Incident

On July 5th, 2005, climber J.H. was injured in a lead fall of about thirty feet on the second pitch of Northwest Books on Lembert Dome (5.6, 3 pitches).

According to J.H., he did all the leading, followed by his partner, S.W. After they climbed the first pitch, J.H. climbed to an intermediate belay midway through the second pitch where he rigged a belay. Because S.W. was a relatively inexperienced climber, J.H. wanted to break the pitch into smaller pieces for her.

After belaying S.W. up, J.H. began to lead the second half of the pitch. He had with him a copy of the Supertopo guide to Tuolumne Meadows, and from it he concluded that the right-curving crack above and to the left of the belay was 5.9, harder climbing than he intended to do. J.H. placed a #3.5 Camalot just above the belay and began to climb the face to the right of the crack.

Initially, the face climbing was easy, around 5.6. But as he climbed higher he began to suspect that he was off route. Ten feet above the Camalot, he decided he was definitely off route and that the crack to the left was where he wanted to be. He stopped and assessed his options.

J.H. thought about downclimbing, but didn’t want to downclimb on slab. “The slab seemed to keep the same angle, then flatten out some and meet the crack,” said J.H.. He decided to press on to the crack. Although the slab didn’t get steeper as he continued up, “it got pebbly” in texture, with small loose rocks that made foot placements uncertain.

About fifteen feet above the Camalot, J.H. began concentrating on foot placements, but his climbing shoes kept picking up pebbles that made his feet slip. “I cleaned off my shoe and replaced it several times,” he said, but could not get a secure foothold. He started to downclimb and traverse left to meet the crack when his feet suddenly slipped.

Because of the angle of the slab, J.H. slid down the wall instead of free-falling. His hands and forearms were badly cut and gouged in the process. Part way through the fall, J.H.’s feet hit a small ledge. “I hit the ledge, jammed my ankles, and kept going,” he said. He was flung out with enough force to badly bruise his leg when he pendulumed back into the wall. S.W.’s belay stopped him after he had fallen about thirty feet.

J.H. said he knew right away that one ankle was broken and the other was probably sprained. His arms and hands were bleeding. S.W. belayed him as he climbed fifteen feet back up to the belay station, where he tied in and pulled the rope. Together they splinted the obviously broken ankle with the Supertopo guide and tape. J.H. then re-rigged the belay into a rappel and, with an auto-block back-up, rappelled to a lower ledge with his knees against the wall. Once S.W. joined him, J.H. repeated the process three more times (they had only one 60 meter rope) until they were on the ground.

Rescue              [incident]     [rescue]     [analysis]

After receiving a vague report of a fallen climber with injured ankles on Lembert Dome, rangers found J.H. near the base of the route. J.H. calmly reported what had happened while Rangers assessed his injuries and began initial treatment.

The Tuolumne SAR Team and several of J.H.’s friends carried him in a litter about a quarter mile to the parking lot. He declined further care from YOSAR and his friends drove him to Mammoth hospital, where he was diagnosed with two badly broken ankles.

Analysis              [incident]     [rescue]     [analysis]

J.H. showed commendable grit, focus, and pain tolerance in getting himself and his partner safely off the route. His initiative turned what would have been a high-angle rope rescue into a simple litter carry-out, drastically reducing the danger for his rescuers.

More importantly, J.H. self-rescued without compromising his safety; he carefully rigged his rappel anchors and remembered to use a backup on his rappel (the auto-block: very important with slippery, bloody hands.)

J.H. said that he has been climbing for eight years and leading for seven. He rated himself a 5.8 or 5.9 lead and had climbed in Tuolumne several times before, including Cathedral Peak (regular route) and routes on Daff Dome, just a few days prior. He knew how to follow a route topo.

However, from J.H.’s description of where he fell, it appears that the crack he thought was 5.9 and avoided is actually “5.5 awkward,” according to the Supertopo. It is unclear how this confusion occurred, since J.H. had a topo of the route with him. There is a specific warning in the Supertopo to avoid being sucked into a 5.9 crack near the beginning of the second pitch. J.H. took this to heart, but appears to have either misjudged his position on the route or applied the warning to the wrong crack.

However he got there, J.H. was aware that he was run-out, and eventually found himself in a common dilemma: downclimb or increase the run-out. Apparently it looked more promising to climb up and out of the dilemma. However, it’s easy to overlook the consequences of pushing the run-out in mid-angle slab terrain; while the landings can be just as bad as in steeper terrain, the cheese-grater slide of the fall can do as much damage or more. Ledges that look like they would stop your fall can instead fling you violently away from the rock or cause you to carwheel.

Not all belays are equal. S.W.’s belay was effective because she was attentive to and had good communication with J.H., and because the belay was rigged so that the force of the fall was taken by the anchor, not by the belayer. Otherwise, J.H.’s injuries could have been worse and S.W. could have been injured from the force of the fall as well.

Written by Nate Knight

Guidance and editing by John Dill

[incident]     [rescue]     [analysis]