... was having one of the heel loops on my climbing shoe clip itself into a quickdraw while being lowered at speed on the climbing wall today. Result: stuck with a foot at chest height, and much mirth from below. Seriously considering taping the loops from now on!
A pal of mine managed to get the heel loop on the bottom of one of the legs on his Ron Hills clipped into his runner when leading the top pitch of Mulatto wall. He managed to rip the loop off and finish the route otherwise it might have been embarrassing/nasty.
> A pal of mine managed to get the heel loop on the bottom of one of the legs on his Ron Hills clipped into his runner when leading the top pitch of Mulatto wall. He managed to rip the loop off and finish the route otherwise it might have been embarrassing/nasty.
In the dark, on Monolith Grooves (IV 5) a long time a go. In a chimney, in an Egyptian type position I got the heel point of my crampon hooked in a hex handing off my harness gear loop. Total panic and in the days before leashless, a complete faff to get out of wrist loop, reach down, free it, so I could make my next moves up!
I remember nutkeys hooking Ron Hill stirrups was a standard thing in the 90s!
I watched a friend velcro his foot to the sling on his last runner on Chequers Buttress last year. Very funny after the fact. At the time we were a bit concerned he would pull the runner out and subsequently deck.
I once managed to get my crampon front points hooked through the keeper loop of my belay device in the back of my harness on the Midi arete. Faceplanted in the snow straight ahead, very mindful of the yawning abyss to the left. I have no idea to this day how it happened, but suffice to say my belay device lives elsewhere now when crampons are worn.
High-stepping on a 5.10 slab, a cam hooked under my pant cuff. I didn't realize it until I tried to stand up and found myself trapped in a crouch with no handholds. Tried to wiggle out, which was successful---a mere a 20 foot fall and the cam was no longer hooked. Fortunately, things went better on the second try.
I once had a heel loop snag between a runner's bottom krab and the rope, fortunately I had another runner a bit above it which stopped me completely inverting
Yes I managed to get the heel loops caught in a quick draw whilst heel hooking on the roof section of the comp wall at ratho (quite a long horizontal section of wall) a few years ago. I was already quite pumped, but after panicking for a few seconds I managed to unclip the loop out of the quick draw. I cut the loops on my shoes for a while after that, but eventually stopped bothering, I think it was a fairly rare incident, and hopefully won't happen again!
Pulling into an overhang above a ledge, I managed to catch the rope coming from below with a panic draw at the back of my harness. No way back, so I had to pull through against the pulley amplified rope drag.
I was climbing Comb Gully - nice conditions. Both feet up and tried to stand up, which was disconcertingly hard. Taking an axe out to move out also not possible. Crouched back down again, no problem. Stand up - disconcertingly hard. And repeat. After which the penny dropped that the gully wall was just behind me and a loop of elastic crampon-holding thingy on the back of my rucksack was caught under a downward pointing spike. A bit of a tussle and normal service was resumed. Don't use those elastic thingies any more
In a similar situation to Toby, one of my alpine quickdraws hooked itself onto a crampon spike when I was keeling down doing up a boot. Cue a hilarious scene of hopping theatrics when trying to stand up afterwards.
Fortunately this was on relatively level ground but to have done such a thing at any kind of exposed position would have been considerably less funny!
First time Scottish winter climbing. I was just after being dragged up Peter Pan on Ben udlaidh by a guide. I made very sloppy coils of the rope and slung it over my back. As we were descending I managed to hook my rear crampon points on one of the sloppy coils. Cue face plant into the snow and rapid descent face first down the slope towards the looming cliff face. At least I got to test my self arrest technique. The look on the guide’s face was pretty funny as I whooshed past him.
Once when lowering, the rope managed to clip itself into the krab that attached my chalk bag to the back of my harness. I couldn't figure out for ages why I was being pulled away from the wall.
Snagging a foot (or, worse, a crampon) in the heel loop on a pair of Ronhills seems to be quite a common problem - it's also a summer issue if you wear studded things such as Mudclaws. I too cut off the loops (wear one pair in summer, two in winter) and I know of other people who do the same.
Potentially the worst crampon-snagging moment I've had came years ago on thankfully quite a flat bit of Stob Binnein. Managed to impale the rubberised shaft grip of a walking axe with a front point in a way that I don't think I could easily do again if I tried. Did this mid-stride and suddenly found myself hopping around on the other leg for a few seconds wondering what on earth had happened. The axe is still in use and has had duct tape covering the flappy bit of rubber from that day to this.
More seriously, I've seen someone catch a crampon on a stock fence while semi-vaulting it in a jaunty fashion. That resulted in red snow.
Whilst on the hanging belay of a steep multi-pitch, my partner, at the limit of her ability shot past me. As she past me her nut key hooked into my nostril. Amidst cries of 'slack' 'don't move' 'reverse' 'come down' etc etc She finally realised that I was not short roping her, and was having difficulty shouting stop due to one nostril now being very much longer than the other. Fortunately no permanent damage was done (I must have a long flexible nose?) Made a good pub discussion point!
Mine was catching my nut-key (attached to my harness) on one of my crampons, whist kneeling down to sort the ropes at a belay. Because, of course, I clip my nut-key at the back of my harness, unengangling this mess - nut-keys, by their nature, being good at hooking onto things - took place with my hands behind my back. trying not to fall off an ice ledge. After that, I remembered to clear the unnecessary stuff off my harness!
I was belaying my friend, and another friend was climbing a sport route next to him in Avon Gorge. As my guy fell off a move one of the draws on his harness clipped onto the harness of the other guy as he fell past him and they were stuck together hanging off their last clips. Funny scenes.
