Girraween
Queensland climber Jeremy took a fall at Mt. Piddington over Easter. I was just talking to Andy Hook who was a couple of climbs over and helped out during the
rescue. He reports that the fall occurred on Flake Crack. The fall was about 15 metres. Both ankles were broken as well as a possible hip fracture and broken
ribs. One of the ankles was a compound fracture meaning that the foot was completely sideways with the leg bone sticking out.
According to Andy there was a bit of discussion on the day about the possible sequence of events that led up to the accident. Upon gaining the anchors Jeremy appears to have rethreaded the rope through the anchors and then was wishing to rap on two strands of the rope to the ground. Two strands were poked through the device but only one strand appears to have been clipped into the carabiner. Upon weighting the unattached strand became dislodged from the abseil device thus instigating an unctrolled plummet to the ground.
The victim landed on a sloping boulder which may have saved his life. Three quarters of an hour went by and then the paramedics turned up. The helicopter had to refuel after winching down a stretcher etc. Eventually it was decided due to bad weather and poor light that a stretcher carry was necessary. Around 60 people effected this carry out with the police rescue providing ropes to winch the stretcher in steep locations. The carry out lasted about 5 and a half hours.
Oh yes, Andy related that one of the paramedics asked him if he wanted to see something really cool. Andy was holding one corner of the tarp over Jeremy due to the rain. So Andy got a perfect view of Jeremy's foot being refitted to his leg. It was just like a plug going into a power point. The paramedic was soooo proud of her work.
Jeremy was due to go down to Tassy on the Pinnacle trip just after the new year but a few days before he was due to leave he broke his ankle. So these breaks are on top of his healing ankle.
I feel for you mate. I don't have Jezza's phone number otherwise I'd ring him and wish him all the best.
I am sure that others have more reliable info than my second hand attempts. I was nearly sick when I heard that a Queensland climber was involved in such an unfortunate event. I hope the long term prognosis turns out for the better.
According to Andy there was a bit of discussion on the day about the possible sequence of events that led up to the accident. Upon gaining the anchors Jeremy appears to have rethreaded the rope through the anchors and then was wishing to rap on two strands of the rope to the ground. Two strands were poked through the device but only one strand appears to have been clipped into the carabiner. Upon weighting the unattached strand became dislodged from the abseil device thus instigating an unctrolled plummet to the ground.
The victim landed on a sloping boulder which may have saved his life. Three quarters of an hour went by and then the paramedics turned up. The helicopter had to refuel after winching down a stretcher etc. Eventually it was decided due to bad weather and poor light that a stretcher carry was necessary. Around 60 people effected this carry out with the police rescue providing ropes to winch the stretcher in steep locations. The carry out lasted about 5 and a half hours.
Oh yes, Andy related that one of the paramedics asked him if he wanted to see something really cool. Andy was holding one corner of the tarp over Jeremy due to the rain. So Andy got a perfect view of Jeremy's foot being refitted to his leg. It was just like a plug going into a power point. The paramedic was soooo proud of her work.
Jeremy was due to go down to Tassy on the Pinnacle trip just after the new year but a few days before he was due to leave he broke his ankle. So these breaks are on top of his healing ankle.
I feel for you mate. I don't have Jezza's phone number otherwise I'd ring him and wish him all the best.
I am sure that others have more reliable info than my second hand attempts. I was nearly sick when I heard that a Queensland climber was involved in such an unfortunate event. I hope the long term prognosis turns out for the better.
. So when I say I was tying an autoblock, much googling shows I was actually
tying a Bachmann.
I'll re-run my test with a proper autoblock
and see what happens, though I suspect the result will be the same.
