18/09/2021

Fez 6a in The Narrows

We were climbing at the Narrows, and we were just moving to our next route. Something made me glance up and I saw a large rock, probably the size of someone's head, falling towards us from the top of the crag about 20m up. I tried to move out of the way, but it wasn't clear in that split second where it was going to land. Luckily it did land without hitting anyone, but it then bounced down the sloping ground, hitting my thigh on the way down. A quick look at my leg established that it was a fairly deep flesh wound, but wasn't bleeding much. My climbing partner helped me down to the car, which was just below us, collected up our gear, and took me to A & E at Weston-Super-Mare General, where they stitched my leg up. Earlier I had noticed a much smaller rock falling, and because there were quite a few goats around, we assume that one of them dislodged the rocks.

15/05/2019

I was working a very steep 8a sport route on lead. My belayer was wearing a helmet in case of loose rock. I was not because the route was so steep. We are both highly experienced. I had a bolt clipped a little above and to the side of me and was trying to move one metre left. I fell off a move and was instantly spinning rapidly. I had to pull my head in and put a hand out to stop my head from slamming into the rock.