What was your scariest or most dangerous moment..... :popcorn:
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What was your scariest or most dangerous moment..... :popcorn:
Working out the crux move on Necessary Evil (5.14) and working the last super thin sequence....slipping...crimp harder! SHEEEEEEEEET! Then I woke up and my wife was screaming and gave me a black eye and yelled "Go crimp something else"! :lol8:Quote:
Originally Posted by tanya
Gotta be my 40' whipper on the 2nd headwall pitch of Spaceshot? Gotta quit leepfrogging that pro!
could be the lead fall on the the titan in about 1980. took a screamer when a bolt that i was standing on popped out on the start of the third pitch just below the thumb. turned out this little 1/4 bolt was put in by layton kor on the first ascent in 1964. still have the bolt as a souvenier.
or maybe the 20 foot fall into a crevasse ascending the south buttress on denali in 1984. drug my ex-wife face first through the snow until the friction stopped me.
or maybe the night i spent in a nasty storm on the west rib of denali in 1994. tents shredded emergency evac to a lower altitude in the middle of the night. went down from 16,400 to 15,200. dug 2 snow trenches for the clients and the lead guide. i took the body of a tent (without poles)and tied it off to a pin in a crack and then tied my self in to the rope and crawled in. i was on a small downsloping ledge that dropped off about 5,000 ft. (no exaggeration). winds were howling around 80+ mph. shovels were blown away during the night. the lead guide went back up to 16,400 to see if he could get another shovel from a team that had stayed there. they wouldn't let him come back down that night alone. by morning when the storm broke i had 2 of the 3 clients in the tent with me. the lead guide showed up and asked if i had seen peter. i told him no. he said "i think he 's dead". the trench peter was in had lost the piece of fly that was covering it over blown away and the rest was just filled in by blowing snow. we went over there expecting the worst. we started digging and soon heard sounds from peter. not dead at all. just patiently waiting for someone to dig him out. this was an epic for sure. peter was the only one to suffer any injuries. minor frostbite was all. there was a video made of this, it was called "Storm over Denali".
LINK
we were the other expedition that nearly got wiped out. tom pollards group was the one that we tried to get another shovel from.
http://www.chesslerbooks.com/eCart/v...idProduct=1269
or maybe rafting down westwater and flipped our paddle raft in sock-it-to-me. got held under, maytagged and hit my face on something underwater. at that point i let go of my paddle and just went limp and hoped that i surfaced before i ran out of breath. got a big shiner out of this one.
but definitely it was the time i was out running my dogs in the middle of the wilderness of alaska and fell through the ice on this small creek. my lead dogs had gotten tangled up and i stopped to go up and straighten them out. as i walked back alongside my team i stepped just off the trail and broke through the ice. here i am 75 miles from the nearest road and i'm up to my armpits in the creek and can't touch bottom. first thing out of my mouth was a big HELP!!!!!. obviously that fell on deaf ears. lol. i hollered at my dogs and got them moving and made a grab for the sled as it went by. got it and the dogs pulled me out of the water. air temp was -15. i had to go back to the little dirt floored 8x10 trappers cabin i had spent the night before. oh yea this was a solo trip too.
cheated death one more time. sure hope i have more lives than a cat.
You both have me scared! :eek2: :eek2:
More than one--
Flash flood near Buckskin Gulch--unintentional bivouac overnight on East Clark Bench cause Paria flowed also.
Fall in Robbers Roost area, roping off a backpack, downclimbed and pack rolled and took me with it. I tossed the rope around a rock prominence and kept both from going over about a 30 foot drop.
Fall in the Dirty Devil River in high water.
Stuck in a cave, sliding down a tight area and got hung up by my helmet and my body weight hanging by my chin strap.
Dangling over a reported 3200-3600 foot mine shaft, trying to swing over to a tunnel to get rope to my partner.
Climbing out of a cave during a huge rainstorm in a resultant underground waterfall almost blocking the entrance and temporarily flooding the passage.
Solo hiking, fall with lower leg laceration with bone exposure. Had a 3 mile off trail trip to get out. Trekking poles make nice crutches.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! The fishers.Quote:
Originally Posted by denaliguide
Mine would be....
My first trad lead. I read the section about placing nuts in freedom of the hills on the way to the crag, on the third pitch I placed a nut (we were poor and only had 1/2 set of nuts and 1/2 set of hexes), i took up slack to clip it and all my stoppers below fell out. Then I fired the "crux" and promptly cleaned my pants.
Falling into a crevasse is up there.
Watching (and hearing) the ice pillar i was leading crack and form a fracture line just above my head was scary too. Then finishing the lead.
Soloing a decent size (but EZ) ice climb, getting back to the car and hearing the climb 200 yards to my left had a giant avalanche while I was climbing. Just as easily could have been my climb.
Scary and rerun scary..... Both climbing.....
First was 1976 while climbing the North Ridge of the Pfeifferhorn. A rock slide started above us and we kissed the wall as the massive boulders bounced over the top of us without hitting me or my partner.
Second was 1998 while climbing Grand Teton. A couple of toads managed to start a rock slide above us and we kissed the wall as the massive boulders bounced over the top of us without hitting me or my partner.
Damn scary feeling when is all you can do is suck up to the wall and try to make yourself little.... knowing any of the rocks bouncing over your head could easily kill you.
Pfeifferhorn
http://climb-utah.com/WM/Files/PHORN03s.jpg
See, there ya go. Now THAT's a RESUME!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by denaliguide
Tom
Eruption of Ubinas in Peru.
It was scary because:
#1; I had my five year old kid with me and he was getting sick.
#2; Because we couldn't really leave and we couldn't really stay either. Waiting was torture.
The volcano was erupting, so we couldn't stay. The others hiked down (not far) to the vehicles at night, but we couldn't leave because the road was covered with ash (not to mention visibility was still poor due to falling ash) and they couldn't find the road in the dark. We had to wait until it got light to drive out. Walking out was out of the question because the mountain was surrounded by 100+ miles of nothing and is surrounded by the driest desert (Atacama) in the world.
So, we waiting in the dark (with ash falling and thunderous explosions) waiting for it to get light while the volcano was going off, hoping it didn't really blow up.
Attachment 40924
More:
http://www.summitpost.org/eruption-o...-ubinas/360582
In the end, everything turned out well and we got some good photos. Watching volcanic eruptions is super cool from a safe distance. This one wasn't planned.
thanks tom. i do love variety! :cool2:Quote:
Originally Posted by ratagonia
ACK! You just reminded me of a long forgotten terrifying event! :eek2:Quote:
Originally Posted by denaliguide
It's incredible how real it all feels as it all comes back to me right now. :ne_nau:
We were rafting the South Fork of the Kings River when it was running at 13K - the raft flipped at Mule Rock and I went out. I got caught in the hole and was sucked under. The first time the hole released me, I surfaced, I got so excited, I forgot to breath before I got dragged back down to the bottom of the riverbed. While I was waiting, I remember thinking: "that was really stupid!". The next time I surfaced right under the raft, there was no air between the water and boat. I could see off to the sides and I could see everyone around me. I remember clearly thinking "damn - that sucks!". Back down I was dragged. I remember again sitting and waiting at the bottom of the hole. It is amazing how much of your life you visit during that idle time. Finally, for the third time I headed back up. I broke the surface and was grabbed and dragged back into the raft. I finally got a breath of air!
I'm sure that this all occured in less than a minute, but it was forever at that time. :haha: I do know that I had a horrible headache from all the water pounding my head.
Hands down it has always been technical ice climbing.
You have all these pointy things connected to your feet and hands (pre leashless). You fall and one of those points catch the ice you will have a shattered ankle or dislocated shoulder. You fall and one of those points comes in contact with flesh and you have other problems. That is assuming your ice screw would hold.
Don't forget the avalanche danger.
Now add the bonus of ice breaking off whether in mass like this comedy of errors. http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/05/051_iceman.html (boy were we young and dumb) or ice climbing at Maple Canyon and realizing just how thin and soft the ice is getting as you near the top. Can't back down, can't get a screw in, ice isn't thick enough to get a decent axe placement, and only option is to delicately climb low angle cobbles to a set of anchors. Yes, I asked my belayer to run downhill if I fell. These are the only times I have ever questioned why I was climbing and I'm thankful for a selective memory.
Also I always think twice if it involves Entrada, Cutler, and Moenkopi sandstone.
One time I was lead climbing at the gym, I was too pumped to clip the last draw before the top, so I skipped it. I almost got the send but fell off the top and took like a 15 foot whip! It was insane!
I've got a few.
First was the backcountry behind Brighton. I had tested teh slope and snow for an avalanche and deemed it to be okay. While cutting across the top of a long hill it broke and started to slide. I pointed it straight down and aimed for the trees on the slopes side. Got caught in the tail end of it, tumbled, and thrown for about 50 yards. Managed to stay on top. Super scary, can't see anything and no idea if you on top or deep. My buddy was okay only because he was like 10 feet up and away from me.
Second was a 30' whipper I took on Prodigal sun. Leap frogged a couple pieces of gear, set one tiny nut, then top stepping above mangy gear, 'POP!' shot right past the belayer. Flipped and hit the back of my head so bad that it cracked my helmet.
Third was essentially the same thing on Touchstone's first pitch. I was new and learning to solo. After the bolt ladder there is about 25' of .5-.75 cam crack. I only had two in each size. I left the first .5 camalot about 6' above the last bolt. then i leapfrogged all the way up. Wasn't paying attention to resetting the self belay knot at my waist, boom, down I went. Fell about 20 feet. Scared the living shit out of the guy waiting to solo it after me. We joined forces and finished the climb that night. Rapping off in the dark.
Fourth, like Bo, was on Spaceshot. I was in the portaledge on the top of the first headwall pitch on Spaceshot. In the middle of the night my buddy wake up to a ringtail fox literally standing on his chest trying to get to an open can of ravioli. He screamed and jerked the ledge so bad, I woke up and thought we were falling and dying. I screamed and lept up. Meanwhile the fox is freaking out, got confused and is trying to run right over my buddies head. I have no idea how the fox got there but it literally scrambled across a 2" ledge till out of site.
Now you can see why I don't climb big walls anymore.
Your stories make mine sound boring. First, the 60 seconds it took a buddy to dig me out after a small avalanche in the Little Cottonwood backcountry buried me under a couple feet of snow(short but enough to make my life flash before my eyes), and second, the time I was 50 feet below the summit of Mt Agassiz in the Uintas when a fast moving thunderstorm moved in. You could taste the static electricity in the air. My hair started standing on end, and then the air started crackling so loud I had to raise my voice so my friend could hear me. Us (my friend and I) being the most prominent features on the ridge, quickly ran/crouched our way to some relative cover. I later heard that a man had lost his life that day to a lightning strike on a uinta peak in the same area.
As close as we were to the summit, we were so shaken that we promptly descended (still haven't been to the summit of that one).
When I was a young lad at 17, I was doing a solo backpacking trip across Zion. I started at Lee Pass, and slept in Hop Valley the first night. Before going to bed that night, I hiked up a side canyon, where I found some fairly fresh cougar tracks. That didnt have me too freaked out, other than the fact I was by my self. But... that night I woke up around 3 with something walking around my sleeping area. I was so freaked, I didnt even look out of my sleeping bag to see if it was a cougar. That morning, I woke to cow tracks. Not really dangerous or scary, just a little funny.
I was up on Baldy years ago, think I was 17, when a fast moving storm moved in and started chasing us back down. A few minutes later, I started feeling static discharges jumping from my wool watchman's cap to my scalp. About 5 minutes and 400 yards further on, I practically soiled myself when a strike hit somewhere behind us. We were still in the open for the most part and the delay between the strike and the thunder was less than a second.Quote:
Originally Posted by P.J.