23/09/2023

Gollum

Went for an afternoon at Goblin Combe looking to climb gollum and hopefully smaug the dragon. From the get-go on the warmup was not feeling strong, however stupidly chose to ignore this. Started up Gollum, a pumpy route, and after some faffing got to just below the crux. A single piece of gear was placed at the start of the crux but there was a significant length between this piece and the previous. Gear was not backed up even though the flake ate gear and it was the crux. Started the crux and instantly felt pumped, too pumped to place more gear as I approached 5 or so metres above the last piece. No recollection of what happened next, but must've ran out of strength near the top of the crux and taken a very large fall. Gear must have caught a significant amount of this fall, however popped out and ended up in a ground fall. Luckily no severe injuries, just a dislocated collarbone and a concussion, very very lucky considering the whipper was taken 12-15 metres up from the ground (according to belayer)