Bane and JC, Take note !

[tombogan03884]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=NH+ice+climber+survives+1%2c300-foot+Mount+Washington+fall&articleId=10f72b45-0b8b-488d-99d3-9dd651c782f3

CONCORD – A 31-year-old New Hampshire ice climber was injured after falling roughly 1,300 feet and causing an avalanche in a ravine on Mount Washington Thursday.

Tiffany Benna, a spokesperson for the White Mountain National Forest , said the man, whose identity was not released, called 911 after falling despite his injuries.

Benna said the man was engaged in a solo climb Thursday morning along Huntington Ravine, and had started climbing down due to fears regarding the stability of the snow, when the snowpack gave way, causing the man to fall to the base of the ravine around 10:45 a.m. Thursday.

The man suffered significant injuries, according to Benna, but was able to dial 911 at about 10:45 a.m. Thursday. He was taken to Memorial Hospital in North Conway by rangers.His condition was not available from the hospital on Friday.

The avalanche danger at the site was posed as "high" on Friday. The status is posted at trail openings.

[ellis4538]

Darwin nominee climbing alone!

Richard

[sledgemeister]

He called 911, wtf was he thinking, I would have called a lotto company and brought a few tickets!

Shame no one video taped it, it would have looked "gnarly dude" lol

[JC5123]

Unfortunately I have absolutely no room to talk. I solo A LOT! Of course the article fails to mention if he was tied in or not. (yes there are ways to solo climb safely)

This is what I use:  http://www.rockclimbing.com/gear/Essential_Equipment/Belay_Devices_Descenders/Silent_Partner_600.html

What I want to know is what type of injuries did he sustain. Understand that when rock climbing, you pretty much fall alone. There isn't a lot of risk of being killed by your equipment. However, in ice climbing this becomes a real potential.

I use a pair of tools similar to this



With these strapped to your boots:



A dozen or so of these wicked little things:



And I usually have a couple of these on me somewhere:



My point, is that when you fall on ice, you have some extra things to worry about. I guess a way to imagine it would be to jump off a step ladder while a friend throws the contents of a butcher block at you. I wanna know how many times the guy got impaled.  

[tombogan03884]

None of the local stories mentioned specific injuries, other than he was severely messed up, or specifics on what went wrong.
One story that I saw in the paper said that he had become concerned about conditions of the snow and ice and had already turned back when it let go.

[Sponsor]

[JC5123]

That's a big reason why unless winter is REALLY cold, I pretty much quit ice climbing after Feb. Spring warm ups make conditions very unstable as the wild temp swings from night and day keep conditions changing so fast. An ice chute that would be solid and stable in the early morning, can turn the consistency of a slurpy but mid afternoon.

I lost 2 friends last year in Yellowstone when they were ice climbing in May. Simple fact was, that the ice was just too deteriorated that late in the season. The pillar that they were on collapsed, and killed them both.

I won't try and say that there isn't machoism in these choices. I know I do this stuff to challenge myself. (if it was easy, everyone would be doing it) But the fact is, you have to know where to draw the line. Some people have a hard time backing off. I've seen it, and the results usually are not pretty.

For example, I climbed Devils Tower last summer with my girlfriend at the time. We made it to the top of the route, about 60' from the actual summit. Because of an incoming thunder storm I turned us around right there. As anyone who has been there will tell you, Devils Tower is a giant natural lightning rod. She was pretty pissed at me for not getting her to the tip top, but her attitude changed as we were reaching the car and watching the lightning hitting all over the top of the thing. It's a pretty sobering experience when the hardware is rattling in the truck because the thunder is so powerful.