Not your worst one or the one you had the other day, but your first one...how was it?

I took my first one a couple of weekends ago. I think taking your first lead fall at 41 is probably a little different than taking one at like 18 or 20. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm good though...easy landing=just a sprained ankle.

Sucks about your ankle but could always be worse.

I was just starting to lead 5.7 and I had some trouble with this move. I had put a bd cam in the area of my next hold but I was not comfortable moving onward without it in place and there was no other gear. I fell twice in a row on that cam my first and second lead falls about fifteen feet clean. It did not embolden me though, it actually made me have a little more fear but I was glad to get it over with. I eventually made the move by changing my body position.

I don't know exactly when my first was. I think it was on the 5.5 or whatever "Trough" at Big Rock in Riverside, CA. I slipped on the grease about 6-10ft on that slab. I think I wasn't yet at the first bolt. Sketched me out for a loooong time. Took a while to get back into the groove. No injuries, just a bruised ego.

TacoDelRio wrote:I don't know exactly when my first was. I think it was on the 5.5 or whatever "Trough" at Big Rock in Riverside, CA. I slipped on the grease about 6-10ft on that slab. I think I wasn't yet at the first bolt. Sketched me out for a loooong time. Took a while to get back into the groove. No injuries, just a bruised ego.

Hey, Taco dude! Yes, this was similar to my experience a couple weeks ago. I'd been leading .6 slab routes for most of last fall and decided to crank it up a notch and tried to onsite a .7. It turns out our guidebook is very old and the route was much more polished than I anticipated. I slid before I clipped the first bolt - scary as shit! Don't think I'll onsite anything harder than a .6 for awhile:)

5.9+ in the black hills needles. Technically a sport route, but lots of runout sections, and it was harder (or I thought it was) than the rating indicated. Wound up lowering off the route and losing a draw, but it could have been worse.

CarloMarx wrote:Not your worst one or the one you had the other day, but your first one...how was it?

First one?

1975, Huntington Ravine, Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

Climbing a long rock pitch, the crack just ended. I placed a #3 wired stopper and started hooking to my right to a book. I could feel a thin crack in the book but couldn't see it. I reached around and placed a stopper for aid. I tested it, but it popped out. Since I was on hooks, I was off-balance and fell backwards.

The entire pitch zippered except for the #3 wired stopper. I came to rest upside-down only 5 feet off the ground.

Can't remember first fall on bolts, but first trad whipper on the crux short thin crack of the Direct NW Face of Lembert dome. I just remember placing the green C3 and going for it, then flying through the air, semi-bouncing off the ledge and then hearing and seeing my sunglasses dance down into the trees. Doh! A good flight for sure and a really enjoyable route!

CarloMarx wrote:

TacoDelRio wrote:I don't know exactly when my first was. I think it was on the 5.5 or whatever "Trough" at Big Rock in Riverside, CA. I slipped on the grease about 6-10ft on that slab. I think I wasn't yet at the first bolt. Sketched me out for a loooong time. Took a while to get back into the groove. No injuries, just a bruised ego.

Hey, Taco dude! Yes, this was similar to my experience a couple weeks ago. I'd been leading .6 slab routes for most of last fall and decided to crank it up a notch and tried to onsite a .7. It turns out our guidebook is very old and the route was much more polished than I anticipated. I slid before I clipped the first bolt - scary as shit! Don't think I'll onsite anything harder than a .6 for awhile:)

YO!

Fun huh? Just need rubberized snowshoes for those routes or something.

My first lead fall was this past spring at RRG. First climb of the trip was Autumn on Long Wall. Took a 4-5' fall on a #2 C3 towards the top of the route. The move was a little sketchy for me but I just went for it and my feet slipped off. It was a friction move and I didn't have my feet high enough.

I had been working on getting my head straight for leading all winter by only leading when going to the gym. Didn't matter the route or grade I would not top rope. Might sound lame but it worked for me. When I got outside I did not think about falling. After the fall I just got back on the wall and finished the route. Then I moved over to rock wars and took another short fall on that one.

My first lead fall was off a small crag here in PA, about 5.7. I was maybe ten feet above the ledge I was being belayed from, and I had one cam in a crack behind a bulge. I stepped up and around a small ledge system trending up and right and was aiming the place a second piece when I slipped (I guess) and swung just long enough to think "Yay, piece!"...before the bulge exploded with my piece in it and I hit the belay ledge and then the ground about fifteen feet below that. Luckily I survived with two gnarly ankle sprains from the belay ledge and a cracked helmet. All things considered it was pretty amazing because I was leading Pete's Farewell in the daks the next weekend. I'm still a little gunshy on the sharp end these days, even though I've taken small falls on pieces that have held. I use probably twice as much pro as a normal person would on any particular climb haha.

I took my first lead fall ca. 40 years ago, around the age of 15, though I had allready made a "nice" grounder while bouldering (ca 25 feet), but I guess we are talking about roped climbing.

So my first lead fall was at the Saussois cliffs (France). After a full day of climbing I was allready quite pumped, but we started up l'Echelle (the ladder, ca 5c), one of the rare multipiches at Saussois. I was leading the second pitch, and had made too much rope drag along the traverse as I started up the final corner. Nothing difficult, but I hadn't been hydrating properly, and cramps started setting into my hands.
We used just single (steel) biners, and I remember my fingers not being able to let go of the biner door (ha,ha). I was tugging at the rope so as to place it in the biner, holding the rope with my teeth in order to reach at it once more (everyone does that now and then). While pulling, it must have been a foot that slipped, and I flew.
Unfortunately I didn't curse or shout, and the first yank came on my front teeth, which broke. Next I pendled and finally hung below an overhang. The adrenaline must have done its job and I soon got back on the line, now relaxed, and not too shaky. Wasn't much of a fall (ca 30 feet) but I do recall it.
BTW, the routes were protected with in place pitons, and we had no harnesses (just a broad, belt type thing, which made you realize about your ribs).

first one on lead on a 5.10b, dropped 30 feet on an overhanging part, touched no rock lol

Hasn't happened yet (I keep realizing at points about 10 feet above the previous bolt how much that is going to hurt someday).

BTW, how is a 30 foot fall not a bad fall. You can easily die from a 30 foot fall. Just saying.

-Swithich

Happened a long time ago but I remember it like it was yesterday (really). I was 14 or 15 and I fell on Sail Away at Joshua Tree. Luckily, the climb ate passive pro since, back in '78 or '79 when it happened, that's pretty much all there was. I wasn't hurt. It happened so quickly and it was just like everything went in slo mo and I found myself hanging from the rope 8 or 10 feet lower. Much better than those grim falls you can see coming and can't do much about.