> YIKES!! Lucky Ducky! > Trying to figure out where this might be…..Was it the bypass around > and to the bottom of Double Falls, on the left looking down canyon? If > so you fell thru a lot of poison ivy too. ;-O
I believe you are correct….Double Falls. Miraculously I never got Poison Ivy, but I can’t see how I didn’t roll right through it. My hypothesis: A *BIG* shot of adrenaline will negate the toxic oils!
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “tom” wrote: > — In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Malia” wrote:
OK I bite… TW let’s hear your cliff-hanger story!
Errr. The re-hash. We be walkin’ out. Raps are done, troops are > tromping. Not a care in the world. The trail contours around some > short falls, on a steep degraded sandstone slope stippled with brush > and trees. Just before a switchback, I step on the outside of the > trail and it gives way without warning. I flip over backwards, carried > by my pack. Sliding steeply downhill, I try to arrest with my hands, > then my legs go over THE EDGE, and I flip again, but only until I am > upside down falling through clean air. I impact another slope on my > backpack and left shoulder, then flip at least one more time as I > tumble down the slope, coming to rest in a sitting position.
YIKES!! Lucky Ducky! Trying to figure out where this might be…..Was it the bypass around and to the bottom of Double Falls, on the left looking down canyon? If so you fell thru a lot of poison ivy too. ;-O
> OK I bite… TW let’s hear your cliff-hanger story!
Errr. The re-hash. We be walkin’ out. Raps are done, troops are tromping. Not a care in the world. The trail contours around some short falls, on a steep degraded sandstone slope stippled with brush and trees. Just before a switchback, I step on the outside of the trail and it gives way without warning. I flip over backwards, carried by my pack. Sliding steeply downhill, I try to arrest with my hands, then my legs go over THE EDGE, and I flip again, but only until I am upside down falling through clean air. I impact another slope on my backpack and left shoulder, then flip at least one more time as I tumble down the slope, coming to rest in a sitting position.
You know those accidents where you jump up and declare “I’m ok”? This wasn’t one of them. I kinda sat there collecting myself – checking the vital systems. Really quite stunned, not from the fall, but because I could find no damage other than pain in my shoulder, scrapes and bruises on my left arm, and a slight headache. On the way down the freefall, I distinctly remember having enough time to form the thought “this is not good”!
It was not until I looked back up the slope that I realized how far I had fallen. That alone justified the attention I was receiving from the good people I was with. The initial flip and slide was maybe 8 vertical feet or so. The clean air was 15? 18?, the final slope the same? If I had hit the flat ground at the base of the cliffband I would have ridden out in a helicopter. I am *very* lucky.
We took a break and I walked out under my own power. The shoulder is still messed up – probably a rotator cuff tear. PT is underway, MRI inconclusive. I can pretty much do everything with it but dead hangs and body stems are just not tolerable. I am more respectful of the “what-ifs”. I have always postulated that the most accident prone are the very fresh, and the experienced. This was a wake-up call.
Remember – when you let your guard down you make mistakes. I was not aware enough of my surroundings. Had I been I thinking I would have walked with a lighter foot.
tom
> — In Yahoo Canyons Group, “tom” wrote:
> YIKES!! Lucky Ducky! > Trying to figure out where this might be…..Was it the bypass around > and to the bottom of Double Falls, on the left looking down canyon? If > so you fell thru a lot of poison ivy too. ;-O
I believe you are correct….Double Falls. Miraculously I never got Poison Ivy, but I can’t see how I didn’t roll right through it. My hypothesis: A *BIG* shot of adrenaline will negate the toxic oils!
-tom (w)
adkramoo
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “tom” wrote: > — In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Malia” wrote:
OK I bite… TW let’s hear your cliff-hanger story!
Errr. The re-hash. We be walkin’ out. Raps are done, troops are > tromping. Not a care in the world. The trail contours around some > short falls, on a steep degraded sandstone slope stippled with brush > and trees. Just before a switchback, I step on the outside of the > trail and it gives way without warning. I flip over backwards, carried > by my pack. Sliding steeply downhill, I try to arrest with my hands, > then my legs go over THE EDGE, and I flip again, but only until I am > upside down falling through clean air. I impact another slope on my > backpack and left shoulder, then flip at least one more time as I > tumble down the slope, coming to rest in a sitting position.
YIKES!! Lucky Ducky! Trying to figure out where this might be…..Was it the bypass around and to the bottom of Double Falls, on the left looking down canyon? If so you fell thru a lot of poison ivy too. ;-O
tom
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Malia” wrote:
> OK I bite… TW let’s hear your cliff-hanger story!
Errr. The re-hash. We be walkin’ out. Raps are done, troops are tromping. Not a care in the world. The trail contours around some short falls, on a steep degraded sandstone slope stippled with brush and trees. Just before a switchback, I step on the outside of the trail and it gives way without warning. I flip over backwards, carried by my pack. Sliding steeply downhill, I try to arrest with my hands, then my legs go over THE EDGE, and I flip again, but only until I am upside down falling through clean air. I impact another slope on my backpack and left shoulder, then flip at least one more time as I tumble down the slope, coming to rest in a sitting position.
You know those accidents where you jump up and declare “I’m ok”? This wasn’t one of them. I kinda sat there collecting myself – checking the vital systems. Really quite stunned, not from the fall, but because I could find no damage other than pain in my shoulder, scrapes and bruises on my left arm, and a slight headache. On the way down the freefall, I distinctly remember having enough time to form the thought “this is not good”!
It was not until I looked back up the slope that I realized how far I had fallen. That alone justified the attention I was receiving from the good people I was with. The initial flip and slide was maybe 8 vertical feet or so. The clean air was 15? 18?, the final slope the same? If I had hit the flat ground at the base of the cliffband I would have ridden out in a helicopter. I am *very* lucky.
We took a break and I walked out under my own power. The shoulder is still messed up – probably a rotator cuff tear. PT is underway, MRI inconclusive. I can pretty much do everything with it but dead hangs and body stems are just not tolerable. I am more respectful of the “what-ifs”. I have always postulated that the most accident prone are the very fresh, and the experienced. This was a wake-up call.
Remember – when you let your guard down you make mistakes. I was not aware enough of my surroundings. Had I been I thinking I would have walked with a lighter foot.
-tom (w)
Malia
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “Tom Jones” wrote:
available on the Latest Rave
http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/rave
> Tom >
OK I bite… TW let’s hear your cliff-hanger story!