A lot of you have probably already read this at the Bog, but CC deserves some love too . Diversity of opinions and all. Would love to hear any feedback offered. Sorry, no pics, but you can see the crux in some of the videos out there although I have yet to see a shot of the bottom of the crux silo.
On the morning of June 3rd, 2013 Tyler and I left Sandthrax campground and started hiking, our goal was of course the top of Sandthrax. 20 minutes later there we were. Gotta love approaches like that, arriving nice and warmed up.
Without hesitation we head in. We’ve been training for this and are both in excellent shape. Tyler is a great climber and was looking forward to the crux crack. He also is good at stemming. I also am a descent climber, and am usually able to make quick work of the short climbs you sometimes come across in canyons. My strongest capabilities are in high stemming, down climbing, and love running around a big pot hole with a flying leap to the edge when possible. Although there will be no potholes, Sandthrax should be our type of canyon.
Very soon we are at the start of the high stemming and it is a blast! We are cruising through. The route finding through the narrow slot was not nearly as bad as I had expected. We pretty much just kept as high as possible. And it was high! Not the place for you if not being able to see the ground for 95% of the canyon creeps you out. The stemming is of course non-stop. The canyon walls also change around every turn. Sometimes you get nice grippy rock, go around a corner and the walls are slippery and full of sand. Constantly changing and never lets up.
Most of the silos were not very difficult, and many canyoneers would be able to handle them fine if not for the daunting exposure. It’s a different story looking down a 50 ft. silo. My physical proportions also make this a little easier for me. 6′ tall with an almost 6′ 5″ wingspan. For a shorter person they will not be as easy, but still doable. There are also a couple pitons near the worst of the silos where you can belay the person going across.
We are loving this canyon. We need to do it again we tell each other. I had already put it on my mental short list of canyons that I would like to do again. Also at this point we are thinking that we might get this knocked out in under 3 hours.
We reach the crux and bad things happen.
Accident Report: Tyler’s fall
We enter the silo, and I look at the crack. Looks interesting, but it’s Tyler’s time to shine. I swap places with him on the ledge so he can take a look. A week previous me, Tyler, and Bob were talking about this crack. Tyler wanted to free solo it, and to his credit on most days he would be capable of doing this. Bob and I thought it was a bad idea, so he agreed to use a cam. Turns out this was not enough.
We both love the pace we are making so Tyler is going to aid it with the cam to make quick work of it. He dives into the crack and starts moving up. Unfortunately it is not one of his better climbing days and he is struggling more than anticipated, but I am sure that he will make it. He is a machine. He makes it up to where the crack gets wider, maybe 12 feet above the ledge I am standing on, but he is working pretty hard and he pauses for a rest.
I hear a ‘clank’ and Tyler yell “FALLING!”. He’s been spat out of the crack, cam and all. He goes flying by me, just a blur that I try to slow down by reaching for under his arm. But he was moving too fast. A split second later my eyes had focused to where I was now clearly watching the fall unfold below me. “HOLY F***, Tyler’s dead” I thought as he fell. He thought the same thing. Falls like this don’t end well. He was falling backwards and couldn’t see what was coming. He decks in the silo below. It looked awful from where I was perched. Looked like he snapped right in half on one of the fin like features at the bottom of the silo.
Then he moves! He’s alive! He’s also conscious. I am now thinking about how fast I can get out of this canyon and call search and rescue. I start relaying this to Tyler. He rolls around and moans, then tells me to wait. “FOR WHAT!!!! WE NEED TO GET YOU OUT OF HERE!”. “I think I’m OK” he responds. “No your not. There is NO way.” Gotta be the adrenaline. We talk back and forth and after a bit he stands up. He is definitely hurt but nothing seems broken. Unbelievable. He also wants out of that hole NOW! Through a combination of me pulling a bit and him hand over handing a hand line he makes it up to the ledge we started from.
He is of course not going to be giving that crack another go, and he is mentally very shaken and needs to get out of the canyon. My adrenaline is on full blast. I have to make this climb or we are both stuck in here. I start up. Tyler, somehow, was able to give me a decent foothold about half way up, even though it was extremely painful for him to do so. I have at least one limb constantly wedged into something. I am not falling out. Have to make it. After some exhausting work I make the top. Again with some pulling from me and hand over handing from him he is soon on top with me. We’ll make it. We have to.
The rest
Of course, this being Sandthrax we were not done. There was still plenty of high stemming to go. We were spent but knew to keep moving. I don’t know how he did it, just amazing. We were now moving pretty slow, but we were moving, and we couldn’t afford any mistakes. Eventually, finally, we reached the end and had a big hug and a few words. 4.5 hours campsite to campsite.
Conclusions
We should have brought more protection. It is doable with what we had, but sometimes shit happens and a cam ends up not being quite as solid as you thought it was. We wanted to travel light and fast betting that shit would not happen today and we would be conquering that crux just like many others.
Tyler told me that the accident happened after he reset the cam and then went to weight it for a rest. The cam shifted and popped out, and him with it.
Tyler visited the hospital this morning (June 4th) to make sure everything was ok. Indeed nothing is broken, he’s just very very banged up. I am so glad he is still with us.
GLD
The #6s we had became useless 15 ft up the crack (as you now know), our group was a little surprised and we brought a #5, two #6, and a #4 big bro and which we had something larger than the #4 for an anchor. I think good advice to those reading the thread is to bring bigger pro and to make sure to leave your gear where it is still useful, we had to verbally remind each other the cams were near the end of their ranges as it is real tempting to keep pushing them up.
Ram
A view into the place for those interested. Wade Christensen and Tom Jones, November 2007
Absolute Gravity
All correct. Higher than me standing on the same ledge you are sitting on. I’d say that the hole is also a little bigger around than it looks in the picture.
hank moon
Ugh!
Ram
Here I am belaying Tom as he works the crux. Note the open area below my legs? It goes down quite a ways and that is where Tyler fell down into, I believe? Correct Tony?
Tom low in the OW, working the crux. Note my hand in the bottom center below. From what Tony has been saying, my guess is Tyler was higher than Tom when he fell past my hand, the ledge where I am sitting in the above picture and down the hole between my legs. 25 feet? More? Wow! Ouch!
Jenny
Here’s Care Bear wearing the appropriate safety glasses to view the Annular Eclipse. Care Bear came to me after my pothole fall to help heal my shattered wrist/arm. She’s been north of the border twice I believe. Once with Kevin too, I believe?
(photo: Jane Arhart)
Kuenn
Interesting read as well as informative. Good to hear the physical and emotional healings are well on their way. It’s reads like this that give us minor leaguers a glimpse of the majors and the work required to be called up from triple A.
Last summer as we were coming out of Pine Creek we ran upon a couple that were completing the canyon, the dude had completed Sandthrax just a day or two prior. His description of the crux made an impression. Not sure I’ll ever make it there but it’s certainly compelling to read about.
Dan Ransom
I had share bear two years ago when recovering from a brain tumor. She works miracles. You’ll be back on Moses in no time.
Glad to hear you will be fine. Wild stuff for sure.
Doomed
Just to clarify. This is Tyler . Im a 5.12c sport climber and i keep my trad stuff under 5.11b I’ve done castleton tower and been climbing for a bit. Im an athlete and train extremely hard. It was just a stupid accident by a very experienced person having not taken his meds that day. Im glad to be alive but i just want to point out the lack of naiveness I posses or over-confidence. My next project is Moses tower and I’m excited to get back training after my wounds heal. Thanks for all the support i was not expecting the love but, i for sure have gotten more love than ridicule.
Ram
Welcome aboard and thanks for playing. A fine effort getting yourself home. Well done.
i don’t want to be a intrusive, but…..what were you going thru before, during, after? I guess i am just wondering what it was like WITHOUT having to do it myself.
Any interesting recollections to share? Any odd memories? Residual effects beyond the physical?
BTW I was the possessor of care bear 2 folks ago, with blood clots. Here he is socializing, then holding what your brother in law gave him. Heal fast so you can send Care bear to whoever needs him/her next!
ratagonia
Thanks Tyler. I guess the question is, done any off-widths? Sandthrax is among the purest of off-widths I’ve ever stood next to, perplexed.
Nice handle!
Tom
Ram
First off, I believe most of us make mistakes almost every day we go out. Small ones that don’t avalanche into bigger things and we get away with it. If we are honest with ourselves, we acknowledge them, at least to ourselves. In a place like Sandthrax, when you don’t get away with a mistake, the consequences can be devastating.
Second I would like to praise you for sharing the experiences. It takes courage to open one’s self to criticism, while offering the gift of your experience, that may help others to avoid what happened to you. It gives the “arm chair” quarterbacks the chance to offer any wisdom they might have to share. Some of that invaluable, other times its someone trying to convince themselves it can’t happen to them. But we fall VERY fast. It is good to be young and more elastic. It is good, nay great to be lucky. Put it in your pocket like a good luck charm and cherish it.
With the possible exception of the crux, it sounds as if the canyon was well within your range. I have seen you move in a canyon or two and this aligns with what I have seen. AFTER getting lucky, you self rescued, cautiously descended the rest of the way, AFTER you ponied right up that crux spot. After witnessing a fall, it is quite reasonable for one to be shaken badly, perform poorly or lose ones nerve a bit. Necessity and your composure, with a dash of adrenaline got you through. Kudos on the determination, skill, composure
Now for my arm chairing and hoping I don’t come off like a self righteous jerk. I seem to have heard that you were both 5.10+ climbers? I have wondered what range and depth of climbing you have done? Now this may have nothing to do with anything, but then again it may be a thought line that might benefit some reading this. All 5.10’s are not equal. Sport routes over vertical? Get after it! Slab 10’s. MUST NOT FALL! Trad route 10? Carrying all that gear/weight and placing it and building anchors and all the other nuance. More nuance required for multi pitch trad 10’s. Forget big walls multi days with hauling. Then there is the ratings themselves. They vary from area to area. A 10 on Devil’s Tower is MUCH harder than a 10 in Rocky Mt. National Park. Aaron was doing lots of 12’s leading into his just completed month in Yosemite Valley. He said those 12’s he was doing translated into 10+ to 11- in the valley. It took his crack climbing some time and experience to catch up to the rest of his skill set…..which leads me finally to the…drum roll…OW! OW=Off width for those not privy to the jargon. Too narrow to squeeze in, too wide to treat like normal cracks. It has made more graceful souls look like fish being hauled from the sea thrashing about. You both may have a lot of experience with type of climbing, but many out there that climb 5.11 or better, thrash and fail at 5.9 OW. So I say this OUT LOUD to offer consideration to those contemplating a visit to this fine canyon.
The off width has given trouble to a rather stellar collection of climbers. I think that no matter how good one is (exceptions of course), that one should bring enough gear to aid this section JUST IN CASE! Especially when one hasn’t done the crux before. Its reputation is deserved. You commented that Tyler “was not having one of his better climbing days” at that spot. Perhaps, but it is also quite possible he slammed the rest of the canyon and this diabolical spot added one more to its list of people it made look bad, this time with scarier, but ultimately manageable consequences. One cam? I just did a low water Imlay with one hook. Who am I to say?
I wrote above about depth of experience in climbing. You know that it is the last refuge for the untalented like myself, don’t you?
So i ask…how many R and R+ and X-canyons have the two of you done leading into this descent? Some need to move up the ladder incrementally. Others can sprint to the front of the class and certainly minus the 30 feet here, you guys blitzed it. So perhaps I bring it up for others to contemplate. A lot of great canyons out there.
Finally, how many recognized that Hank’s first link in his post was him telling on himself during the modern exploration of this canyon over a decade ago?
Lastly, back at ya Tooony and Tyler. Way to live right and then know what to do with it!! And the self confidence to share it with others.
Ram
PS Care Bear is with Tyler now. Perhaps someone can tell the story behind this fella
here is a picture leading into the crux. You can see the OW crack in the center top of the picture. I suspect Tyler fell from the top of this photo. The ledge that gets referred to is right in front and beyond me (Blue helmet). To the right and a bit beyond me is a avoidable silo that is deeper than the distance from the ledge we are on, that the top of the off width that runs up the center top of the picture. I am guessing, but Tyler may have fallen twice the distance from the top of the picture down to me. Thirty feet?
Picture by Hank Moon December 2006
the hole Tyler fell in is below Spidey and quite DEEP
Picture by hank again
this is an alternative approach to the crux. Chimney up to the right of the crack and dyno into the OW up high. Spidey Jackson showing how.
Mountaineer
I may only come close to understanding the feelings you were all going through at this point, but I know they are overwhelming. Fear, rise of panic, and wondering why you made the dumb choice of being there in the first place. Critical to calm down, and think through to a clear action plan. Once you get to a manageable state of mind, you can overcome a lot more. And when you finally get out of the situation; the relief and joy is tremendous. A memory I’m sure you’ll never forget.
It would have been difficult to self rescue if he didn’t move after the fall!
Glad it worked out OK, and you made it out. Nicely done.
Jenny
Thanks for posting this here and opening yourself and Tyler to comments. With respect, I’ll take a slightly different angle than Dan and Hank, with my comments.
I’ve been out with you in several canyons, Absolute G. You move with confidence, skill and grace. I know well, that accidents happen, literally in the flash of an eye. Lady Luck was with you and Tyler that day, for sure. Whew! But you also took Being Good, in there too. There is such a fine line between reporting the events of an accident and posting a TR following the descent of a difficult canyon. You did both. Sorry for the first, happy for you with the way you both got yourselves out. I wish full healing to you and Tyler in both the physical and mental realms and hope to see you “back on the horse”, soon.
Absolute Gravity
Thanks Jenny , and back at ya!
hank moon
Overconfidence, impaired judgment, ego trip (v+n), whatever you call it, it’s a major factor in many (most?) accidents. A few notes from others’ experiences in Sandthrax:
http://canyoncollective.com/threads/lessons-learned.3885/
“We assumed Sandthrax canyon would be similar to those we’d already explored, ‘cuz they were only 400 yards away.” And I clarify: We were floating on a cloud of success after a very rewarding series of explorations in the nearby Leprechaun drainage. We had made our way through the hardest, skinniest canyons any of us had done at the time and were ready for more (or so we thought…). Key words: “thought” and “ready”, which we weren’t…har har…
http://awclimbingadventures.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/the-epic-sandthrax-debacle/
“Chou and I decided earlier in the week that we needed to get out for the weekend. Monday marked the beginning of a new semester for him and he was motivated to make the most of it, I proposed we return to Castleton Tower in Moab to redeem ourselves from our utter failure to even make it halfway up the approach last fall because of the severity of our self-induced sickness intrinsic to our known call sign of the Alcoholic Alpinists. “Hell”, I said, ” lets one up ourselves this time and do Sandthrax in the same weekend”, “why not?” “The vast canyoneering public are all middle-aged and overweight anyway right?” “No big deal, how hard could it be?” In hindsight, this very attitude, we both agree, is largely what contributed to our failure.”
Thanks for posting, AG, and how’s Tyler doing now?
Dan Ransom
Uh, wow. First off, glad everyone is ok.
Secondly, so many questions… My first is to ask if this accident has changed your perspective on how you approach canyons? Not sure if it is your intended tone, but this whole report is dripping with overconfidence. Just glad the humbling blow didn’t result in death. Whew.
What size cam were you using? Was it tipped out when it blew?
Absolute Gravity
That is my poor story telling skills shining through. I was merely trying to convey that we were physically and psychologically prepared for this canyon. This canyon was the sole goal of the trip.
#6 C4 Camalot. I don’t think it was tipped out, but I could not see it from my position.
I read both of those stories many times before we did Sandthrax, very good reads. Tyler is doing much better now, and is very anxious to get back out doing physical stuff after he has healed up.
ratagonia
Actually, I think your story-telling skills are quite good, thank you. You express your over-confidence well; you do a good job of expressing that you did not take the technical crux of the canyon as seriously as it deserved, and therefore while you THOUGHT you were “physically and psychologically prepared for this canyon”, you were, on the face of the evidence, not so.
If you have not used big cams much, they are tricky fellows, and considerably less-reliable than people think. They need to be used with great care in placement, and caution in weighting them, and (almost always) backed up with another cam not far away. At the place described, at the “widening out point”, the #6 tips out and the crack is more peculiar, so it is a hard place to get a good placement.
Excellent job of getting both of you out of there. Hurrah for that!
Tom