11/06/2025

Weather: Clear, Dry. Familiarity: Locals. Skill level: Debatable. Objectives: Climb, laugh, make memories, survive. Route: incident occurred off-route, see below. Hazard evaluation: see below. Having been foiled by the crux move of an otherwise charming route, we were forced to abandon a brand new quickdraw and retreat. An abseil was used to recover the quickdraw, after which one person had scrambled up the easy slope to the right of the wall to recover the ab rope. The incident occurred on the descent (same route as ascent) following recovery of the now coiled ab rope; the rope was thrown down to allow hands to be used for balance. The person checked the stability of a large rock at the top of the slope and satisfied themselves that it was stable and connected to the planet. As they passed the rock it came loose and fell away causing the person to also fall. A strong attempt was made by the person to sing Led Zepplins 1970 hit, Immigrant Song, while freefalling roughly 1/3rd the height of the crag, this was a bit weak so the person tried again while tumbling the rest of the way to the bottom of the slope, achieving multiple smaller bounces but getting nowhere near the original vocals until finally stopping next to the now stationary rock at the bottom of the slope. First aid happened. As the person had maintained consciousness throughout the event and felt able to walk, the decision was made to self evacuate and travel to A+E. Final tally: Multiple bumps and swellings to the head 1 x Wounded ear 1 x Subluxed Shoulder 1 x Fractured Ankle Gravel rash that would make a 2nd hand Waka Tuna look factory fresh. Did we meet our objectives? Yes

06/10/2021

Scratching the surface

The leader took a short fall on the second bolt and swung into the side of the corner they were trying to gain. They still had their belay device (GriGri) racked on a back gear loop on their harness. This punched into their back, leaving them very sore and tipping them into an inversion. An imprint of the device was visible on their back afterwards. A minor injury, but it could have been much worse if it had impacted against the spine or organs. Casualty walked off in discomfort.

05/04/2015

DM walls

Experienced climbers in a familiar area on a simple warm up climb, first climb of the day. Topo for climb taken from sportclimb.co.uk as no guide book for DM walls existed at the time. Topo had no route lengths in it. 30m rope was used where majority of route known to be 15m. Climber used belayer rope and kit, unfamilliar and not wanting to scrutinise to much for fear of offending. Climber had a 50m rope in the car with proper belay sheet where rope ends were always tied. Belayer had a 30m rope in an ikea bag. Upon lower off rope was found to be too short, belayer continued to lower off, no knot tied in the end of the rope therefore rope slipped through belayer and belay plate. Climber fell four meters and is now paralysed. Route assumed to be 17m not 15m.