Two events:
First,
Occurred on the 40 foot rap from the single bolt in the dark section, we could not see the bottom. I did the rap on a double strand and rapped off the end 5 feet from the bottom bc the ends were not equalized. No injury, just a good reminder to no get complacent when cold and 25 rappels deep.
Second,
at the emerald pools pulled our 300′ 9mm and watched it snake down in a free fall. Saw it was coming close and assumed the duck and cover position with my hands on my head. The end of the rope smacked me in the back of the side of my neck just left of my spine. It hurt for a second then I looked around and realized I was feeling dizzy. I laid down and grayed-out with an out-of-body feeling as I watched my team members stuffing ropes and not realizing I was nearly knocked unconscious. I thought to myself “I am going to die and everyones to busy to notice…” After a few seconds I came to and shook it off and explained to the group what occurred. I was fine. Moral of the story, those ropes come down fast and hard at 300′ up.
Stevee B
Yes it was from our first trip through w/ Bucky & Scott Holley, in 2001 I think.
Stevee B
We core shot our 300′ rope when we did that pull for the first time, ground impact on a sharp rock I suspect.
Ram
Oh my. Was this the day we (nearly) met 300 feet apart and no closer in fading light? And I expressed that I liked my situation better than yours? And you followed up, years later saying doing the rap in the dark is less stressful? I considered that and decided that is a good opinion IF it is already dark. So you did not see the rope core shoot. Only heard it
What year was that? 2000? October? Ziff was with me.
Ramoo
Mountaineer
Ouch!
summitseeker
It felt like I was karate chopped in the side of the neck like in the the sixties show “Get Smart”. No lingering pain or marks thou.
Ram
“Would you believe?” Next it will be the “cone of silence!”
What mountain is that in your avatar? A Maroon Bell?
summitseeker
LOL… Get Smart, what a classic…
It is South Maroon while standing on North after completing the traverse.
Ram
Thought it was those mountains. Nice. We went north to south 8 years ago. We being my son Aaron and I when he was 14. He topped out on the Nose of El Capitan yesterday after 3 days on the wall. He is leading in the 3rd picture
http://www.elcapreport.com/content/elcap-report-6513
Oops, hijacked thread! Did you do Heaps as a day trip? Start from the top of bottom? First time? Impressions?
Bootboy
I filmed the pull when we did it a few weeks ago. My big rope is a 330′ sterling C-IV. It weighs a hair under 12 pounds. I knew it would be an impressive fall but, holy cow! Once we had a little slack in the pull side, we stepped down the hill a few paces to avoid a direct shot from the rope. I’ll post it tomorrow. I can’t imagine having been right under it and getting tagged with the end. Yikes.
ratagonia
Yeah, and yikes. A friend did that to us, a couple years ago. I was flabbergasted by the stupidity! Fell all around me without actually striking.
haven’t done a canyon with him since…
Tom
Ram
Was it like getting hit hard? Or was something to do with how the neck is so tied to the nervous system?
Ram
Summitseeker, thanks for sharing. yes they do come down fast. In the middle 90’s, 1st time down, our 1st guy (Johnny B.) came down and passed the knot and tied our cached rope to the ropes he came down and the Melon and I pulled up the 2 ropes tied together and the 10mm 300 footer….and pulled and pulled and pulled…and our biceps were cramping and cramping and cramping. We were meowing and meowing and…you get it. Finally we had 700 feet of rope tangled around us. We took the two ropes out of the loop and tied the 300 to the anchor and started to lower, and lower and…we got impatient and we were still meowing from our cramped biceps….so we tossed the majority of the rope off the cliff. He heard a HUGE SNAPPING sound. Man it echoed off Lady Mountain LOUDLY!
OK so the Melon and I, stupid tired from full packing through the canyon and seriously in need of depth of experience…did what? Shrugged and rapped, me next. In retrospect I was VERY lucky the rope was not all knotted up. BUT that snap we heard? The rope whipped on itself and near severed itself 12 feet up. Lucky duckies were we. Lesson learned. That one anyway. I kept and used that rope, the only one long enough, for the next two Heaps descents over a 6 year period. Always made sure the core shot part was down on the bottom. No, not kidding. We were that stupid.
ram
ratagonia
Amazing who they let through that canyon, back in those days…