UKC

Today I was being lowered off an indoor route, and a quickdraw clipped itself to a heel loop on the back of my climbing shoe. It was actually quite tricky to extract myself! Never happened before, in decades of climbing .... didn't know it was a thing

I've got a friend who saw someone end up with a heel loop clipped into a draw on lead on a sport route, and only realised when it stopped him moving up. Apparently he couldn't reverse the move, and thought he was going to fall and whip onto the shoe...top rope rescue answered his prayers! 

So you're not the only one!

I've heard of that before - it might have even have happened to a mate... I'll ask who I think it might have been. 

I got one of the heel spikes of my crampons attached to a hex on my harness once, in the dark, in a blizzard, on a hard chimney bit of Monolith Grooves (IV 5). Back in the day of wrist loops that was a right PITA to sort out.

I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago whilst heal hooking on the big horizonal roof on the comp wall at ratho. I was quite pumped so a bit of a panic sorting it as didn't want to end up hanging upside down by my shoe! Managed to free myself, big relief! 

Was belaying when my friend got his heel loop clipped on lead. Luckily he managed to downclimb and unclip it. I'm sure it would flip you upsidedown in a fall I wonder how much weight they can take?

My partner had his crampon clip into a runner. He couldn't unclip it and it looked bac for a while. He eventually managed to get the nut to come out.

I once got a stupid bracelet that I used to wear when I was young and daft, clipped into a wire towards the top on Hawkwing at the Roaches. Took an absolute age to get it free, all without use of my other hand that was required to stay on the rock. My belayer had no idea what was going on as it was too windy to hear me.

I've had the following stupidly unlikely things happen:

I did the crux of Last Rose of Summer (7a), and my leg loop clipped itself on the top karabiner of a quickdraw. Getting out of that without falling, while on the crux holds, took some doing...

Also, I was doing some climb in the Gower, did a move, my back foot kicked one of the draws, unclipped it from the hanger and sent it flying down the rope.

Finally, and most hilariously, I took a fall on some trad route, looked down as I was falling, and the slightly too long tail on my stopper knot poked me in the eye and gave me a corneal abrasion. What are the sodding chances?!

Unbeknown to the two parties on adjacent routes, their respective belayers were called similar names, let’s call them Ted and Jed and both leaders were out of sight. One called safe *ed with the wind distorting, result both leaders being told you’re off, followed by one shouting put them back on, and the other shouting for slack and that they were safe again. and so the confusion continued.

I guess its not that rare, this exact thing happened to me.  In Yangshuo(just in case your friend saw me)

This happened to me as I pulled the crux of a trad route at tremadog - placed a really good nut, moved up with difficulty and then found myself trapped by the ankle. It was easier to rip the velcro and slide my foot out than unclip it - the rest of the pitch was interesting with only one shoe on.

Can happen, seen that also (less problematic) happen to ones shoelaces at a local indoor gym...

And for first hand experience, clipped my last QD on an ice-screw in cruddy ice to the crampons metal loop... those were old grivels ones, so from the toe-bail you had this metal strip on which end you have a ring... you thread the heel-piece strap though... That was not fun.


Oh, and naturally clippin' ones gear loops to gear (on the wall) happens from time to time....

Lastly, sporadic gusts of wind can make ones pads into kites... looks fun, but less so when you're high up above less than stellar landing... Often happens near bodies of water, so that the improptu kite lands in said water...

I've untied my own shoelaces by standing on them more times that I should have, both indoors and outdoors.

Upward progress on a trad route has also been rudely interrupted by my nut tool catching in the last piece of gear.

I used to do some instructing with a Guide group, many years ago. At lunchtime, they'd all sit down together to eat and I'd try and get a bit of soloing in myself, often to get to the top to move the ropes for the afternoon.

If I wasn't quick enough, one of the leaders would clip the end of a rope on the heel loop of my Tracksters and say "take this up with you"!

Made a few moves a bit more interesting, but fortunately never got it stuck.

I had a bit of a tumble on a descent years ago when my nut key hooked onto my shoelace. 

Sport climbing is unsafe. Should ban it. No "loop" on my hobnail boots.

I got an unlikely fingerboard injury when, at the start of the pandemic, I got a Beastmaker in the post, took it out of its box, held it at waist-height while my four-year-old hung off it... and then smashed myself in the face when she let go.

I've had a belay device on the back of my harness clip itself to the other end of a rope when lowering off. It was weird drifting away from the wall until I figured out what was going on, and not dangerous in any way. 

There's a video of Steve Mac getting caught on an open quickdraw, mid-crux (scuppering that burn), shortly before his successful ascent of that 9b at Malham. 

On Bicycle Repair Man (E1 5b) I had a totem on my harness drop and twist through the krab on a quickdraw, locking and lifting the sinker nut out as I got up onto the ledge (which I think is probably the hardest move on the climb?). Pretty horrible to get stopped mid-move and then lift your gear out. 

Another weird thing I've had happen on both sport and trad (I think it was Strapiombante (E1 5b), was the rope re-clipping itself into the gear below when I'd taken a bit of a swinging fall. Not a big fan, as if the top piece failed I would have been back on the ground in both cases. 

I had a similar thing happen to me, back at the old Warwick Uni wall, probably around 1999. Climbing through the lower roof on the lead wall, I managed to clip the heel loop into the quickdraw and was pretty surprised when I couldn't climb any further. 

Another unlikely thing I've seen: 

At Battleship, I watched a quickdraw totally unclip itself from the first bolt of Pump Hitler. It was correctly placed, but somehow twisted itself in such a way that it ended up falling out entirely. Luckily the climber was a few more bolts up at the point so all was fine. Sort of unbelievable, but it happened. 

Yesterday at the Roaches I watched a nut pull out during a second's fall. The piece was high in the corner of a 90 degree change in rope direction, so entirely unsurprising that it pulled. What surprised me was that the nut also flew off the quickdraw and landed on the ground (the quickdraw remaining attached to the rope). Not really dangerous or significant but I hadn't seen it happen before. Can only assume that the nut spun around on the krab while it was flying through the air so that it ended up sat on the gate and its momentum then forced the gate open.

Similar to others, I've fallen flat on my face when my nut key has hooked itself to the back of my shoes while walking (must have lifted a foot up to scratch an itch or something). Fortunately I was walking along the cliff rather than towards it!

I was leading Comb Gully in very robust weather.  I had both both axes in, worked my feet up, and attempted to stand up.  It sort of worked, but the more I straightened my legs, the harder it became to maintain any sort of stability.  I stepped down, had a breather and tried again, with the same result.  On the fourth go, the penny dropped - the side wall of the gully was right behind me, and one of the elastic crampon-holding bungees on the back of my rucksack was firmly caught on a downward-pointing spike.  After a brief tussle, normal service was resumed.  Not a fan of bungees on rucksacks these days...

Not happened to me but a friend had a rat run down his arm and launch off his back on Spanish Island sea cliff. No reports of the rats wellbeing were forthcoming. 
 

Not climbing but abseiling, a jet(Jaguar I think) flew over the top of the crag at low level. Not ideal. 

Climbing on Beeston Tor once (forget which route) placed a nice big hex and pressed on. Sometime later my second comes up, removes said hex and releases the swarm of angry bees trapped behind it. Second lobs off with a yell and spends ages trying to navigate round the bees

Was once soloing a ice route in lurchers crag in the Cairngorms, we had  toured in on our skis, just as I was mid way through the crux, as I swung my tool back, the pick caught between my ski and my sticky skins leaving the tool basically impossible to get out. My mate had to solo up to me, and get my axe unstuck, before I pumped out. Was totally daft not to have a lot least a screw on my harness. 

I'm a male and in my early 20s I had very very long hair. A couple of times it got thoroughly caught up in a descendeur while I was abseiling. I learned to always carefully tie it up after that

Not fun, believe me

I did that once. Free-hanging abseil too. I did at least learn my lesson though, I never came close to doing it a couple of times... 🙂

At Joshua Tree there is a slab with several pleasant routes on and underneath is a deep vertical crack. It's a gear trap and one of us dropped something down it. We heard it tinkle down. Being a skinny chap i volunteered to have a look for it. I found the entrance to the fissure down to the side and began squirming in. I could see a veritable treasure trove of dropped gear so wriggled sideways into the depths and managed to retrieve our peice and quite a few others.

At this point I realised I couldn't turn my head to guide me out and the walls seemed to have closed in on my chest. The blind retreat in a state of rising panic was.... interesting.

Once whilst soloing a route at a crag with nobody else there to assist, I got my foot totally jammed in a crack and couldn't shift it at all.

I eventually had to undo my shoe lace one handed and pull my foot out of the shoe, then prise the shoe out of the crack before putting it back on and fastening it as best I could one handed before finishing the route.

At the climbing wall once I'd clipped above an overhang but my feet were still below it when I fell, so predictably my ankle caught the rope and flipped me upside down. Standard schoolboy error. But somehow I managed to loop the rope back on itself and tie a half-hitch round my ankle. I called for slack but this didn't help, as the rope below the top draw was firmly tied to my ankle. When I tried to haul myself up the rope, I hauled my foot up too and it didn't get any closer. I was well and truly stuck, and just had to hang there until someone tied in and climbed a neighbouring line, and they managed to untie me.

There was the moment in the mid 80s (1986?) when my earing caught in my Peter Crew style white wool sweater while I was on the crux of Inbred (HVS 5a). I completed the pitch with my head on my left shoulder, and with a limited range of movement!

I've now got so many extra things to worry about when I go climbing, I'll have to take a list.

Don't worry. There are plenty more which will not even be on your list

Be careful not to fall while consulting the list of things that could go wrong. In fact, better add that to the list as well!

Once climbing at Meadfoot Quarry on https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/meadfoot_quarry-1128/nervous_laugh...

which is quite a bold climb when one of the optics fell out of my spectacles. It was like climbing via braille. My eyes couldn't seem to focus with only one lens.  I had to feel for the handholds until I realised what had gone wrong. And completed the route without my glasses. Fortunately someone below found the lens which had popped out.

Something similar happened to me on Fools Gold in Bus Stop, I'd done the crux and got a finger jam above when my hand popped out with some force and flicked past my head, I stayed on but the world had gone blurred. It took some moments to work out that I hadn't had a stroke or something but had merely knocked my glasses off (they were caught below luckily).

I've taken loads of Scout and Guide groups climbing and long hair is a regular faff and I should really put a couple of hair bands in my rucksack just in case.

Oddest one I've had, though, is a girl getting her hair caught in the buckles of a chest harness when trying to take it off!

I got into the habit of always extending my device when abseiling when I had long hair. I still do this now, even though I had it cut 12 years ago.

I was once padding up a slab pitch near Tryfan when a fighter jet roared past lower than me. I was so startled I nearly toppled off. Not sure how unusual that is, though!

In a similar vein to the heel loop stories, i managed to clip a leg loop in to a draw mid way through the first cruxy section on The Ashes (7c+) at Kilnsey. Didn't realise until I was above the draw (and fortunately on some massive jugs). Glad I didn't have to test the fall on to the draw via leg loop.

I once saw an Australian chap get his beard caught in a belay device when abseiling, there was a lot of swearing!

In Yosemite in 1980 a woman managed to get a breast tangled in her rap apparatus. It did look very sore.

Was climbing on the etive slabs in the 70s when a chap wearing tweed breeches nearby fell off and slid down on his arse. There was a big puff of smoke as he rapidly descended. I shouted across a comment that he was going so fast his eb’s had burnt rubber. His reply was that he’d had a box of matches in his back pocket😀

Yeah that happened to me once in Glen Pean. Close enough that I could taste the jet fuel!

A female friend, who shall remain nameless, was abseiling into Stackpole, Pembrokeshire. It was a hot sunny day so she was topless. She managed to burn a nipple on the hot descender. 

I was once almost benighted at the Eldon Square "Berghaus" bouldering wall some years ago. 

Late in the evening and last one left I had one final go up the panel that is vertical for three quarters of its height but ending in an overhang.  At the Berghaus wall you could either jump 18ft off onto totally unsuitable gym mats, or "top out" using the thick metal bar that ran across the top of the wall and then climb back to floor level via an easy way down.  I usually topped-out, and tried to do the same this time.  But as I did so the metal bar proved slick with the various sweaty secretions left from the evening's climbers, and as I levered myself up my arm slipped behind the bar  just as I reached the point of no return.  For a terrifying moment it seemed like as was about to topple back with my arm trapped between bar and wall edge, but a desperate scrabble got me onto the roof of the wall, lying down and gasping, but with my arm trapped.  I tried to pull my arm free, but even with the greasy bar to assist I was stuck fast.  No-one else around in the hall, but I thought maybe I could try shouting (embarrassing as that would be). 

It was then that all the lights went off.  Presumably the centre staff thought everyone was out of the hall so they'd started the centre shutdown procedures.  Somewhat alarmed at the prospect of staying stuck there overnight I renewed my efforts to free myself.  No joy.  I tried shuffling on my back along the dusty roof, and praise be - after about 20 foot the gap between bar and roof widened slightly and I got my arm out.

After carefully climbing down in the dark and picking up my stuff, I groped my way to the door and to the centre exit (lit thankfully) where the last couple of staff members were putting their coats on to leave.  Nonchalantly as I could I gave a "bye then" adieu as I shuffled out, covered in dust, cobwebs and (probably) rat droppings.

To paraphrase a quote from (I think) Hard Grit: "it's not often you get benighted on an indoor bouldering wall".

Photos should be provided for historical accuracy and for prevention of further accidents

Asking for a friend

Given the time frame that was almost certainly the late Geordie Skelton of the Ochils Mountaineering Club.

This happened to my friend as he was leading up a route outdoors!

I saw a woman climbing topless at Buoux...she slipped down the slab and seemed to have a bad case of gravel rash . I thought better of looking too closely but she squealed a lot!

10 years ago, soloing a gully on Creag Meagaidh.

I'd done my boots up too tight and one of my feet was getting quite sore, so after the main ice pitch I stood on a wee ledge, loosened off my crampon (strap-on G12s) and slackened off the lace a bit. This didn't provide quite enough relief, so I shook my foot a bit to try and get it a bit slacker, then watched dumbstruck as my crampon clattered off down the gully. After much fear-induced swearing I carried on up the thankfully much easier rest of the gully. Then followed the slowest ever descent of a neve-filled Raeburn's Gully, facing in and keeping three points of contact on ground I could have walked down facing out, to retrieve my crampon lying about 10m up from the base of the gully.   

Thumb loop of a crack glove clipped into the carabiner of a number 5 cam when two thirds of the way up this monstrosity. Total nightmare. Sumo (5.10b)

I collapsed in a heap on the floor after getting lowered off. And I thought I was alright at cracks.

Similar thing happened to me when climbing The Reiver in the lakes . Jet roared past so close I could see the crew laughing at me through the windows!

Hope they could also lipread.....

Those of you who know Eddie Dealtry might well have heard his story of having been on a crag somewhere when a fighter jet came past pretty close. Eddie was sure the pilot had seen him, and a minute or so later the plane duly made a second pass, even closer, with the afterburners turned on. When Eddie got home that evening pretty much the first thing his wife Jen said was "Eddie, what's happened to your eyebrows...?"

It was Arapiles, not Pembroke but there is an infamous picture in one of the first issues of High.

I've had this too. I get the theory (that you can stick wet clothes under the bungee straps and they'll dry etc.) but it seems more of a Californian thru-hiking fantasy than a Scottish winter reality. 

At Joshua Tree, half way up a route, my wife and belayer suddenly asked me if I was safe, barely waited for a reply, before she dropped the rope and legged it.  Then we both watched a rattle snake roll over the rope coils on the ground.  It made me a little nervous to stick my hand on unseen ledges after that.

Climbing on the Ben, heard an odd noise, looked **down** and saw a fighter jet below me, it approached Carn Mor Dearg from below, flipped upside down and went up and over it.  One of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

Got my hair caught in Grigri on a very windy day. It was tied back in a braid but the tail of it got whipped around by the wind and stuck in the Grigri while I was belaying. Luckily my climbing partner was at a bolt and clipped himself in so I could sort it out. Wasn't the worst thing his belayers put him through on that day either.

Also caught my nut key on the heel loop of my shoes once while climbing. 

Was climbing in Northumberland standing on to of cliff when I got buzzed by a Tornado , so close I dived for the floor. Reckon he was about 10 feet above me! 

climbing at swanage I finished the route and sat down to belay only to find that numerous cam lobes spiked my unprotected backside. ouch,

Very early in my climbing career, I topped-out at Simonside to a fast jet coming straight at me, low and at a vast rate of knots. Truly spectacular.

It must be common in Northumberland. Some years ago I was climbing at Bowden Doors with my son and his novice friend. I had just gibbered to the top of Scorpion and as I stuck my head over the top, I saw a Tornado approaching silently from the north east at what seemed zero feet.

   I braced myself and was about to shout a warning, when I thought nah. I hadn't realised the range of their expletives until that time and was nearly yanked off as my son curled up in a ball.

It wasn't the 19th September 2019 per chance? On that day I was climbing up onto the Great Tower on Tower Ridge when an unseen jet (probably on a similar flight path) went screaming past which caused me to instinctively hunch up for cover, close my eyes and clunch ma buttocks. The natural rock amphitheatre amplifying the noise to a deafening level. To put it into context, many moons ago I served on the old Ark Royal which operated Buccaneer and Phantom fixed wing aircraft. They sounded like Vespa scooters compared to the sudden, terrifying din that day on the Ben. 

It was not 2019, more like 1999... And I had forgot about the amphitheatre effect, it was deafening.

I was once having lunch at the cairn on Ben Cleuch, sitting facing south, and had just stood up to sort out my belongings when a helicopter zipped straight over the top from the north. It was probably 30ft up and in no danger of scalping me, but it felt more like 15ft at most and I instinctively ducked.

In terms of bigger/slower but still very impressive aircraft, a few years ago I was with a couple of friends on top of An Caisteal near Crianlarich on a nice day when we heard a rumbling noise to the west. Took a few seconds to realise it was a Galaxy - presumably a USAF one, as they're occasionally to be seen at the American bit of Prestwick - coming up Glen Falloch, way way below us. Hard to know quite how high above the glen floor it was but we reckoned 200ft max. 

We then wandered over to Beinn a' Chroin and exited the usual way down the glen. Not long before reaching the road we met a bloke who had had the thing fly directly over him. It had been a good three hours earlier but he was still revved up and all he could talk about was it having blotted out the sun.

I was putting up a new route in Berry Slade. The Royal Navy/Marines were anchored off Illfracombe and were about to invade Wales. A twin engined Chinook went overhead with an underslung jeep, it appeared that they were trying to keep the wheels on the ground, and there is nothing in the Tank Range to hide behind.

I saw an F1-11 do that thirty tears ago while walking on the Wee Buchaille.  Standard practice using terrain following radar.  Fighters can pull more 'g' upwards than downwards (its a human physiology limit really) so they roll upside-down as they go over a col  to get back down into the next valley more quickly.  Then they roll upright and they're batting along the valley bottom at 60m altitude.  As you say,  it's pretty impressive to see.

Not climbing, but I just got buzzed by the sea plane on Loch Lomond. Crossing from Inchcailloch to Balmaha, not in its usual habitat. Sightseeing trip? Or did I abort a landing? Thought it was a boat behind me at first.

At least it does not have afterburners