UKC

Has anyone ever fallen off Riders on the Storm (HVS 5a) or any similar traverse close to the sea where you have got a good chance of landing in the water before the rope comes tight? What happened next?

In reply to alex_th:

No.

In reply to alex_th:

I have a story about a similar experience.  Give me a couple of minutes.

In reply to alex_th:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/the_promenade-252/benny-14505

How do you do the neat make-the-route-name-a-link thing?

Years ago, we went to do Benny.  We were young and naive, and vibrant and energetic.  Everything was opportunity and the world was flying open with new experiences and new people and new places and so much to be lived, and so little time.

We imagined so much was possible in life, without the jaundice of disappointment.  In the same discussion that dismissed the guidebook caution about the weather for the weekend, we had convinced ourselves that the Nordwand was only VS and IV for the summer.

The guidebook suggested "a low tide and calm seas are essential".  We had neither.

But the sun was out and the daisies unfurled in the fields above, where the cows wandered.  The wind was brisk and carried our excited jabbering away.  We drew confidence from the abseil - we'd found the right spot, rigged it well, and kept coils over the enck to avoid tangles on the way down.

The sea was pushing into the zawn quite hard, but we'd come a long way, and the line of tat seemed to be out of the water most of the time.  At least the section we could see.  And the rising tide?  Well, we'd need to be quick, obviously, so no time for a more considered analysis.  It was P's turn to lead so he set off purposefully into the gloom.

I was first aware of an issue when the rope went tight.  By leaning as far down and round as I could manage, I could get nicely slapped by waves and also get glimpses of the problem.  An ancient peg had crumbled and P was dangling half in the water, only avoiding total immersion because he was clinging to a loop of rope between the two previous pegs.

At this point I confess I was quite alarmed.  The zawn no longer appeared playful and splashy.  The full majesty and power of a high sea funneled into a narrow space was on display, and my mate was likely to be negatively bouyant.  I have a terrible habit in times like this.  It helps me stay calm, but I've been told quite forcefully - so I genuinely believe it to be true - that composing funeral notices out-loud is unhelpful for others.  My recital would have brought a tear to P's eye; fortunately perhaps, he couldn't hear me muttering.

At least I'd been sensible enough to not pay out slack.  P then executed perhaps the hardest move I've ever seen - he pulled down on the loop of rope and managed to get a foot into the stirrup...and from there sort of sideways stand up to reach one of the bits of tat.  He'd even had the presence of mind to have an 8' sling round him, clipped krab to krab.  One final left-handed clutch and he was able to stand one foot in the sling, clipped to the previous peg.

I very much suspect that we'd both quite like to have given up climbing and gone home at that point.  Unfortunately it wasn't an option.  P had to finish the pitch.

And then I had to follow.

By now we had no way whatsoever of communicating, and the cave was full of water more than half the time, so I can't really claim that I climbed it.  I sort of swam, bobbed, clutched, thrashed, sobbed, heaved and prayed.  Mainly I was concerned to be holding a high aid point during the seemingly brief moments when air became available.

I don't remember the upper pitches.  Our single headtorch hadn't survived the immersion.  But a 4b grovel on slimy rock in the dark seemed gentle respite.

The next day we breezed along Traverse of the Gods.

And to those Gods I'd say: it's a privilege being young.

In reply to Moacs:

Nice tale and it is  as you say “it's a privilege being young.”

it's a privilege getting old to 

In reply to alex_th:

I've heard tail of or several instances of this on Preposterous Tales (E2 5b) generally involving the coastguard and near death experiences. Probably somthing best avoided.

In reply to alex_th:

I have a friend who fell off. Not sure if he landed in the sea first, or got caught by the rope, had no chance of pulling back on, and lowered into the brine. Either way, he untied, swam leftwards and climbed back up the approach. No drama really. I climbed the route after and gathered the gear.

In reply to alex_th:

I witnessed a rather nasty fall on this route around 20 years ago. We had descended the scramble approach to do the route at dead low tide (probably springs). The leader of the team ahead had completed the traverse and the vertical section beyond. The second followed and fell on the traverse. I don't think the ropework was as as sound as it should have been. She fell quite a long way and would normally have been in the water, but on this occasion she decked on rope stretch in the small trench beneath the traverse which was mostly exposed at that state of the tide. She was badly winded, but only slightly wet and not seriously injured. We managed to drop her our rope and help her out of the trench and up the scramble descent. I think things could have been more difficult if we hadn't been there. 

Martin

In reply to Name Changed 34:

Yes, getting old is better than the other thing

In reply to alex_th:

I watched a party having a hilarious epic on it about 15 years ago. The leader did fine, but had two seconds who weren't really up to the task, and they didn't seem to have considered the swing potential, or rope stretch. I don't recall if either of the 2 seconds, on one half rope each, through only half of the runners (iirc) fell off before they got spooked. At some point another team with them dropped a pair of ropes from the top to belay them across the traverse from above, but with around 40m of rope out. One of the seconds promptly fell off and was lucky not to end up in the sea on stretch, but stopped on a very blank section of rock and then got their prussiks out. It turned into a real comedy as they fell, prussiked and bounced their way along it, thankfully with no ill effects.

In reply to alex_th:

I was belaying someone who fell early in the traverse on 25th May 2013 (some public comments in my log book). He ended up waist deep in the sea but luckily wasn't far from the start so managed to climb back. He fell off while placing gear so left half a rack of nuts on the route and we had to abseil to get them as we both had an attack of ambivalence about the whole sea cliff climbing endeavour.

In reply to alex_th:
A less dramatic Benny incident. I was anchored at the end of the aided traverse pitch. My second decided to lean back to extract the previous nut which was in situ. He was hanging from my nut which could not take a load from this direction and eventually popped so he landed in the sea. Fortunately he was not too far away. I was able to keep his head above water on a tight rope via the next aid point/runner and then to use the dead rope to pull him below me and to make a ladder of fig8 loops for him to climb. IIRC recent guidebooks say there have been two drownings here.
Obviously in situations like this its a good idea to have all the heavy gear together ready to be quickly discarded eg on a bandolier.

In reply to alex_th:

I've enjoyed Riders on the Storm so much (three times so far) that it now forms the ringtone for my climbing friends.  No epics, fortunately.

In reply to alex_th:

Around 30 years ago I finally persuaded a friend to do Vía Missing Link (6b+) on the Toix seacliff - wisdom suggested sending the weaker member of the team out to lead the first pitch (a poorly protected sea-level traverse to a hanging stance beneath the stunning arete of the second pitch), so off he went. Chris Craggs, in one of my favourite guidebook entries of all time, suggested something along the lines that: "a fall from this pitch by either leader or second is unlikely to prove fatal but will probably dampen any enthusiasm for continuing with the climb." He was correct on both counts! 

​I finally managed to get the route done (without any dampness!) when I bumped into a random stranger staying locally a couple of years later, and subsequently made another ascent with my son and a friend, just as the sun was setting. It probably ranks somewhere in my all-time Top Ten. 

Cheers, Dom 

In reply to dominic o:

Oooh. I'd so love to do that.  Looks amazing 

In reply to alex_th:

Interesting thread.  It makes me wonder about some other spots where you really wouldn't want to fall off, but the route seems to get done regularly without too much drama.

What about  the last pitch of A Dream of White Horses (HVS 4c)?  Or Pigs on the Wing (HVS 5a) (running out of steam on the second pitch and ending up god knows where seemed a real possibility to me)?  Anyone let go on Sirplum (E1 5b) and ended up dangling?

Some watery epics above... Particularly Benny sounds like an experience not quickly to be forgotten.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Absolutely right - I don't think I would want to fall off either before or after the hanging belay on Pigs On The Wing (I can be seen hanging from just this belay in younger years in the photo gallery ), nor from the final traverse of Dream Of White Horses. It is the thought of hanging in space and having to prussik up the climbing ropes that has put me off Heart of Darkness (HVS 4c) until now, even though I have done Dream and Pigs. However... you would still be dry, and any rock which you might come into contact with would also be dry, and hopefully not getting washed by waves. I'm not saying it would be fun - like I say, still no tick for Heart Of Darkness - but it would be a different sort of not fun.

What I was really wondering about in my initial question above is e.g. what it is like getting your head back above the surface if there is enough rope out that your rack pulls you under, and what it is like getting back onto the rock in a swell.

In reply to alex_th:

I have relearnt how many times to wrap the prussiks round the rope from this location - an interesting and spectacular experience (which I've posted a description of before) - wasn't scary, probably because the weather was ok and we never felt unsafe, just a bit foolish.

In reply to alex_th:

I cant remember any part of HOD that would be particularly bad to fall off. Its readily protectable and I dont remember any of it being above empty space? 

In reply to Wil Treasure:

Was trying to remember if any non-club members had been witness to this, then spotted the username. The only real damage as I recall was that it was on a Sunday and it delayed the (already very long) drive home!

In reply to alex_th:

IIRC older guidebooks graded Benny as A1 and S which while realistic re difficulty perhaps made it sound over innocuous for the majority who don't aid climb. Hence the modern VS grade and drowning warnings I suppose. There are usually some aid points in situ.

Bull___g here as I've not been in that situation. If submerged I imagine quickly jettison gear if poss, pull up on rope and hope to grab a hold so that belayer can take in.     I've been stupid swimming sometimes and find the sea can break upwards on the rock face and then suck me back down. I've used waves to help gain height and hang on like mad, then repeat for next wave.  Climbers would have the advantage of a progress capture device aka belayer. Otherwise somehow prusik.

In reply to alex_th:

Yes, my partner took a swing after the step down, luckily some runners held so definitely ended up with damp feet but otherwise ok. Quite fraught for a few minutes, but she managed to gain contact with rock & retrieved herself.

This occurred during her first encounter with sea cliff trad in this country, quite a memorable introduction that’s obviously made a lasting impression since .

In reply to alex_th:

Happened to me on Britomartis (HVS 4c). Here’s what I wrote in my logbook:

Turns out it was not wise to start this at high tide before the sun had come around — even though an old-timer had cruised it right before us. As I was finishing the initial traverse left a foot slipped on the wet, slimy rock and I fell into the sea! Luckily it was a soft fall into the water, and a bomber black offset kept me from going below chest-deep. I managed to clamber back up onto the ledge, dried out and recomposed myself for an hour or so. Izzy lent me her dry chalk bag. Ascending was not an option as we had used said old-timer’s abseil rope and he had since pulled it. But I was glad in the end because once I got my nerve up to lead again and reached dry rock, it was blissful easy jug-hauling in the sun…