On May 6, two teams (Mike and Keith, Chris and Jeff, all experienced climbers) did the full Dark Shadows (5.8, 10 pitches). Mike and Keith topped out about 5 p.m., with the second party trailing 15 to 30 minutes behind. We called home to report all was well, snapped some pics, and scouted the route down. Around 5:45 p.m. we started wondering what was taking our second party so long. We yelled for them and got nothing but echo and wind noise. At 6 p.m. we rigged a rope off a big pine tree to lower down the route and see about Chris and Jeff. As we extended over the edge, we heard calls for help. We scrambled back up, cleaned our gear, and rapped off the tree.

With a 70-meter rope, we were unable to reach Jeff, who had fallen in the middle of the ninth pitch while leading. We built an interim anchor and Mike rapped down to Jeff. He was conscious, standing on a sloping ledge, and had secured himself and rigged a sling for his right arm. He knew his elbow and some ribs were broken. We later learned he had been unconscious and had a broken scapula and cracked vertebrae. (All the climbers were wearing helmets.) He was in a lot of pain and moaned every time he took a deep breath, which we attributed to the broken ribs.

Before falling, Jeff reported, he had decided he did not like a certain nut placement and had moved up a bit to find better pro. When he fell, the nut popped and he went 20 feet to the ledge.

Communication was a problem, with Keith above Mike and Jeff, and Chris below. With much difficulty, Mike was able to ask Chris to untie from his end of their 70-meter half ropes. With even more difficulty communicating, we sent the ropes up for Keith to rig a rappel. This would get us all to Chris’ belay stance in one rappel. We lowered Jeff to Chris and then joined them.

Led by Jeff’s feeling that he could endure the pain, we decided to continue to self-rescue, leaving various pieces of gear until we got to the bolted anchors on the lower pitches. Jeff preferred controlling his own descent on rappel. He was in a lot of pain, but otherwise able to evaluate and communicate as we rigged his raps. We sent one party down for a fireman’s belay and then Jeff would cast off second. (Editor’s note: In the “fireman’s belay,” a climber below the rappel can control the speed of the rappeller’s descent by adding tension to the ropes, making them more resistant to passing through the rappel device.)

Darkness arrived at the top of pitch five, and although we all had headlamps it became harder to find the fixed anchors. We were able to rap to the top of pitch two before the 70-meter half ropes got stuck in the fixed anchors on top of station four. We decided to continue with our remaining 70-meter rope, finally reaching the ground at 1 a.m. We hiked approximately three miles to the car and drove to the hospital in Las Vegas. To our surprise, Jeff was released later the same day.

ANALYSIS

We needed a better communication plan. In Red Rock climbers are often out of sight of the belayer, and voice communication is often difficult to impossible. We had worked out a series of rope tugs to communicate, but backup radios would have been wise.

Our decision to self-rescue, based on how we assessed Jeff’s condition, was the right one. Some members of our team had wilderness medical training, and we all had self-rescue skills, although some not recently practiced. We made several decisions earlier in the day that played out favorably. We planned to stay in reasonable proximity of each other, let others pass if needed (one group did), and when one team reached the top we would wait for the second team. These decisions enabled us to get off the mountain relatively efficiently. (Source: Mike Harris.)