Well I have just had a month off climbing due to a fall, not my own but my fault none the less. I was climbing at Stathams with a buddy on a Sunday arvo, after a pretty successful day we roped up on No Ordinary Determination. I had a brief stop near the crux but no major probs. I rapped down and swapped with my partner for him to have a lead. It is here that I really wasn’t thinking. The first bolt is only a couple of metres up and is easy climbing to it, but the start is also quite high up the scree slope. I should have put a belay safety in but hey, my partner is an experienced climber and the first section is easy right? Wrong, he popped off and fell onto me, we then tumbled down the slope for another 4-5m. End result, a cracked bone in my foot, tendon/ligament damage in both wrists and a split in my head from hair to eyebrow. I am usually a very safe climber but got complacent and took our safety for granted. Bit of a wake up call for us and hopefully a reminder/safety lesson to everyone else. Cam, sling or clip in when belaying if there is any chance of a fall, it not worth the risk. I came out of this ok, it could have been a lot worse.

Cheers