In June, my party of four arrived at the Pipeline in Maple Canyon to find a party of two—a 20-year-old male and a 25-year-old male—already climbing. One of the boys reported that he had just flashed a 5.12c/d. Their combination of strength and inexperience concerned me.

The 25-year-old started up a steep 5.11d. He made a difficult move at the fourth bolt and fell. My wife watched, waiting for the rope to catch. Instead, the climber pancaked flat onto his back from about 20 feet. The rope hung uselessly through the quickdraws, detached from his harness. Writhing on the ground, the fallen climber said, “I forgot to check my knot!”

Thankfully, two of my friends are WFR-certified. They ran to the fallen climber and kept him from getting up. They stabilized his back and neck and sent me to call 911. (Verizon has service at the outhouse near Left Fork in the canyon.) By the time I returned, two ER doctors, who happened to be climbing nearby, had joined the rescue. They performed a spinal examination. The Sanpete County EMTs arrived after about 25 minutes. They gave the patient IV pain meds, put him in a body splint, and extracted him less than an hour after he’d fallen—impressive work for a small-town operation.

Later, we talked to the belayer. The fallen climber had tied the rope to his belay loop with an overhand knot to “hold” the rope while he stick-clipped the first two bolts. After chatting and lacing up his shoes, he started climbing. When he fell, the overhand caught for a millisecond before untying, dropping him to the ground.

Last that we heard, the fallen climber was experiencing lower back pain but hadn’t broken his back, as we’d feared. Had he flashed the route and tried to lower from the top, he likely would’ve died or been severely injured. His head (no helmet) landed within a foot of a suitcase-sized boulder. He was extremely lucky.

ANALYSIS

This accident could have been avoided if 1) the climber and belayer had performed a simple partner check before leaving the ground, and 2) the climber had never tied the rope to himself while stick-clipping.

I don’t know if the fallen climber invented this practice or if he learned it from YouTube, but tying the rope to something while stick-clipping is unnecessary. Just pull a few meters of rope through the draw on the stick clip and toss the end on the ground. Please don’t add an unnecessary step to a process that’s already perfect. (Source: Creed Archibald.)

*Editor’s Note: As Archibald notes, this accident could have ended in death. A 40-year-old female climber died a few months later in Rock Canyon, near Provo, Utah, after falling while tied in with an incomplete figure 8 knot. (Source: Utah County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.)