Rescue 911 at Little si!
The firefighters were the first to arrive.
Don't mind us! We're just trying to get in some pitches...
Well, it’s officially not news. I just checked the internet portals and came up with a big fat ‘no results found’ under all of my queries. Oh well, I guess that leaves it up to me to break this news story. Yesterday, August 9th, 2010, I rallied the troops (read: Antonio, Andrew, and Jimmy) and we headed out to what would be the soggiest day trip to Little si EVER! We drove through a rain cloud, hit I-90, looked to our left and saw nothing but dark grey rain clouds shrouding the entire girth of Mt. Si. Hmmmmm, this looks to be an interesting day of climbing. The temps were AMAZING (58 degrees Fahrenheit), however by the time we hit the base of World Wall I was soaked (and not by my own sweat, that is definitely a first!!). Unfortunately as soon as we had arrived to the crag and thrown our belongings down we realized something was wrong. At the base of the route ‘Jug or Not’ (5.10b) lay a stunned climber surrounded by his friends, clutching his legs in pain. I asked if he was okay and they shook their heads no. My next question was if he had broken something and it was a resounding yes. I called 9-1-1 and the rest of the day was played out in long sequences of waiting, stabilizing, rigging, and hauling this poor guy off of the ledge of World Wall 1 by 15+ firefighters and search and rescue.
You may be wondering at this point how bad this guys injuries were, that he needed to be carefully loaded onto a stretcher and lowered off the ledge. Well, as soon as the firefighters arrived they assessed the damage to his body as follows:
Left knee dislocated, right ankle fracture, and minor abrasions to lower left arm.
And no, he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Of course neither were any of us. But then again, none of us decided to skip a clip and pump out fifteen feet off the deck. Which, apparently is what happened to this poor fellow. He managed to clip the first bolt on Jug Or Not (which everybody knows will not protect you against shit) and ended up skipping the next bolt in favor of trying to climb to better holds near the third bolt. He made it to the third bolt, but unfortunately was not able to clip, and came flying downwards, the force of the impact being absorbed by his legs. OUCH!
Meanwhile we were stuck in the middle of a monsoon! I don’t think I’ve ever seen World Wall get soaked so fast. Watching the water streak down Black Ice with such momentum was not reassuring that we would have the run of the crag. Of course having an injured climber lay at the base of the wall while we tried to go about our usual warm ups didn’t exactly inspire us either. I kind of felt like an asshole as I pranced up and down Aborigine, Psychowussy, and Californicaotr/Chronic all the while trying to avoid as much eye contact with the injured climber and his rescuers as possible. Eventually Bret and Joel showed up with dogs in tow and things got pretty cozy up there on the ledge. Especially with three routes to choose from for the 8 of us!!! But we made the best of it. I made some really good links on Chronic. Andrew sent his new project Psychowussy. And Antonio tried on Technorigine for size and made good progress as well. Bret had a go on a soaking wet Lost Horizons and took a sweet 30-35 footer off the last crux, VENGA!
We were repeatedly asked for cams from the search and rescue guys while they tried to rig some kind of pulley system to lower this guy down and all I could think of; while they were slowly lowering him, both legs wrapped in ace bandages and splinted, covered in an emergency blanket, looking miserable; was if I ever get injured at Little si, whoever is belaying me, LOWER ME TO THE FUCKING GROUND!!!
Stay safe everyone!! Clip those bolts!
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