UKC

I took 2 left climbing shoes to Clogwyn Bochlwyd. Had to run back to the car to get a right foot and crawl back up the hill. I was exhausted but at least it wasnt Grooved Arete or the likes.

So what stupid things have you done?

In reply to mike_uk82:

I realised I'd forgotten all my quick draws after walking in to winspit... at least it was only a mile or so back to the car.

I have been known to go cragging without my harness

In reply to mike_uk82:

I did some climbing once.

In reply to Punter S Thompson: Idiot

In reply to mike_uk82:

I once tried to onsite a route....imagine that!

In reply to Bulls Crack:
I onsighted a root once ... it was well gnarly.

In reply to mike_uk82:

1) went to do Lucky Strike. abbed down a fixed line. then realised we'd only brought one half rope and no prussiks. Ed had to strip to his brown y fronts and swim out to go and get the other rope (that I had forgotten) because I don't swim too well. arguably, taking only 18 extenders on the route was a mistake too cos I ended up managing to place 20 bits of gear.

2) fell off the bottom of the ab ropes stripping a pitch at Goblin Combe (I forget which one). I didn't tie a knot in the ends, and the diagonal ab meant the ropes ended up unequal. luckily only fell about 10ft but felt pretty stupid. Woody didn't stop laughing for the rest of the day.

In reply to Sam Beaton:

Quite a common mistake. I'd have just done it with one rope though.

In reply to mike_uk82: Well this is one of many:

In the early Eighties I had a new route cleaned on GO Wall at Wintours Leap and said to my mate Adam, "I'll ab in and clip gear as I go down and you can unclip them and I'll pull you into the belay. And can you bring the climbing ropes." I did just that and Adam abbed in, pulled into the Kangaroo Wall and let go of the ab route - out it spiralled into space.

I asked Adam where are the ropes? At the top he said. There was no one else on the crag so the only way to get them back was for me to solo the next pitch of Kangaroo Wall.

We still ended up doing the route which was ironically named Howling at the Moon.

In reply to mike_uk82:
went to the bushes for a wee without looking where i was placing my feet

In reply to Gary Gibson:


Is that the pitch with the reach near the start? Let go of my ab ropes on the Luna Bong ab in the Verdon once, and caught them about a nanosecond later. Victory snatched from the jaws of an epic.

In reply to mike_uk82:

When I was young and stupid:

We went to do the idwal slabs, got to the crag to realise i'd left the rack in the car.

We decided to move together on our rope clipping other peoples gear on the way up. We decided that since we were pretty confident at the time, we wouldn't fall off so it'd be fine.

Pretty much every party (about 3 or 4) whose gear we used had a go at us, but we carried on regardless and near the top I got stuck and had to shout to the team in front to drop a rope. When I arrived at the top the bloke belaying me had a 'serious' word with me suggesting I give up climbing... lol.

Lessons learned: ask before clipping other peoples gear, people can get arsey.

In reply to jonny2vests: Hi Jonny, its the one with the 5c moves over an overlap from the girdle break.

In reply to jonny2vests:

my mate Ed loves swimming in the sea (and showing off in his pants) at any opportunity, so I didn't say no when he offered to go and get the other rope!

In reply to mike_uk82: set off to the crag to take the kids climbing, arrived at crag (1.5 hours drive)only to realise i had no ropes with me so ended up playing on the beach instead.

In reply to mike_uk82:

Mate led a route identifying a loose block I then climbed up after him forgot completely about the block and pulled it off and myself in the process

Not funny but definitely stupid.

In reply to mike_uk82: Had a communication break down years ago which left my mate walking back to Coire Cas car park in rock boots after Savage Slit only to discover his rucsac with trainers was still up there!

In reply to mike_uk82:


I merrily started to wander up a route a few weeks ago without quickdraws - got to placing the first bit of gear and I realised my error even before I started to reach for one.

I also managed to leave all of my long slings at the top of Cattle Troughs this weekend, not once, but twice. :/

In reply to mike_uk82:

The stupidest thing I've ever done was when I went to try Moonraker last February as a three. We had to ab in as it wasn't a spring tide so we couldn't get around the traverse. We'd abbed to a stance and my two companions had abbed from there, on our climbing ropes, down to the bottom of the route. We'd used an additional directional anchor for them to get down to the right place, which I was supposed to remove before setting off so that we could pull the ropes. I abbed down, they hauled me to the stance and we tried to pull the ropes. After a few stern pulls failed to move them I realised what I'd forgotten to do at the stance... cue much glaring from two annoyed climbers and a very contrite Pixie rapidly prusiking back up the ropes to free them from the anchors

As an aside, it actually ended up being a good thing that this happened. It was getting on so I didn't go back down, instead waited at the stance for a while, thinking that I could join the boys for the second pitch. After a while of waiting on a guano covered ledge I got cold and bored and so prusiked back up the ab rope and wandered over to the other side of the zawn to see what was going on. From my vantage point I got a great view of one of the lads dangling mere feet above the water, several feet out from the overhanging base of the crag, after backing off and being lowered. Thankfully he eventually managed to get back to the crag and they both managed to traverse out of the sea cave without getting too horrendously wet, though for a while we did think that they were going have have to swim across the zawn to escape.

In reply to mike_uk82: Left my harness at home and it kind of killed the fun of the day. Rope harnesses are sore!

In reply to mike_uk82: I had to throw a rope to my mate at the bottom of the crag(40m); it was very windy so I thought "there is no way the rope will reach the bottom in this wind". So I tied a big cam to the end of the rope and chucked that down. It landed 2m from my mate onto a boulder.

In reply to mike_uk82: Pulled on the rope to test an ice screw on Stob Corrie Nan Lochan... I'd not tied the rope in... I was launched head first for 50ft down a snow slope.. the crag was packed... there was a mix of panic and humour.. but I was OK... laughing too much to be embarrassed..

1) Turned up to go climbing at the roaches (very hungover) and forgot my harness and all my screwgate 'biners.

2) Carried my crampons and single DMM fly up helvelyn. Managed to forget my helmet and harness but carried a small winter rack and 30 metres of rope.

3) Did my first HVS (suspension bridge arete) on a single rope in Avon gorge. Finished it in the dark but then realised that my single rope would not reach the floor for the abseil off. Thankfully someone else finished a route with half ropes next to us and let us abseil down on thier ropes.

In reply to mike_uk82:
I once abbed off the top of a cliff in glen clova, half way down I wondered why there wasn't much friction on my belay device, I was abbing only on my prussic loop (french prusic held open in the hand)!

I always double check everything before abbing off anything now!

In reply to mike_uk82: Was in a rush to get off the moor before dark so threw a rope off the top with a sling passed through it. Took 3 hours to untangle the resulting mess at home.

Also, on a separate occasion, I topped out. Absent mindedly sat there taking in the slack for my 2nd, 2 minutes later I had his end of rope in my hand as he hadn't tied in yet. Couldn't get it back down to him because of the trees. Abbed down for the gear then the rope got stuck. Nice

In reply to mike_uk82:
I once arrived at Darby Delph, and didn't turn straight round to go somewhere else instead. Don't know what I was thinking.

In reply to mike_uk82:

I once passed the port to the right and then compounded my error by professing ignorance of the Bishop of Norwich... I've never lived it down.

In reply to mike_uk82:

I once went to Finedon slabs FOR A SECOND TIME!!!!!

In reply to mike_uk82:
Got benighted on La Demande in the Verdon believing that we still had 2 pitches to go, no usable torches and furry, well past their bin-date contact lenses. After a freezing night wrapped up in ropes on a ledge we discovered we only had about 30ft of scrambling to top out.

In reply to Clauso:

I made this mistake at a military dinner once, turns out it really is frowned upon.

In reply to mike_uk82:

That and drinking straight from the bottle in the officers mess.

In reply to mike_uk82:

You can take the man out of the Wirral but...

In reply to mike_uk82:

Once, my climbing partner decided that she did not want to lead the next pitch of a climb at Bosigran. So, brim full of enthusiasm, I set off on the pitch, only to realise, after some way and move I didn't want to try and reverse, that we hadn't swapped over the gear - it was still dangling around her waist. Luckily the climbing was within my grade to lead comfortably and the pitch was a short one! So no probs in the end but still, we felt a little stupid.

In reply to mike_uk82: It's on your profile you plank!

In reply to jezb1: Cheers for the heads up Jez.

Ive deleted the post to avoid looking too stupid. Now if you delete your post and I delete this, no one will know how dumb I really am

In reply to mike_uk82:

this honestly wasnt me:

drove an hour, walked an hour, set up ready to go.

friend left his ice tools beside his bed.

In reply to Lumbering Oaf:

Nice one Matt. What about the time you had to untie from the rope on Idwal....

In reply to jezb1:

Ha ha!... Just seen this.

He must have thought that I was telepathetic or summat?

Yup, I cut across the cheese and ate a caramel mousse on toast thinking it was Pate...

In reply to mike_uk82:

1 - climbed on sandstone

2 - went on at length about proper rope management when climbing on twin ropes and then had to untie from one of them on the very next route due to friction from not extending a runner enough.

In reply to mike_uk82:

I like topics like this, it'll make me feel slightly better next time I ab down with the rope sitting nicely coiled at the top of the climb!

In reply to climbingpixie:

What does it say that, in spite of the fact that I was also involved in this incident (and you neglected to mention that we had one prusik between the 3 of us, or that it was about to go dark, or that it was early February), it probably isn't the stupidest thing I've ever done at a crag.

That might have been going girdle traversing with dpmuk. On at least 3 seperate occasions. Or seconding 9/10ths of Diedre Sud with my partner taking the ropes in absent mindedly with his hands instead of actually belaying me. Or nearly throwing crossdressingrodney down Vicarage Cliff thanks to a belay plate clipping malfunction. Or ever going climbing with Pagan. Or getting rained off the first belay of Wrecker's Slab some time after the tide ought to have cut us off from the retreat and shortly before dark. Or arriving at the bottom of Africa Rib in the Moelwyns, realising I didn't have any rock shoes and it was so minging we couldn't see enough of the crag to identify the route from the topo, but still doing it anyway. And that doesn't even begin to cover the squeeze chimneys and through routes...

I think I might be some kind of liability...

In reply to mike_uk82: Me and a friend (believe that) went to try revenged at ansteys cove with his brand spanking new joker rope! We had a couple goes and got close but it was getting dark and we were nakered. He abbed off after threading the belay and got to the bottom. Now usually we both clip the anchors, cove hitch the rope to yourself, untie and retie with it through the lower off (a bit dodge i know) But for some reason this time he had done it the proper way of clipping in to a figure of 8 on a bite. Anyway i didnt see this and just went to pull the rope through without looking. needless to say as it didn't pull through i realise what had happened! And it was only us two at the crag.

In the end we had to take the other end of the rope and take it up the path battling with the bushes and thorns and get it over the top to ab down.

It took a good 2 hours to get the rope back. Nightmare schoolboyerror.com

In reply to mike_uk82: Having climbed Blue Ribbon (after a late start) and finished up in the middle of the Aonach Egach (sp?) in the dark, I persuaded my partner (against his better judgement and all guidebook advice) to descend via the nearest gully. - We've got ropes, we can ab if neccessary... Survived my ab anchor ripping by landing bum first in a snowdrift, but we got down to the Clachaig before last orders!

In reply to mike_uk82: Ignoring the weather forecast and dark clouds in the sky, and getting caught half way up the second pitch of 'Big Ride' on the Etive Slabs, when the inevitable rain came (late 70's - badly worn EB's).

Had to wait in the pouring rain on friction holds, way above my last gear, and way below the next, until friends on Agony (displaying equally optimistic and poor judgement) somehow managed to throw a rope down and across to me.

In reply to mike_uk82:

I was TRSoloing a route at a local quarry a while ago & for some reason I thought no autobloc was required above the shunt . Tw@t , got in a slight predicament the fear was taking hold so I decided to retreat but to do this I had to release the shunt which was currently under load of 12 stone of fockwit . After managing to spread my weight over a couple of sketchy holds I freed the shunt .

What happened next . . . ? (luckily only a 20ft fall with dirty and dusty landing ).

Lesson learnt there , always back up a shunt .

And yesterday climbing at Portland I totally missed the first 2 bolts of a route on lead & further up the route I managed to zed clip for the first time ever , muppet . I put it down to working weird and wonderful hours lately including 32 hours straight through last week .

In reply to mike_uk82: Bad day at Malham very recently.
1. went there, after not climbing for ages. mistake 1.
2. opened my rucksac, found only 1 climbing shoe.
3 then got back to the car to find I had left my fleece and mobile phone on the upper tier.

all in all not the best day.

did get some post climbing running in though.

In reply to mike_uk82:

I'll do this by bullet points...

I was in the Alps - plodding up Mt Buet on my tod, my watch got flipped back to an alternative time setting. Therefore I had less daylight than I thought... see where this going?

The maps shows a structure at the summit area with the descent path next to it, however this is not the extant structure.

Due to above couldn't find the path prior to darkness and a lot of mist descending.

Daytime temp during walk 35 degrees C, nightime temp 10 degrees C. At this point I remember my was lying on the bed back at Chamonix.

About 04:00hrs this mist cleared and I found my way off.

In reply to mike_uk82:

Clipped my ATC with a crab to a long sling to keep it safe while setting up a belay half way up a long route, watched it slide to the bottom, then right off and bounce down the cliff. Had to finish the rest of the day using an alpine hitch.

In reply to mike_uk82: We here a lot of abuse about french guidesbut 2 years ago got to the bottom of a frozen waterfall after a half hou slog through trees and up a couloir.Here i discovered no crampons.Our guide Francois Lombard From Argentier-sur-Basse Ran Down And Back With His spare Crampons In About 20 minutes.the rest of us had just about geared up.Later That Week Trying leaseless i managed to drop my axe approx 100mts Another guide lent me his spare saying leave it at the local bar when we got down

In reply to mike_uk82:

Climbing overhanging sea-cliffs without prussics

In reply to mike_uk82:

I think the stupidest thing yet has been to embark on a lengthy character assassination of one of my erstwhile University clubmates while belayed at top of Tremadog upper tier. This would have been fine in itself, but to get my message across to the bloke sat a few feet away from me I had to bellow against the wind. This would also have been fine had not the crag been producing some freakish downdraught which carried my every word down to the hapless A*****y on the ground. I couldn't work out why he was so ashen-faced until I was told later.

In reply to mike_uk82:

Left a new rope at Hobson Moor Quarry, in the days when we couldn't afford to replace it.

In reply to mike_uk82: I pissed into the wind at stanage and tasted my own steaming minerals, gross, and stupid.

In reply to mike_uk82:
slogged up to craig yr ysfa, proceeded to have to climb great gully sans harness...

When I first got into climbing I seconded a lot of climbs with my partner of the time and got a bit bored so nagged him (a lot) to go out leading. I got my way and we travelled an hour to the roaches only to discover I'd left my rock boots at home and was wearing an old pair of Vans trainers. Out of stubbornness I then had to leave every climb in them. He didn't let me live it down for a long time.

In reply to mike_uk82:
Phoneing my Mum wile lieing on a few rather large boulders after decking out from 15m saying "Ive just fallen off! but everthings cool and i have no injuries!" 3hrs and one nice lift from mountain rescue to the hospital later im told ive broken my back, was a pretty stubid day to be honest! lesson learnt Never climb at Llangattock ever again!!!

In reply to mike_uk82:

After the best part of 600 miles, two climbers lever themselves out of the car in Glen Brittle and sort out the mess of gear in the boot. Two climbers, one pair of rock shoes


One wild, wild day in Pembroke in the early 80's two of us set off to do a traverse, way above the sea - I forget which. It went off and out and round and out of sight. I rounded an arete to find that a big chunk of the crag had fallenaway and that the belay had gone with it, leaving nothing but a filthy, wet, muddy corner. THe wind is screaming now, with ropes flailing everywhere, and so I head back. The ropes are being taken in steadily though, and when i reach another arete, i look round the corner to see my mate climbing towards me. Two runners between us and the rope in between streaming up and over the top of the crag, each of us with a reasurring tugging sensation at our waists that the other party is diligently taking in the slack.

Tea shop after that.

In reply to mike_uk82: think the most stupid thing I have ever done was when I was starting out solo climbing. I climbed half one of 50m pitches at seacombe, then realised I had forgotten to tie into the rope...

I was half way up something (can't remember) realised I'd run out the last stretch, it was getting a bit sketchy, I was getting pumped and scared. I stopped placed three bits of gear then did the hard moves and ran it out to the top feeling confident.

My second then reported that though I had carefully placed and tested the gear I had failed to clip into it but by the time he noticed I was beyond the point of no return so he'd kept schtum about it...

In reply to mike_uk82: Convinced a mate to join me and a couple of others on my first Scottish winter climb. Reluctantly volunteered to drive him and me from Glencoe to the Aonach Mor Ski Centre in the pre-dawn blackness when I'm a nervous driver at the best of times. Got to the ski centre just in time for the climbers lift only to realise that in my nervousness, I'd left my boots and crampons back at the hut. Fortunately, I had my husband's boots (two sizes too big) and one of the others was able to lend me some walking crampons. No thick socks, so boots were very roomy and the crampons fell off halfway up Forgotten Twin. To crown it all, just as my partner topped out and I took him off belay, the belay plate went bouncing down the slope.

In reply to mike_uk82:

Many moons ago,early 70's,so long cannot remember route,on Heron Crag Eskdale, forgot my masters(shoes) and did the route hvs in Hush Puppies(first ascent in Hush Puppies?).Not to be recommended!!

In reply to mike_uk82:

I've heard a tale of a friend of mine instinctively reaching for a passing frisbee whilst one lead....

Myself, towards the end of a week of leading short ice routes, getting lowered off and clearing our own gear on the way down, I was clearing on the way down, took the draw off and then turned to say something to my belayer. When I turned back around and continued busying myself with what was infront of me, only to find myself encountered with an unexpected problem - how do you undo your own knot whilst your weight is on it, 2/3rds of the way up a crag? Thus followed realisation, laughing, re-tying of my stopper knot and the removal of the screw. D'oh!

In reply to mike_uk82:

On the belay at the top of the fourth pitch of a seven pitch sports route myself and my partner realised that we were running out of light and energy and decided to ab down from there. After packing all the gear (bar what was necessary for the abseil) we set off on the multiple ab's down to the base of the (1 hour walk in) crag. once reaching the car we realised we had forgotten the bag which was left hanging at the belay, and could not climb back up as the bag contained all of the quickdraws etc, and also both our phones and wallet. The result was a four hour walk to the top of the cliff and multiple abseils back down in the pitch black! The icing on the cake was just as we both got to the belay point below where the bag was, we realised it was still there, but luckily we could jug back up the rope to get it! All in all a pretty stupid day!

In reply to Thoms6974: I think they made a book about a similar situation, only at altitude

In reply to mike_uk82: Once got to a crag after a long walkin to find I had no rock shoes, thinking gone have to do this old school, my mate and her friend turn up. He had forgot his helmet but had 2 sets of shoes, we were the same size and guess what instead of the shoes was in my kit? had 2 helmets in my pack so all turned out OK in the end. Apart from the 2 of us coming across as a couple of idiots

In reply to mike_uk82:

clambered all the way up to a misty Cobbler to do a 4 or 5 pitch climb just to discover my partner had forgot his rock boots.
So he led in mine which were far too tight and then he would belay in his socks and lower the boots to me .I would tie my walkin boots to my harness and when i arrived at the belay i'd go on and repeat.
I was still half cut from the night b4 and he was bloody sober tae !

In reply to mike_uk82:

Had been headpointing Fred Zimmerman on and off for a couple of weekends, and had more or less got it sorted, and was heading off after work for the lead. Got to crag to find I had forgotten my climbing clothes.

Cue trying to lead a bold E4 in a suit.

(I fell off, by the way)

In reply to mike_uk82:
Went to Stanage Popular on a bank holiday weekend. Should have known better.

In reply to mike_uk82:

Abbing down to the start of a route without a knot in the end of the rope. There wasn't enough rope to reach the bottom. Fortunately I realised before getting into difficulty and, also fortunately, the route was only a Diff or something so was easily able to climb out.

I think there may have been the odd time when the rope to climb out again has been forgotten....

In reply to mike_uk82: Errrrrr soloing just off the ground with Ice Axes and Crampons on a rock band, Leashes and no Helmet.

I won't be doing that again!

Chicks dig scars yes?

In reply to John Lewis:

Millstone? '

In reply to mike_uk82: This one is more a stupid chain of events than stupid thing. 18 years old and bright eyed and bushy tailed, me and a mate headed up to Cloggy one afternoon. My mate is now a very well known climber, which makes the story more amusing. Crag was a bit damp, but we saw a team high on White Slab, so we thought why not give it a go? We hadn't checked any weather forecasts, but it seemed to be OK so we set off. Halfway up the route is starts raining, and by the top pitches it's p*****g down. Luckily my mates a nifty climber, so he gets on the sharp end for the soaking top pitches. It then gets worse. We get to the top and it's dark by now, and the mist has come down. We've left our packs, trainers etc at the bottom and don't know where the descent path is as it's our first visit to Cloggy(guidebook is also at the bottom of the crag!). So in our rock boots and t-shirts, we head off in a south westerly direction hoping to walk around the crag and down, instead of down the central gully which was by now a river. We got fully lost and when we came out of the mist we saw the lake in the valley to the south of the Llanberis pass. Managed to pick up a footpath which took us back towards the railway track and halfway house on Snowdon, then the mist came down thick again, and we couldn't find our way back to Cloggy and our rucsac (which had money waterproofs etc) and trainers. We eventually headed back down to Llanberis, and walked back to the Cromlech boulders where we were camping, in our rock boots, as by now it was way after midnight and still pissing down, and nobody wanted to pick up 2 soggy weirdos with harnesses,rack, ropes and rock boots walking along the road in the rain late at night.
Next day it was still pissing down, and when we got up we hitched back to Llanberis and walked up to Cloggy (in rockboots!) to retrieve our rucsacs. My rockboots at the time were the blue Boreal Ballets, and my feet were blue for weeks afterwards from the dye. Many lessons learnt from that day!

In reply to mike_uk82: 1) Got half way down a 30m free hanging abseil only to realise my harness wasn't double backed. The rate of descent (in a good way)

2) Went to Cheddar without shoes, determined to climb we got on Sonsolation anyway. My mate led his first 4c (which is now 5a) whilst I seconded barefoot and then set off on the next pitch only to find he couldn't do it. He returned to the belay, he lent me his shoes, I led it and then dangled the shoes back down to him on a loop of rope.

3) Went sport climbing in cheddar, climbed a 6c which was the hardest I'd ever tried to get to the top and discover a non double backed buckle. Again.

4) Got hit by lightening

5) Belayed off an RP0. Just the one.

6) Belayed off a large tuft of heather. The last two were both in the Chasm

7) Went to Swanage only to discover I'd forgotten my harness. spent the day at subliminal tied on round the waist and abing in on slings.

went to the Roaches once and it was tonking down with rain. We thought that would be a great time to practice ascending a rope dangling off Valkrie using prussiks.

wet

dynamic

rope

a long time and sore hands later nearly killed myself trying to change it over to an abseil while dangling without properly thinking about backing everything up.

Many lessons learnt, but the biggest one was don't set off for climbing when the forecast is s**t.

In reply to mike_uk82:

Climbed Lockwood’s Chimney in the pouring rain and got absolutely drenched whilst camping, clothes didn’t dry out for the rest of the trip. The next year, the rain was again coming in sideways and the plan was to repeat Lockwood’s. To avoid getting my clothes drenched, I decided to wear nothing but underwear and waterproofs. Left the campsite and the weather immediately improved. Spent the boiling hot, cloudless summer's day climbing at Idwal Slabs dressed from head to toe in waterproofs!

In reply to shantaram: Was that Steve McClure by any chance? Think I remember reading an article about that incident by him! Good effort though!

Dunc

1.Went to Yosemite and my mate had brought 2 left rock boots with him from the UK, pretty special moment!
2. Drove to Gogarth from Sheffield, walked in to dream, no rock boots at all ....
3. Abbed in to German schoolgirl on a single old furry ab rope (like fuzzy 15mm beast of a rope), at the bottom realised we had forgotten to bring any other ropes with us. Climbed GS with the end of the ab rope just reaching the top before it came tight on the belayer (other end still clipped to top)

In reply to Duncan Campbell: That's the man. Well remembered Duncan.

In reply to mike kann:
And why do I still keep harassing you to come climbing????