UKC

Last week, I was climbing with my mate Graham at the Pass of Ballater. I took a leader fall onto a foot jam near the top of Strawberry Ripple. The gear was just below the jam and this was the best hold I had (left hand positive crimp, right hand slap). My right foot slipped off a nubbin due to wet rock and I fell onto the left foot into the crack. I am lucky that I have only got soft tissue damage and I am recovering well.

I had a search of previous posts and I was surprised to find nothing similar to my experience. I am still learning from my stupid mistakes after climbing for 22 years - I guess I need to avoid wet rock more. I certainly have a renewed dislike of foot jams (I've never liked them very much, certainly compared to hand jams). 

I am just wondering who else has experienced this situation and I am always open to advice on how I can avoid such a situation again (obviously, in addition to my own thoughts).

cheers in anticipation,

M

I fell off strapadictomy at Froggat. I was reaching a very long way right to get the flake. As I am relatively short I had a left foot toe jam in the break to hold me in. I had runners up above left foot but nothing out right yet. Hands slipped out of flake. As I fell rightwards I was 'caught' by my own foot which stayed stuck in the break. Hurt like hell as I was temporarily hanging by my own ankle before dropping and being caught by the cams. Thought I'd broken my ankle but turned out to be just sprained. No real lessons to be learned just bad luck I think. However if I ever get back on that route I'll avoid the toe jam! 

Ouch! I don't think this is common, though no doubt there are examples. I quite like foot jams, though maybe best avoided when pumped.

It's the curse of jams that the more secure you feel by wedging yourself into them, the harder they are to get out.

At least you didn't crap yourself whilst being professionally filmed. 

I think you are right about foot jams, but I think it's easier to release a hand jam when required. For me, hand jams feel more secure, more maneuverable and safer than foot jams. Certainly a human hand has a far greater range of movement than a foot (even without a constricting rock shoe!). 

Quite! Did this happen you?

youtube.com/watch?v=1dJLN43G6KA&

Guffaw! I've seen this before - not a surprise to anyone who knows my rather crude SOH!

I've never done it, but I've always been terrified of foot jams when leading for that exact reason.  Hope you are better soon but thanks for backing up my opinion

Not technically a jam, but similar woe. I’ve left my foot behind in heel/toe position and everted my ankle (the opposite way you normally go) when I detached the other points of contact and then landed on it. Tore my deltoid ligament. Not pleasant at all.

My ex girlfriend used to have a great dislike of foot jams for this reason, and while I shrugged her concerns off at the time I've increasingly started to wonder what the chances of escaping injury-free are if you fall on a good foot jam. She'd broken her ankle (in an unrelated incident) in the past, and now that I'm sporting metalwork of my own I'm coming round to the idea that she might have had a point...

Still though, nothing quite so reassuring as a good jam while you stay attached to the rock!

I've never seen a foot hang up fully in a decade or more of regular climbing but I've once had to extricate a mate from a crack at Stanage which had swallowed his knee in a fall. I got the distinct impression it hurt!

jk

Oh crap oh crap, I really shouldn't have read this thread!!!!

Some guys get all the luck. I climbed at Crummackdale last night and came across your tale in the logbooks of sitting on a cluster of four cams, and decking when they all ripped!

I do know someone who many years ago fell off while bouldering at a London wall and ended up dangling upside down from their jammed foot. I can't remember whether they broke their ankle or lower leg bone(s), but it did require several people to extricate him from his jammed position.

That reminds me of the time Martin Boysen got his knee jammed for hours on Trango Tower - the article says he was "nearly killed":

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP11/profile-trango

I've never fallen off on a foot jam but twice, both times whilst soloing alone, I've got a foot so jammed the only way I could extricate myself was to unfasten my shoe laces and remove my foot from the boot, then extract the boot and put it back. Fortunately both were easy routes.

Ha! That happened to me once on the rise above Tower Gap. My Berghaus Ogre boot was well and truly stuck which meant my foot had to be removed before I could wrestle the boot free from the small recess I had carelessly placed it in.

This is definitely the way forward for me! And also avoid wet rock on all but the easiest of routes (they'd need to be well-protected too!).

Yes in a 12 month period during 2017-18 I managed to visit A and E 4 times all climbing-related! Prior to that I'd climbed 20 years with one visit! I'm hoping 2019 is a better year! 

Was this at the Sobel centre?

I was there that evening and helped lift the guy out of it.

Yes it was. I got told about it so I'm sure the story grew in the telling.. 

Very similar and even unluckier than me! My fist 18 years as a climber involved no serious injuries and no A and E. I have managed 3 in just 2 years since. I am hoping for a big reduction in frequency from now on. I must say this is no bad reflection of everyone who has helped me so far, both in A and E and in the one and only (hopefully always to be only!) "yellow taxi" ride I took in 2016!

A friend did this (with a foot in a horizontal break, rather than a true crack) in Font, and broke his ankle - luckily his foot popped out as his shoulders hit the pad, and he wasn't left dangling....