Climber Injured on GWI

[jumar]

http://www.fox13now.com/news/kstu-man-falls-climbing-ice-wall,0,6863154.story

[PolarXJ]

Yeah, I saw that on the news. Sucks, but I guess comes with the game, right. :2thumbs:

[Brian in SLC]

Yeah, I saw that on the news. Sucks, but I guess comes with the game, right.

No, I'd hope not.

This isn't a "usual" or accepted practise on that route. Falling is expressly verboten (especially on that terrain) and the other is, if you break your ankle, and, you have bomber anchors, a class 2 snow slope below you, and a short non vertical pitch with bomber anchors below that, you self rescue.

Easy to be critical, though, and I'm glad it worked out ok. SAR folks got a good workout, the guys needing the rescue were in good spirits, got to eat their lunches, quaff their beverages, so, not so grim a dealio. And...that's ok.

-Brian in SLC

[Blake]

Yes we could have self rescued.....

We decided to take the embarissing way out...... It took my partner almost 2 hours to traverse back to me. His leg was broke above the boot. (we found out later that his foot compressed into his leg bone and shattered the leg bone)

The ice was pretty thin that day and the snow thick. If there were fixed anchors... SAR and us missed them.

We had the cell phone with us and decided that wrather than risk further injury to get a good splint on it and some help in the decent / hike out.
Without the cell phone, at some point I would have had to leave him (in a lot of pain) to get some help with the carry out.

They really could have sent 2 guys a rope and a splint.... the SAR guys were great!! I had no idea it was all volunteer.... I'm looking into getting involved with SAR in our area.

Anyways I'm new here... sorry for such a long post. Looking back .... I think it was the right call. We sure could have started down a much worse chain of decisions and the outcome could have been much worse. It just sucks that I'm out a climbing partner and sucks to not top out on such a good climb.

[jumar]

Yes we could have self rescued.....

We decided to take the embarissing way out...... It took my partner almost 2 hours to traverse back to me. His leg was broke above the boot. (we found out later that his foot compressed into his leg bone and shattered the leg bone)

The ice was pretty thin that day and the snow thick. If there were fixed anchors... SAR and us missed them.

We had the cell phone with us and decided that wrather than risk further injury to get a good splint on it and some help in the decent / hike out.
Without the cell phone, at some point I would have had to leave him (in a lot of pain) to get some help with the carry out.

They really could have sent 2 guys a rope and a splint.... the SAR guys were great!! I had no idea it was all volunteer.... I'm looking into getting involved with SAR in our area.

Anyways I'm new here... sorry for such a long post. Looking back .... I think it was the right call. We sure could have started down a much worse chain of decisions and the outcome could have been much worse. It just sucks that I'm out a climbing partner and sucks to not top out on such a good climb.

Glad you're okay. Can you give us more info on how it happened? Maybe we'll learn something that will keep us all safer climbing.

[Don]

Yes we could have self rescued.....

We decided to take the embarissing way out...... It took my partner almost 2 hours to traverse back to me. His leg was broke above the boot. (we found out later that his foot compressed into his leg bone and shattered the leg bone)

The ice was pretty thin that day and the snow thick. If there were fixed anchors... SAR and us missed them.

We had the cell phone with us and decided that wrather than risk further injury to get a good splint on it and some help in the decent / hike out.
Without the cell phone, at some point I would have had to leave him (in a lot of pain) to get some help with the carry out.

They really could have sent 2 guys a rope and a splint.... the SAR guys were great!! I had no idea it was all volunteer.... I'm looking into getting involved with SAR in our area.

Anyways I'm new here... sorry for such a long post. Looking back .... I think it was the right call. We sure could have started down a much worse chain of decisions and the outcome could have been much worse. It just sucks that I'm out a climbing partner and sucks to not top out on such a good climb.

Glad you're okay. Can you give us more info on how it happened? Maybe we'll learn something that will keep us all safer climbing.

+1, glad your ok and always willing to learn from someone elses mistake...