Rich and our friend Tom Wright went up there on Saturday to do Frippery, which is a 5.8 with some off-width climbing on it. Rich led the first pitch and then Tom led the second. He ended up getting a little bit off route, winding up in a chimney (Off-width Pants variation, 5.8)with no gear near by. He was almost through the hard climbing and he slipped out, taking a big nasty fall. The result was a broken ankle, tibia and tore some ligaments in his ankle as well. Rich got him to the ground after assessing the injuries and called me. I ran up to the cliff with some ibuprofen and when I got there his ankle was much bigger than a grapefruit. He partially crawled out and we partially carried him and then we drove him to the hospital.
All in all the rescue went very smoothly, quickly and efficient. Tom was in good spirits, despite having just angulated his for 90 degrees, repeating the mantra "Touching the void, touching the void..." The doctors say eight weeks on crutches, which is obviously a major bummer. Lessons learned: pay careful attention to route descriptions; have the appropriate gear; backing down should always be an option.
So, continuing the saga, Matt and I went back to the cliff today to retrieve Rich and Tom's gear. Rich had fixed a single rope to an anchor he built, and all the gear was still on the pitch as well. Also, there were to packs, extra gear, climbing shoes, a helmet clipped into some gear, etc. Matt and I planned to climb Grand Ole Osprey (5.10b) and then rap over Frippery to snag the remaining gear.
When we got to the cliff there were two pieces of gear in the cliff and no rope, packs, helmet or anything else. Hmmm, where did they go?
3 comments:
Hey man, we have the gear! Came across what looked like a an accident scene/gear explosion at cloudspin on Sunday while looking to climb Frippery. We found Rich's ID and, not wanting to leave the gear explosion for a potentially injured climber to have to return to, packed it up and hiked it out with plans to contact you all. Contacting you has proved a challenge but after a few days of chasing leads and mailing a letter my partner found your blog! Unfortunately we all go to work tomorrow for a full week in the woods and won't be back until August 5th. That said, unless you can make a trip over here to Saranac lake before 7:30 am, we won't be able to get the gear back to you until the evening of the 5th. Glad to have the mystery solved on our end and to hear that nobody is seriously hurt. Shoot me an email, dan.armentano@gmail.com
Thanks a lot for grabbing our gear! That crack would have been easy if dry, but it was real slimy. Can't wait to go back to it with a 8" big bro!
tom- maybe just an 8" steel blade?
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