against the rock a few times and it was not clear which way he would end up. As he went head first towards a ledge he was slowing down and the rope stretch made him touch the rock head first rather than impacting with full force.

Feel free to contact me directly if you were involved and want to know what I saw.

In reply to Mark Stitson (ULGMC):

I'm not sure why you've posted this. Haven't you just told us what you saw? Is this to string out the drama of witnessing an accident, or to assist with any future litigation?

In reply to switch:

I'd like to assume that it's in a good place half way between the two. The OP was belaying a leader thus unable to offer any immediate assistance. My speculation is that the victim of the broken ankle was dealt with by others, but that somewhere along the line there may be a requirement for an incident report to filled in...and the OP is offering to assist with this (he may have had a better and more impartial view of the whole incident, than those who attended it more directly)

In reply to Mark Stitson (ULGMC):

I attended to this climber, after witnessing the fall. We passed the details of the fall to the mountain rescue team, who did an excellent job. His friend was kind enough to send a text to say that he was doing ok.

In reply to Spiral:

Good to hear the climber is doing ok.