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This week’s whipper comes to you from New Haven, Connecticut, where Leon Freudzon took one hell of a fall. Freudzon was leading Emergency Breakthrough (5.9) at the Wintergreen Area, a single pitch protected by two bolts and several cams.
At the second bolt, Emergency Breakthrough continues up an arête on thin holds (the crux, in Freudzon’s opinion) to gain a level stance at a ledge. Writing to Climbing, Freudzon said: “At the time, I was unfamiliar with the route, and after briefly considering going up the arête I chose to explore an ‘easier’ option [out left].”
That option was a downward-trending traverse to gain a series of generous hand holds, which Freudzon thought could lead him to the upper ledge. The traverse was easy enough but lacked any opportunity for protection. No matter, Freudzon thought. He wasn’t going to fall.
Freudzon reached the seemingly easy series of jugs, and started to climb up. But he soon realized that the holds thinned out before his thank-god ledge, and his risk of a large, swinging fall was all too likely.
“At this point, I decided to down climb to the original lower ledge, and reattempt the arête,” he said. “Unfortunately, the down climb was more challenging than climbing up, and after some hesitation and several attempts to step down I peeled off.”
Freudzon was essentially one large step above the lower traverse ledge, so as his hands came off the holds, his feet cratered into the lower ledge. Freudzon believes the vector of the rope pull and his center of mass pivoted his body around his feet and threw him into a spinning pendulum fall.
“As I fell and flipped past the arête, I realized that I was about to make contact with the wall, so I covered my head with my arms, bracing for impact—probably a futile reflex, but I was out of ideas at this moment,” he says.
Freudzon was thankfully uninjured and, after a short rest was able to finish the pitch.
Lessons Learned
This event was the result of several preventable mistakes, Freudzon says:
- Going off-route to find “easier” terrain
- Following an unprotected traverse gave him a sense of safety because it was easy
- Climbing up, still unprotected, after the traverse on 5.8 terrain that he wasn’t sure he could down climb
“Summing it all up, I put myself off-route, on the far end of an unprotected traverse, and climbed up moves I could not protect nor easily reverse,” he says. “Any two of these conditions may be considered a reasonable assumption of climbing risk, but cumulatively all three resulted in dangerous fall mechanics.”
Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.