Today Sharon and I were climbing on the Wind Tower in Eldorado Canyon State Park. It was a busy Sunday and many “Off Belay” calls were echoing around the canyon.
We had just finished our first pitch, and were swapping gear, when the calls of climbers all around suddenly became feverish. Sharon and I looked around, and across the canyon on The Bastille, at about the same altitude, and not more than 50 yards away, a climber was hanging upside-down, motionless, 10 feet below the top of the second pitch of The Bastille Crack.
We watched in disbelief. Several minutes passed and there was no movement from the climber or his belayer.
The situation was visible to climbers all around Eldo, and there was a great deal of shouting. The fallen climber and his belayer remained motionless. We were too far to render any assistance, and there were better climbers closer anyway. Nobody was sure what had transpired, or how dire the situation was. Was the climber unconscious, paralyzed by fear, badly injured, or some combination?
Suddenly the fallen climber’s arm twitched. He was conscious! As he started to slowly right himself, “rock!” echoed off the walls, and the injured climber’s rack plummeted down. This was looking bad, and getting worse.
Slowly, the injured climber righted himself, and then – very slowly – made his way up to his belayer.
Around the same time, a climber started up the route from the bottom. Belayed from below, the climber ascended extraordinarily quickly; it was clear that this was a very experienced climber. He reached the ledge just after the injured climber, probably no more than 15 minutes after the fall.
We could see the rescuer build his own anchor, tie in, and then check the tie-in of the belayer and injured climber.
Some minutes elapsed. The rescuer set up a rappel for the injured climber, and, very slowly and with difficulty for the injured climber, lowered him to the ground. By this time Rocky Mountain Rescue and several emergency vehicles were on the scene, and the climber was loaded into an ambulance and rushed away. This was within probably 30 minutes of the fall.
The rescuer subsequently set-up a rappel for the belayer, and lowered him to the ground as well.
After witnessing all of this, Sharon and I were rattled, and decided to not continue our climb. We downclimbed an easy escape, and on our return to the car, spoke with the rescuer. What we learned was that the injured climber had been leading the Bastille Crack, had fallen, and had pulled a piece of protection, but had two more that stuck. However, with the length of his fall, he hit the belay ledge, which knocked him unconscious, as well as injured both his shoulder and hip. The climber had been hanging unconscious upside-down for several minutes!
It turns out that the belayer was his 16-year old son.
If your leader fell, and was hanging unconscious 15 feet below you 150 feet off the ground, would you know what do to? What if you were 16, and the leader was your father?
A nurse on the scene told us that both father and son were clearly in shock when they reached the ground.
I think it fortunate that such an experienced climber was nearby, or things could have been much worse.
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