Home Forums Accidents, near-misses and mishaps Huge Slab Fall from West Cape Howe

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  • #110098 Reply
    Capo
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    While abseiling down the gully to reach the belay point for Shitsky/Carousel on the Carousel Wall, a f@#$*ing huge, human sized, 100-150 kilo chunk of the upper edge of the cliff came in on me. First a few sprinkles, then within a second, the beast. I turned to the side and managed to have it only slam into my flank, leave some wicked bruising. There was a backpack under the rope on the cliff edge above, the wall seemed uber stable and has been climbed by hundreds without incident. It was just it’s time to go.

    Lesson learned? We had a chat at the top of the cliff, before rapping down, about whether or not to wear helmets. Decided not to because it wouldn’t look “cool” for the photos of this epic sea wall. When that shit came crumbling down all I could think was how I wished I had a helmet, needed to protect my head, and that could very well be the death of me.

    Luck will only hold out so many times, then you had better be skilled and you had better be prepared…

    #110189 Reply
    Kylie
    Guest

    Yup. The one time I made a split-second decision not to wear my helmet (last climb of the day, arm-load of rope and gear, couldn’t be arsed walking over to pick it up, thought it’d be ok etc etc), I took a lead fall and ended up with mild concussion and 11 stitches in my head.

    Always wear your helmets kids. Even if it does make you look like a UN Peacekeeper……

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