Falling Rock – Ontario, Bon Echo

Publication Year: 1978.

FALLING ROCK—Ontario, Bon Echo. Skip King and John Hammond were climbing on the Pinnacle at Bon Echo on May 14. At the top, King pulled a loose block from beneath a tree above the two protection pins, and was hit on the head and right wrist as it fell. He was wearing a helmet and his head was not injured. The stone fell down the chimney at the back of the Pinnacle and took other loose rock with it, almost hitting several people below. King was evacuated to the Park and driven to the Ottawa Civic Hospital where he had emergency surgery to repair several broken bones and a cut tendon. (Source: Derek Heslop, Ottawa Section ACC Bulletin, Summer 1975.)

Analysis: Although the cliff at Bon Echo appears to be sound, rocks are continually being loosened on it, particularly in the spring, as on all other cliffs. King was wearing a helmet, but many other climbers that day were not. If the same accident had happened to them, they might have been more seriously injured. The injury should have been treated as a potential break and been more thoroughly splinted, although there were few signs of a break and only a very bad cut was apparent. (Source: Derek Heslop.)