On July 7, at approximately 2 p.m., my fiancé John Luebbers (34) and I (32) were attempting a tight dihedral called We Don’t Do Crack, a single-pitch 5.8 with a tricky start. I had placed one piece (number 0.5 C4 Camalot) about six to eight feet off the ground, with an unextended alpine draw (the route went straight up so rope drag was not an issue). There was a slick hand jam that I couldn’t stick, despite having done it about an hour before, and I fell about two feet. The gear caught my fall as expected. The piece did not move and was still in a textbook placement on solid rock. I tried the move again with the same result. I checked the security of the piece after the second fall; everything looked fine. On the third try I fell again and, in a freak occurrence, the rope-end carabiner on my alpine draw opened and the rope disconnected from the draw.

I fell about eight feet and hit the deck, then tumbled over a series of boulders down the climbers’ trail another 25 feet, stopping just shy of a bushy cliff. Some willows were the only thing stopping me from tumbling far down to the road below.

John had braced for my fall, but when the rope unweighted after the cam was unclipped, he lost his balance. As I fell, I pulled him down the trail with me. He tumbled over a four-foot boulder and stopped. When I sat up, the rope-end carabiner was attached to my rope while my cam and the rest of the alpine draw still sat in the crack.

Two nearby climbers with medical training helped me tape my leg and clean our wounds before assisting us down the trail to our vehicle. Both John and I had abrasions and bruises, and I also sustained whiplash, but X-rays did not show further injuries.

ANALYSIS

Initially I suspected I might have grabbed the carabiner in panic as I fell and that might have caused the gate to open. However, after re-creating the scenario on an indoor wall, this does not seem likely. The most likely scenario is the carabiner spun so that, before or during my fall, my tie-in knot, my body, the sling, or the rope caused the gate to open, similar to falling on a backclipped quickdraw, and resulted in the carabiner disconnecting from the sling. This would be a rare occurrence, but within the realm of possibility.

Since the accident, we’ve been using special carabiners with two opposing gates for our first piece or any piece near a crux move. [Editor’s Note: A locking carabiner is also a good option.] While my ground fall might have been unavoidable, my 25-foot tumble after hitting the deck could have been shortened if we had anchored the belayer so he wouldn’t be pulled off balance. Even in seemingly inconsequential terrain, the momentum of such falls should not be underestimated.

Both John and I were wearing helmets, and we suspect we might have been more seriously injured as we tumbled over the rocks if we hadn’t been. (Source: Meg Atteberry.)

THE SHARP END (EPISODE 50): Meg and John share their story and the aftermath of these events in “Trouble in the Belaytionship” on the Sharp End podcast.