bmdhacks · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 654 Jun 16, 2014 · Unknown Hometown Here's a supremely embarrassing injury report, delivered in hopes that it might help others: What Happened A week after climbing some runout Tuolomne slab, I took my buddy out toproping by the beach. He hadn't done a lot of outdoor climbing, and I had a great view of him hanging over the ocean. What a great picture, so while I was belaying, I decided to frame the shot by backing up this ramp of rock maybe 15-20ft from the wall, and about 5ft up. I'm a big guy and he took a few hangs that didn't really affect me, but I was careful to always have my hand on the brake rope coming out of the grigri.



Good Pic!



At the end of the route I lowered him down and asked him to reclip a directional I set up on the route. He grabbed the draw and pulled himself up a bit to clip the rope, and once it was clipped, flopped back.



before



It was just enough weight to lift me up off the ramp and swing the 20ft into the wall. I was suprised at how much rope stretch dropped my position, so what seemed like 5 feet turned into much more. I hit the wall with my feet extended out and my knees locked. All my weight went into my left foot which hit slightly sooner than my right and I felt the crunch of bone and the sparkle of nerve. Fractured talus.



after



I lowered him down to the ground, pulled the rope, bailed on our gear and crawled my way back up the approach trail. Lessons Learned The major lesson I learned is that just because it's not runout lead climbing, there's still danger to be found if you're careless. I should have considered the fall trajectory while belaying as I do when I'm climbing.



The second lesson that may be useful to readers is how I crawled back after the injury. Despite not exactly being sure I had a break, I was extremely careful to not put any weight on my injured foot. This involved a ton of hopping and crawling as my buddy went ahead with both packs. Upon arriving in the ER, it was revealed that I had a shattered talus, but the fragments were remarkably undisplaced, and at this point my doctor is not recommending surgery to relocate them. The lesson here is that even if it feels macho to carry a pack and walk out on your injury, if you suspect a break, it pays off to be conservative and stay off of it. A week after climbing some runout Tuolomne slab, I took my buddy out toproping by the beach. He hadn't done a lot of outdoor climbing, and I had a great view of him hanging over the ocean. What a great picture, so while I was belaying, I decided to frame the shot by backing up this ramp of rock maybe 15-20ft from the wall, and about 5ft up. I'm a big guy and he took a few hangs that didn't really affect me, but I was careful to always have my hand on the brake rope coming out of the grigri.At the end of the route I lowered him down and asked him to reclip a directional I set up on the route. He grabbed the draw and pulled himself up a bit to clip the rope, and once it was clipped, flopped back.It was just enough weight to lift me up off the ramp and swing the 20ft into the wall. I was suprised at how much rope stretch dropped my position, so what seemed like 5 feet turned into much more. I hit the wall with my feet extended out and my knees locked. All my weight went into my left foot which hit slightly sooner than my right and I felt the crunch of bone and the sparkle of nerve. Fractured talus.I lowered him down to the ground, pulled the rope, bailed on our gear and crawled my way back up the approach trail.The major lesson I learned is that just because it's not runout lead climbing, there's still danger to be found if you're careless. I should have considered the fall trajectory while belaying as I do when I'm climbing.The second lesson that may be useful to readers is how I crawled back after the injury. Despite not exactly being sure I had a break, I was extremely careful to not put any weight on my injured foot. This involved a ton of hopping and crawling as my buddy went ahead with both packs. Upon arriving in the ER, it was revealed that I had a shattered talus, but the fragments were remarkably undisplaced, and at this point my doctor is not recommending surgery to relocate them. The lesson here is that even if it feels macho to carry a pack and walk out on your injury, if you suspect a break, it pays off to be conservative and stay off of it.