UKC

I reckon I have 6 left.

3 very close shaves on Mont Blanc, Half Dome and Tryfan Bach where each could, and should, have ended in death due to my own incompetence but somehow didn't.

Its a fine line sometimes...

In reply to Babika:
I've got 7.

Nearly pile-driving my head into the ground (cheers Ben) and some incredibly dodgy crevasse crossing have used two up.

Edit: Actually 6, I suppose I should loose one for going over the Snakes and Ladders bridge about a week before it fell down; I distinctly remember thinking halfway across that the two halves used to be attached.

In reply to Babika:

skydiving near misses (er...about 4), two motorbike near misses, couple of climbing near misses (winter...don't think I've had anything too scary in summer), one near miss fell running (tripping just before a very large drop down a very steep 'on your bum' type descent and nearly going over head first)..........

I'm gonna stop since I'm already dead apparently.

In reply to Babika:

Lucky Jim. Way past nine long ago.

Storms, falling off mountains, hit by cars, falling off motorcycles ...

Interesting though.

In reply to Babika:



2 spent

Would've lost one drinking in London almost 10 years ago. Went out with some people I didn't know well, then at about midnight suddenly got too drunk for my own comfort, and left to return to the hostel. Needed to find a tube station - so just went walking in any direction. I turned right. There was a tube station 2 doors to the left...
Kept walking, walked a few blocks, and from here - memory is gone.
I then was dreaming - a cold, confusing and wet dream. I was outside my door, needing to get in, but it wouldn't open. I yelled for all my life to be let in, but it wouldn't work. Then the police came. Slowly the realization that I wasn't dreaming set in.
Officer: "why where you knocking on these people's door, yelling for them to let you in or "you'll effing kill them"?"
Me: "I'm so sorry, I thought I lived here."
Officer: "and why is your head bleeding everywhere?"
Me: "I don't know, I must've hit it"
Officer: "and why are you soaking wet? It's been a dry night. Did you jump in the Thames? Did you jump in the Thames!?!"
Me: "I don't know!"

Was popped in an ambulance and then went to hospital instead.

My trousers were covered in algae and mud, I had no clue where I was, 2 hours of time had disappeared, all my possessions and clothing and body parts were in order. No idea what happened, but it's no stretch to think I could've drowned in such a state. I'll never know if I accidentally had my drink spiked (no-one would do it on purpose!), or if it was just the alcohol.

Second one was in New Zealand. We had an extra day while on a tramp, so decided to do a peak - Mt Harper. It's 2222m tall and would be classed as alpine. I thought we could just follow the ridge to the summit, descend via a col to a track by a river. Basically we ended up soloing an alpine rock route in summer, with almost no equipment. Loads of loose rock, and at one very steep part above a convex slope, with scree everywhere and everything loose, I pulled out a handhold - it pulled down a conveyer belt of scree, pulling blocks down - one of which sconed me on the head. I've been punched in the face before and lost consciousness, and this was not much of a weaker hit. If I had lost consciousness, I probably would've been found at the valley floor...
Not to mention that my only other handhold was as loose as a sausage in a hallway... I started feeling very faint immediately after being struck, and blood was pouring vigorously out of my head. We had a PLB which we could've used, but luckily the wound clotted, and we were able to get to safety eventually (the rest of the day was an epic in itself)
I'm still ashamed of the atrocious decisions I made that day and I hope I've learned my lesson.

I have 2 scars on my head to remind me of my idiocy.

In reply to SenzuBean:
Good question.
1. Nearly drowned trapped underwater on barbed wire after capsizing a canoe. In Scotland. In winter. With no wetsuit.
2. Fell almost the height of a route in the Wye Valley, stopping at ground level on rope stretch with just a number one Wallnut loose in a pocket between me and the ground
3. As a child, hit by a car (my own doctor!): in hospital for a considerable period
4. In a dinghy on Loch Lomond getting swamped by big waves: I have no idea why we didn't sink and drown (no life jacket)
5. In a dinghy on a loch in the north of Scotland, exact same scenario
6. Swimming in the sea alone off the north coast of Scotland, hit in the face by a wavelet, water down my lungs, barely made it to shore to cough it out
7. Hit by a car crossing the road, flipped over the back of it, landed feet first not head first, got away with cuts and bruises
8. The most terrified I have ever been was going south on the M74 towards Carlisle. Torrential rain started, so heavy that my windscreen wipers were completely overwhelmed. I slowed to a crawl, with HGVs hammering past, swerving and blaring their horns. I went as fast as I can in utter terror that lasted a couple of minutes until the rain eased.

I reckon there were others if I thought about it. But let's say I have one left!

In reply to Babika:

I must have lost one in that car accident when I was 4. I had brain injuries and was in a coma - I think things were touch and go.

Came very close to being chopped to bits by a huge propeller, James Bond style, in a sailing accident. That was pretty terrifying.

So I'm hoping I've still got 7!

In reply to Babika:

Not sure, wrong place on a mountain in the alps in a thunderstorm, 2gully avalanched just as we split into combe gully, and several slightly less close calls. Perhaps 5 or 6. All many years ago thankfully, but I don't think near misses improve your future judgement provided you survive!

In reply to Babika:

About 5 left, 'nuff said.

In reply to Babika:
I'll have to ask the Mrs. She can get a bit 'stabby' when riled. I've caught her grasping a knife a few times with a smile on her face. I'm sure she's just biding her time

In reply to Babika:

None!

In reply to Babika:

1 fell off table with a ruler in my mouth, faceplant caused ruler to snap off and part of it lodged in my lung.
2 crossbow bolt through armpit.
3 flung across garden after drilling into back of consumer unit.
4 car crash, wedged in back seat for three hours.
5 accidental shotgun discharge, hit in groin and chest by pellets ricocheting off paving slab.
6 stabbed and broken neck in attack at school.
7 9mm round in hip from range accident.
8 decked from part way up frogatt pinnacle, belayed by stoner mate who had lost interest.
9 slid all the way down capstone chimney soloing.
10 peeled off diamond crack, suspended by jammed shoe for a couple of minutes and then fell head first breaking collarbone and arm.
11 knocked myself out for a few minutes while running, looked at watch and stepped on a branch, the other end tipped up and hit me in the jaw.
12 knocked out for several minutes during a karate tournament. Opponent was a sore loser and punched me in the back of the head while I was towelling down.
13 severed an artery in my forearm when my foot slipped practising iaido.
14 crushed against a bus stop by a driver who had bumped onto the pavement to answer the phone.

Oops, I appear to be on borrowed time.

In reply to Clarence:

Do you find it hard to get climbing partners?

In reply to Trangia:

They all know me as "Lucky"...

In reply to Babika:

Two childhood cycling accidents.
One cycling accident related mix up with anaesthetic.
One and a half suicide attempts (one was a bit pathetic, though the intent was there).
An avalanche near miss.
Another cycling accident.

I make that 0.5 lives left

In reply to Babika:

Think I have 6 left.


1) nearly died as a teenager by bleeding out, when I almost amputated my hand with a circular saw, I was adjusting the blade when the circuit breaker was turned back on by a numpty.

2) nearly died when pushed off a 9ft wall when escaping the year above at school, comatosed for two days

3) survived cancer.

several near epics when climbing but nothing as close as the none climbing incidents.

In reply to Babika:
Good question, but impossible to count...
One's definitely gone: Resuscitated in A&E after a motorbike crash. The police recorded the incident as a fatality.
Apart from that there's a long list of dumb stuff I've done that I was lucky to survive. If I count one I count them all, so I'm way past 9 lives.
One that springs to mind:
Riding along an empty motorway at 2am at about a ton, I suddenly had what I can only describe as an auditory hallucination. I heard, clear as ever, the sound a bike makes as it slides down the road on its side. A sound I've heard a few times - while sliding along watching it. It obviuosly couldnt be real, but it really spooked me and I backed off to about 60 for the next few miles to my exit. Once I left the motorway and slowed right down I heard a regular clunking from the back wheel. On investigation I found the chain had shed one side of the split-link, and the link was only hanging in by a few mm. A few miles more and the chain would have separated. I doubt I'm lucky enough to survive a chain coming off at 100mph.

In reply to Babika:

Blimey

Reading some of the replies on here...... makes you think.

Twodada - that circular saw accident sounds like Johnny Cash's brother in Walk the Line. But he died and it sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it...

Ericinbristol and Clarence - I'm actually fairly surprised that you're still alive. Someone's looking out for up there.

In reply to Babika:



I know what you mean. Just compare it to something like the accident reports on Rock and Ice: http://www.rockandice.com/climbing-accident-reports - there's pretty much no difference between the people who're alive here, and the people dead there. All it takes is one stupid decision / mistake.

In reply to Babika:

Think im running well into the minus...guess my luck cant last forever though

In reply to Babika:
All mine were well gone by the age of 20, and since then I have been using up many more. I guess they have belonged to other people. Sorry. It's been fun though!

In reply to Babika:

Used 3 I think....one very near miss in the car, would have been my fault as young and stupid, got blown up once and if I hadn't stopped to roll a crafty fag would have been closer and when actually falling in winter managed to swing a desperate axe which found the only solid snow in the whole area. All scary except being blown up which was just surreal.

In reply to Babika:
Have had a bus dent my rear wheel while cycling after emerging in front of it, and nearly knocked myself out from going into the back of a car and head butting the rear window, and fell off at close to 30mph and broke my helmet and was concussed for two and a half weeks, nearly got beaten up by two psychos in Sheffield city centre but managed to zig zag down some side streets to lose them, and used to freewheel without braking down the hill I lived at the top of as a teenager, and shot round a blind bend a hundred times until I nearly hit two school kids who were crossing one day, I sometimes ponder about the number of cars I might have hit emerging from that junction if I'd timed things differently. Think my bike has been more dangerous than other people on the whole. The concussion crash wasn't nice, as I had time to know it was going to happen and wait for things to unfold. I guess I've got five or six lives left, or none if you include near misses I don't know about due to quirks of timing. Makes me glad to be here.

In reply to Babika:

I had two near misses when I worked on trawlers in the 80's, one was getting my foot into a bight of rope as it went over the side, sheer luck allowed it to slide off my boot.
Another incident we me on a motorbike and a lorry pushing me onto the central reservation made me scream at the time.

So about 6 left I guess.

In reply to Babika:

I only need one... I'm no pussy!