UKC

I noticed this on a sea-kayaking website.
http://lifeboatscrapbook.blogspot.com/2010/10/expect-un-expected.html

In reply to charlieg0pzo: Any ideas where it is? Can't work it our.

In reply to charlieg0pzo:
two chaps wanted to ab into subluminal, ended up at the far eastern end of the ruckle instead.
Coastguard pulled them up.

In reply to charlieg0pzo:

the climbers known to the coastguard?

what happened to takin prussiks... southerners

In reply to charlieg0pzo: As someone who enjoys both sports that has made me think.

If we go out sea kayaking we take our flares as a matter of course and are planning a VHF radio course to get our license.

As a climber I've normally got my mobile on me but that frequently hasn't got any signal. Maybe flares in the sack when out on the sea cliffs wouldn't be a bad idea either (as would the VHF radio when we finally get one)

Interesting, has anyone else thought about the crossover of sports and how we could be the others lifeline?

Cx

In reply to kit perry:

No ...the paddlers I think.
The incident does demonstrate the foolishness of abbing in without the correct equipment (or knowledge) to ascend the rope. I'm sure the Coastguards were not too chuffed.
Subluminal is a comparatively friendly area for Swanage so it does tend to attract some less experienced teams, when you are not used to identifying the cliff top ab points it is an easy to make a mistake, but if you are committing to an ab in surely it is a minimum requirement to know how to prussik.

In reply to The Ivanator:

I read it as that as well, as a paddler we have made ourselves known to the CG and if we go out in marginal conditions (just as we do in the mountains) we call the CG give them a direction, est distance and eta to call them back.

Cx

How embarrassing, that's me and my mate. We're not actually southerners but from the Welsh borders and Yorkshire respectively.
Spent a good 45 minutes trying to suss out where we were before abbing down, both convinced we were coming down to the subluminal ledge network.
Well, we did actually have prussiks with us, unfortunately was using my skinny 8.5mm dry treated rope to ab and they were not producing enough friction to ascend (repeatedly tried and slid back down-work fine with doubles hence the error on my part)
As for the coast guards not being too chuffed, they were very well humoured...Was expecting a stern telling off, they actually thanked us as they hadn't made a cliff rescue since May and needed the practice.
Have no idea where we got to, but the climbing was very hard, steeply overhanging roof with large crack, harsh sloping handholds to gain the crack. I repeatedly tried to lead this line and took a couple of unpleasant falls onto the shelf below...Am off work for a couple of days due to the bruising to my knee and pulled ligaments in my ankle, both from the falls and harsh topping out when rescued.
This is in no way an excuse for our blatently foolish actions, merely a full explanation of what happened.
Many thanks to Dorset coast guard, you guys rock, the sea kayakers who saved our bacon, we could still be there! And also to the German climbers who kindly lowered down a gri-gri and ropeman just before the coast guard arrived, massively appreciate that gesture, i know you said the gri-gri worked fine, but it was very reluctant to lock when we were testing it at the base of the cliff and was not in any way confidence inspiring.

In reply to mrprussik: Oh, a static rope, shunt and ropeman are next on my buying list...Or maybe ill stick to the mountains, where i know which route im approaching!

In reply to mrprussik: Well done for "fessin Up" sounds like you have just had a big learning curve.

In reply to mrprussik: Glad you're relatively unscathed, didn't mean to sound too harsh in my original comments ...glad the coastguards were happy to help!

In reply to mrprussik:

I wondered what happened when I saw the entry for October the 2nd on Saturday evening:

http://www.dtnetnt.net/swanagecoastguard.org.uk/home/rescues.asp

In reply to mrprussik:

Sounds like a bit of bad luck. Next time, try more turns with the prussics, or a different style, like French - should give more friction. If your prussics are too short for that, you can try using slings, possibly shortened with a knot.

I never ab into anything without my emergency Ropemen, ever since I abbed into Subluminal one spring weekend and it immediately started to snow!

Fortunately, I made it back up with rope with prussics before the rope got too slippery. My partner was still at the top - there was no way she was pulling me out, but could at least have called for help.

In reply to The Ivanator:

>I'm sure the Coastguards were not too chuffed.<

Actually, the Coastguards were more than happy to help, I bumped into them later on and we had a good chat about the events. As for us...it certainly added a bit of spice to what was already a relatively exciting paddle.

Glad you both got up OK!

In reply to mrprussik:
I like the username.
I suspect I'd have the same problem with my skinny dry treated rope. If the rope is 8.1mm what diameter cord should I use for Prussik?

In reply to elsewhere:

Can't you just fix a retrievable abseil, but not actually retrieve it.. just make use of the double rope to provide more friction for the prussik? Or wasn't the rope long enough?

In reply to kit perry: sounds like you need some practice prussiking. i have accended individual half ropes... it knackering... but you get there eventually. french prussik has more friction.

or maybe if you are not sure, only one of you should ab.. then if it doesnt look right the other can belay you out or haul with a z pulley system... have a look into it. we generally take walkie talkies on sea cliffs as its generally hard to hear your partner

In reply to adamki: After an incident in winter where we lost our (Icey) ropes- unable to prusic up them...
I started carrying a ropeman mark 1 around with me.

I have read contradictory advice about these, and have seen both types recommended.
WC say mark 2 for thinner ropes, some guides prefer the mark 1 as an all rounder?

In reply to mrprussik: There is a hint in the name ´Subluminal´it is virtually under the lighthouse, or very close. Boulder Ruckle East is a lot further west than Subluminal.

In reply to charlieg0pzo: What was the problem? You can climb out from there at Severe.

In reply to The Ivanator:


More importantly, it demonstrates the foolishness of comitting to abseiling into a sea cliff without reading the guidebook correctly. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to find Subluminal.

In reply to GrahamD:


That's a bit harsh. Subliminal isn't massively easy to find and some of the older guidebooks aren't that clear.

In reply to kit perry:

Are you serious ? its right below the big tower with a flashing light on top. How hard can that be ?

In reply to Al Evans:


Unless 'a lot further' means 3m this is incorrect. Boulder Ruckle and Subluminal are continuous and routes at the eastern end of the Ruckle, e.g. Seventh Wave, are approached by traversing in from Subluminal.

mrprussik made several mistakes (haven't we all at times?) which he has recognised and appears to have learnt from, no one got hurt, and the rescuers seem to have quite enjoyed themsleves. Sadly for the UKC vultures there is not a lot to feed on here.



In reply to mrprussik:


Of course not. Southerners like Pat Littlejohn and Mick Fowler know what to do around sea-cliffs. It's soft northerners and midlanders that need help.

In reply to GrahamD:

No it isn't; there's the zawn in between for a start.

In reply to the UKC vultures:

give the guys a break!
No one got hurt, the Coast Guard had some rescue practise and judging from their blog was quite happy about it.
Learning curves are sometimes steep and I'm sure we all do things the wrong way occasionaly...and who honestly can say they never misread a topo/guidebook or ended up in the wrong place or on the wrong route.

@Mrprusik, still intrigued to find out what went wrong with the Gri-Gri, did you attach the ropeman below or above it?

regards:
the german with the abrope

In reply to mrprussik: Bad luck, Mrprussik! I hope your leg's better soon.

I think the climb you ended up underneath was War (HVS+).

In reply to mrprussik:

Bit of info on that - I recently bought a 10.5mm Beal Ab rope and it's too slick for a Shunt to grip properly. Might get better with a bit of wear, but for ascending I reckon a ropeman is a better bet and weighs a lot less.

In reply to clipskipper:

In trouble in the alps a couple of years ago, my mate tried to use a pair of tiblocs to ascend a 9.5mm half rope. The tiblocs pulled the sheath away from the core & he just slipped down the rope.

In reply to blurty:

Was he experienced in using Tiblocs? There's a technique - you have to seat them with a small load before you pull your full bodyweight down on them. This allows the teeth to grip rather than rip your rope.

In reply to charlieg0pzo:

Looks to me(from the photos in the link) that the "steve" who was one of the kayakers was actually Steve Williams, who climbed with Pete Oxley for a number of years and was an accomplished climber in his own right. Nigel - you should remeber "sticky" from your time down here!

In reply to steve taylor: I called out the life boat in a similar situation some years ago. At the end of the day I noticed two climbers stuck at Boulder Ruckle and lowered a rope to them, but they couldn't get up a VS even with me pulling as hard as possible. The lifeoat crew took them off in a rubber dinghy, and my mate and I caried their rucksacks back to the lifeboat station.

The lifeboat crew were a great bunch of blokes - one of them said, 'I which we had one of these every Sunday afternoon' as they sat a round drinking tea waiting for the pub to open. I remember a vigorous debate about which porn video to rent for their Christmas piss up.

In reply to charlieg0pzo:

I was walking along the cliff top east of Hastings when I heard shouts for help. Looking down I saw two teenagers trapped by the rising tide. Couldn't get a signal on my mobile so ran nearly a mile to a caravan park. Went into the office, explained the situation to the owner and asked him to ring the coast guard. He didn't want to know, said his phone "wasn't for public use" and told me to go and find a public phone box! Stunned by his response I ran along his drive for another quarter mile where I found a call box and rang the coastguard who told me to stay by the phone box

Within 10 mins a coastguard Land Rover arrived with siren and blue light flashing. I jumped in and we then drove back to the caravan site, through it and along the cliff top to above the trapped lads. The coastguard quickly assessed the situation, decided a roped rescue was inappropriate and called out the inshore life boat. We sat on the cliff top and watched the rescue.

I told him about the unhelpful caravan site owner, and he confirmed that he was a miserable bastard and had tried to stop coastguard rescue vehicles on exercise from crossing his land in the past because it was "private"!

I still get lost for words when trying to sum up this individual's attitude!

In reply to elsewhere:


Basically, if it won't grip go thinner or add turns. 5mm should work ok, 4mm will work but is getting a little feeble, you'd need to be fastidious about backing things up. Also learn some other ascending tricks, there's more than one way to climb a rope... Then don't get yourself into a position where you need to

jk

In reply to steve taylor: If it was Steve Williams then he looks a bit older, but then don't we all!

Am I right about the route? And the first pic being just west of Buttery Corner? You've got all the cliff shots.

In reply to Nigel Coe: I really hope that it's not War, that would be even more embarrassing. Certainly did not feel like any HVS i've climbed, and i have climbed upto E2 in the past. My friend and i, on reflection think it was around E3/E4, but perhaps the overhanging crack and blocks were just a very harsh crux, if i had been able to climb that section and traversed left to a slab the climbing looked easy...The coastguard had a big fold out book of the Swanage cliffs, we appeared to be in between two climbs at the far eastern side of Boulder Ruckle.
Uncontrollable, had fitted the ropeman and tested that first on the rope whilst my buddy tested the gri-gri, he noted it wasn't locking readily and then we took turns testing it, pulling rope through at different speeds, it didn't lock atall unless the handle was half engaged...admittedly did not give it the super hard tug that you demonstrated on the cliff top, but was not confidence inspiring at the base of the cliff, particularly as the coast guard had just turned up, we were probably being muppets. Many thanks regardless, i'm sure you can imagine what a relief it was when you discovered us and we were no longer completely isolated.

In reply to Nigel Coe:
I'll have a look tonight. Steve is/was coxswain on the Swanage lifeboat, and like the rest of us, has aged a bit (something to do with having kids, working in software and having long commute every day).