Reeotch



Trad climber Kayenta, AZ Dec 30, 2009 - 11:42am PT Matt,



This one did not end well, but it could have been a lot worse!



From the ledge on top of the Hollow Flake, I was bringing up the rear. My two partners were at the next belay (about 100' up and 30 - 40' to the right). As they began hauling I lowered out the bags hand over hand on a tag line (actually an old dynamic lead line, luckily). As the bags went around the corner they rolled accross the face because of the low angle.



As they hauled the bags were getting stuck on little roofs, so I was yarding from below, helping the bags clear the obstacles. Then I noticed my tag line was going slack. "Are you guys lowering the bags?" As soon as I said that I looked down at my hands only to see smoke pouring out from between my fingers. I immediately realized that the haul bags were in free-fall! Sh!t! I dropped the tag line and hit the deck in the bottom of the bathtub ledge because I also remembered I was not clipped in at the time.



The tag line had been stacked at the bottom of the ledge and was not clipped to anything either. Sudenly, everything stopped and I felt a tug on my harness. First, I looked at my hands which were dripping blood all over the place. At least 8 of my 10 fingers had been burned through the skin by the rope. Then, I noticed, as I started to untangle myself that the tag line had tangled around one of the aiders I had clipped to my harness, and that was the only thing holding the bags up. At that point I froze while Doug (Nature) rapped down and promptly threw a jug onto the tag line.



There was only about 10' - 15' of tag line left! If the bags had gone all the way, they would have cratered somewhere in the vicinity of Sacherer Cracker.



My hands were too fuked up to continue, so we spent the rest of the day drinking beer on top of the Hollow Flake, and counting my lucky stars. We bailed the next day.



Now, I always TIE the haul line in to the haul bags, NEVER JUST CLIP THEM IN!