Well it was a normal day. We all set off to go climbing and everything seemed great, just as it would have been any other climbing day. For the first climb I set out on trad lead, a 5.7, with a really weird bouldery start. I was glad to be able to get the first move and was seriously inclined to just walk around the corner and avoid it since a slip would have been a really bad fall.
The climb went very well and most of the gear I placed was bomber. Minus a number 2 micro which popped the second I weighted the anchor because of the leftward directional force. It turns out that I set the anchor on the wrong line and I had the inclination to put in a directional, but was told not to worry about it.
The second climb was a nice 5.9 on sport lead. I’ve lead it before and while it is challenging it is totally do able. I wasn’t nervous or anything just ready to climb so that we could move on to some more fun stuff. As I set out I was really calm, focused, and ready. My breathing was smooth and I made my way up the rock face. The beginning is really nice and blocky and then you have to move out onto the face where it gets much more challenging.
Three clips or so up the face and I got a bit stuck with my hand position and it took me awhile to get a draw in and clip it. I did it and thought “Should I move on or rest here awhile?” I didn’t think much about it since I hadn’t moved too far above my protection. In my head I thought well if I do fall I won’t fall that far. This, it turns out, was the worse mistake I could have ever made lead climbing.
I made my move and reached for a hold above and then lurched out with my right and and missed the hold completely and started falling.
One clip
Two clips
Three clips
HOLY SHIT I’M GONNA HIT THE DECK.
At that point I hear my foot scraping against the rock and then my ankle hits the ledge and that’s it kids. I watched as my ankle bent the other way by 90 degrees.
The rope caught me and I was hanging there in major pain.
My belayer lowered me down and I was screaming his name and saying “It’s all over” don’t know what that meant but it is what I kept saying. I was glad to have my friends there to help me.
Everyone at the crag helped get me to safety.
So what went wrong? Well all in all there were a couple of things that I failed to take into consideration:
1. The rock face itself: It was shaped sort of like a belly making it prone to ankle breaks like the one I experienced.
2. The roping system: Yes I was clipped and I was only a few feet above my protection, but my belayer was about 10 feet from the rock face and roughly 20 pounds (at least) lighter than me. So when I fell he was pulled in (approx 10 feet ) and lifted up at least 5 feet. That adds at least 15 feet to my fall and that doesn’t even incorporate rope stretch and the distance that I was above my protection. None of these things even crossed my mind. I only thought that I would be protected.
It turns out that this experience was my first significant lead fall outside. It really sucks for me that I have to have plates and screws in my ankle as part of the experience.
A few weeks after all of this happened and writing about this really hurts. I keep thinking I should have just fucking rested and none of this would have happened. In the past it’s what I would have done and I’ve had to learn a terrible lesson for my mistake.
I don’t think this will keep me from climbing again but I don’t think I want to deal with not being able to work for month’s at a time so I’m sure that will weigh on my decision to climb.
I just bought all of this new trad stuff that I won’t be able to use, yet. I’ve got a bunch of friends that have gotten through this and were back on their feet and climbing in no time. I just gotta be patient and not sweat the little things like being able to walk 🙂