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Readers, please send your Weekend Whipper videos, information, and any lessons learned to Anthony Walsh, awalsh@outsideinc.com.
On November 30, 2023, Tony Tang set out to climb Red Rock Canyon’s classic Crimson Chrysalis, a 1,000-foot 5.8 protected by a mix of bolts and gear. In an attempt to save time, Tang opted to link pitches two and three together, as Mountain Project suggests, but the 155-foot lead soon wore him down.
After being on the sharp end for 90 minutes (!!), Tang clipped a final bolt about 15 feet shy of pitch three’s anchor. He climbed another eight feet above it, saw that the required sequence would be near his limit, and then quickly down climbed. The video picks up after he’s successfully made it back to the bolt, clipped his rope into it, but hasn’t said anything to his belayer.
“I may have been mentally exhausted by that point,” Tang wrote to Climbing. “My calves were definitely burning. … I had not communicated with my partner about down climbing and I doubt the slack from the down climb went back to him given there were something like 18 draws between us. Also, my partner could not see me. In fact, he hadn’t seen me for over an hour, and could not hear me.”
Tang believes that, although he was technically level with the bolt, and could have expected a minor fall, the 8 feet of slack from his downclimb—and 150 feet of stretching rope—caused the big whipper. It’s an important reminder: when downclimbing on long and traversing leads, the weight of the rope is usually not heavy enough to pool back at the belayer’s feet. The leader’s excess rope will typically get cached on ledges or between protection placed horizontally from one another, leading to uncommonly large falls.
Tang’s five takeaways?
- Don’t grab draws.
- Communicate better with the belayer. They had radios but didn’t use them.
- Don’t link pitches if you’re at your limit.
- Consider taking a break and belay mid-pitch if you’ve been leading for a long period of time.
- Don’t fall. Or, if falling, just fall. See point 1.
Tang returned to Crimson Chrysalis in March 2024 with the same partner. This time, he split up pitches two and three so his belayer could maintain visual contact, and so he wouldn’t be so exhausted. “I took half the time to lead both pitches,” Tang said. “I was more confident, stronger both mentally and physically, and more prepared from the lessons from the fall.”
Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.