Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Readers, please send us your Weekend Whipper videos using this form.
In Woodfords Canyon, near Lake Tahoe, local climber Victoria Blue was working her hardest project yet: a 70-foot trad route called Proton (5.11b). More than halfway up the climb, she reached a slippery corner with an undulating finger crack.
Blue had a decision to make. “The crux is right in the middle,” she told Climbing. “I was trying to figure out where to place my gear so that my pieces weren’t in the way of good holds.”
Just below the crux was a ledge: An ankle-breaker.
Wary of the fall potential, Blue decided to sacrifice some finger jam space for better protection. She placed a Wild Country 0.3 cam and pulled herself into a layback above it.
A few seconds later, as she prepared to throw for another hold, her toe slipped from its stemming position on the wall. Blue careened toward the ledge.
“Falling!” she yelled. Just before she hit the rock, the rope caught her.
“I’m lucky that my 0.3 was a good placement,” she said. Her solid piece and her partner’s attentive belaying left her completely unharmed.
Blue was happy to share the lessons she learned from this whip. “Always be aware of ground fall potential,” she said, and we agree. “It’s never a bad idea to back up your pieces on the hard sections.” In fact, on her sixth try, she backed up the 0.3 with an 0.4 higher up—and sent.
Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.