Of Safety and Sonora; a story from Dingus Milk Toast

I've told this story on the internet before, but I get all my lies confused
after awhile. So if you've heard it, please forgive me.

I used to tie into TR's with a single locking biner. I was quite satisfied
that the equipment was strong enough for the task at hand, regardless of what
axis was loaded. I remain convinced. However, I no longer use this tie in
method and here's why...

Angus and I were repeating a climb called Stu-pendous at Sonora Pass. It's a
one pitch granite climb up above Deadman's Creek (an appropriate name for
this story) that currently goes at 5.10c, A0. Stu and I bolted the FA on the
lead with a bosch a couple of years earlier in a tag team effort. A one bolt
aid move bypasses a likely hard 5.12 (or harder?) move to gain a
dead-vertical black water streak dotted with knobs. There are two separate
5.10 cruxes and several hard 5.9 + moves on this very cool route. Angus and I
were attempting to free it.

I tried first and repeatedly attempted to boulder out the opening moves. I
just couldn't do it and spent myself in the attempt. Angus tried once and
conceded it was hopeless. I had already led the remainder of the route, so I
told him to finish it if he wanted. He did, falling at the 10c crux, then
climbing through to the top.

I started to follow, but Angus asked me to bring some water up. The packs
were out of reach, so I untied. When I tied back in, I just did a quick
figure-eight on a bight and clipped it to the locking biner on my harness. I
was using a big BD pear shaped biner with a screw-lock sleeve. Not sure if
they make it anymore. I was also using a BD Bod Harness at the time. The
screw lock biner I was using had a bug in it that I knew about and will
describe shortly.

I got back on the route and simply aided past the bolt. Then up a short 85
degree ramp with some thin 5.9 moves. Then into the vertical water streak,
past the first (or 2nd, counting the un-freed aid move) crux at 10 a or b.
The 2nd crux is a difficult mantle onto a knob with almost no overhead holds
for assistance. It is really a hard move on the brink of nothingness, one of
those classic granite-type moves. As I pressed the mantle, my foot popped off
the knob. Somehow I caught myself on the very same knob as I fell (about 60 -
80 feet above large talus, or there abouts), nearly pulled my shoulder out of
the socket to hang on, then repressed the mantle with what little energy
remained and stood up. There was no resting here, but 2 moves higher a wide
5.9 stem offered the opportunity to at least let go with one hand at a time.
When I got there, and I remember this exchange as if it were yesterday and
not several years ago, Angus said...

"Dingus, is that your KNOT?"

I looked down in confusion and my heart froze.

The knot I tied into the end of the rope was completely disconnected from the
biner and was hanging in free space at about chest height. The biner was
stuck open and hanging from my harness by the notch in the gate. This being a
bod harness, without a biner to hold it together, the piece that comes up
through the legs was dangling down between my legs (knee height). The biner
was hanging off this piece of webbing. The buckle was intact (no Stallone
movies here) and properly doubled back. I instantly realized what had
happened. I looked up at Angus.

"Lock it off." I said with urgency. I grabbed the knot. Angus thought I
wanted to pull it back down to clip it in again, but I had other things in
mind. He began to give me slack, which I wasn't ready for. I almost fell
again.

"LOCK IT OFF!" He locked it. I quickly wrapped the rope around my wrist twice
and weighted it. I figured I could at least hang on like this should
everyting else fail. I then (and here was an act of trust and faith like no
other) let go with my other hand, reached down, grabbed the biner, pulled it
back up and reassembled the harness. With it back where it belonged, I
regrabbed the rock, asked for a little slack and then reclipped the knot into
the biner (wrist still wrapped up tight). Finally, I untwisted my wrist from
the rope and regrabbed the rock with the other hand. All of this took only a
few seconds (and nearly an eternity for me). I finally looked at Angus again.
His eyes lasered into mine...

"I love you Dingus."

"I love you too man. Now I'm gonna get the hell outta here"

(or words to that affect). I climbed the last few feet of rock to the belay
with a loud buzz in my brain. I was through for the day, needless to say.

Here's what happened...

The biner (a pearbiner, now I remember, one of the first big pear shaped
biners) had a screw gate that was reversed, you tightened it
counter-clockwise. BD adevertised this was intended to be used with a munter
hitch, which would tend to unscrew normal screw sleeves. This particular
biner (mine, not the model in general) had a bug, probably due to wear. If
you unscrewed it all the way and a little more, the gate would not close
properly because the sleeve jammed the gate on the hinge end. I knew this
biner had the problem and just dealt with it. Welllllllll

When I reattached to the TR I obviously forgot to lock the biner. I had
unscrewed it too far and the gate jammed open (that's the condition I found
it in on the route). It was NEVER attached correctly in the first place! I
assume the knot had only just completelely fallen off the biner when Angus
noticed it. Ialso assume that it would have failed if needed. Remember, I
fell on that friggin route! I caught myself with a miracle save. I am a
walking dead man in a manner of speaking. This is the absolute closest call I
have ever endured in the mountains!

Of couse, it was all my fault; several small errors.
1. I was knowingly using faulty equipment.
2. I failed to lock the biner.
3. I failed to safety check my harness one last time before I started
climbing.

I almost died. I had a newborn child and her mother waiting for me at home
when this happened. In the subsequent weeks I went through a lot of
soul-searching about the incident, climbing, my family, my future and how I
wanted to die. I firmly decided I was still a climber, I was still willing to
test myself on hard routes, I was still willing to do alpine climbs,
simul-climb in select circumstances, even solo from time to time on very easy
routes, ice climb, etc. But I was not and am not willing to die while
climbing (but I still have insurance just in case). I also undertook an
almost religious-like ritual of safety checking myself and everything around
me. For a few years (the urge has only recently left me) I would recheck my
harness several times mid-pitch on almost every climb.

And I never, I repeat, never, tie in with a biner anymore. I don't blame the
tie-in method at all. Rather, I recognize that this method has more potential
failure or screwup points than a straight tie in method. It's so quick that
it's easy to get complacent about it, as I did. By tying in directly, the
climber is forced to look at things directly. Sure, as Lynn Hill and others
have since demonstrated, it's possible to screw this up as well, with dire
consequences. But I decided to use one tie in method for rock climbing and
thereby reduce my exposure.

I would still use the biner method for glacier travel and might use 2 biners
to switch ends of the rope if speed climbing and doing all the leading (bit I
haven't).

DMT