Sunday, February 26, 2012

THE SHORT END OF A LONG ROPE

Last week I was told by my neurosurgeon that my scans where good and I could go take some whippers, well actually he said 'return to normal activity and don't fall off any mountains'. To me that's pretty good news. At the start of November  the day before my girlfriend Kerryn's birthday I messed up an abseil and fell. Now I'm pretty sure I fell some 10m but somewhere between Simon, Oli, Danny, the SES, Ambos and Police rescue it turned into 15m shit; I aint gonna argue with that, so I fell fifteen fucking metres man.
I fractured vertebrae T9-11 anterior burst but not displaced, ligament damage in my cervic spine with a micro fracture in C7, some small stuff in L5 and fractured my 5th meta-tarsal in my right foot.

On the 5th of November last year Simon, Kez and I rolled on into the Buffalo camp ground (after we missed picking up Simon from his flight from Tas and overheated three times on the road up). Really psyched up we wasted no time and with Oli and Danny, Simon and I headed out to the to get some routes in before dark. Kerryn stayed in camp with the laptop to do some work.
Simon and I both climbed Peroxide Blonde. I went first, lowered back down and then Simon led the pitch, when he was safe at the top he abseiled back down and meanwhile I took off my harness and helmet and soloed the route next to Peroxide Blonde named The Pintle; On getting to the top I asked Simon to tie my harness to the rope. Thinking I should pull both ends I fatefully for some reason did not, I hauled up my harness, pulled some slack and chucked the rope. Putting on my harness I checked the buckles, checked the belay device and launched off... I was cruising down looking out over the buffalo plateau and the rope lost all resistance, I saw an end shooting past me.  Oli reckons I said 'Oh Fuck'... yep oh fuck, I remember thinking well this is it when I crunched into the corner of The Pintle, thought to myself SURVIVE and tried to grab the corner with of course no hope, I tumbled further down and out of the corner system into Simons loving open arms! Simon says he looked up and saw me coming flying towards him so he stepped under me and put his hands up, I would say that he bloody saved my life. Then I crunched, was winded severely, broke some bones, thought I was royalled and felt really guilty for killing myself on my girlfriends birthday (the next day).
I won't go into the details of the rescue—suffice to say a lot of people helped me out greatly and I am humbled by the effort others took to ensure my safety, comfort and eventual rescue.
I would consider myself one of the last true romantics for arranging a scenic helicopter flight over the Alpine National Park for my girlfriend on her birthday, none of which would have been possible without the support of the very giving tax payers of Australia.
The situation is human error, my ropes were not equal from a retrievable abseil, I went past one end which was around 3-4m from the anchor so the system of course pulled through. I was enjoying a conversation and the view of the Mt Buffalo plateau at sunset (my first trip here) and didn't check the system thoroughly . Knots in the end of the rope would have prevented this accident. Personally I find this easy to deal with and can move forward from it, I made a mistake and luckily enough can learn from it, gear failure on the other hand would result in forever second guessing equipment. It has been frustrating to think how avoidable this accident could have been, especially for someone like myself who as a guide prides myself on safety but there is always a difference between workplace setting and personal climbing.

The posse enjoying Kez's BDay a day late, I hang in the Alfred
I take away from this accident, a little bit of climbing knowledge but a lot about life, I have learnt so much about friendship and love in such a small amount of time compared to my previous 27 years. I went climbing for the first time about a few weeks ago with some mates at Bundaleer (love this cliff! It was pretty much home for me when I lived in Halls Gap). While back in my first climb top roping Enter Sandman a close friend Earl heckled me to put in a double knee bar and bat hang, I laughed and said Na which he responded 'Gaan do it' and so I did, but not because he pressured me or I felt I had to prove myself but because I knew either way I went Earl would have something positive to say about what choice I made. True friends encourage us to explore, try new things, develop and support us no matter what we choose. We truly stand on or mates shoulders, literally, next up came Manic Depressive but I felt the first throw move was too much so I stood on Earls shoulders and pulled through it, this too me sums up so much, although we may grasp onto and latch the next hold we truly are only propped up by those around us.
Thank you.

1 comment:

  1. Full on mate. Just heard about this. Glad to hear you are ok. Lots of love. Rich.

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