“The Golden Rule”
by Rob Owens
SNAP! I just did what everyone always told me never to do: “Never fall
while leading ice”. I’ve preached these words enough myself; in a
sport without rules I broke one.
When I first heard those words eight years ago it was explained to me
that if you do fall, “You will likely break your ankles when your
crampons hit the ice, and chances are you'll stab yourself with your
one of your tools or crampons.”
Since that day a lot has changed in my life. I started climbing full
time, and I especially fell in love with ice climbing. The past four
winters I have climbed 50 to 60 days of water ice each year. I spent
the first four years climbing occasionally, maybe 10-20 days a season.
I paid my dues. I advanced slowly; first doing all the grade three’s,
then the fours, and then the fives. When I started climbing grade six
it didn't seem that difficult I had been to “school” and the
progression seemed logical. I have spent the last couple of years
doing a lot of mixed climbing and the ice is always fun but always the
easy part. “It’s only ice, how hard can it be?”
The reason we climb ice is not because it’s hard. We climb ice because
it is committing, visceral, and meditative. Don't get me wrong, I have
climbed ice that has taken me closer to God, but it is few and far
between. In the three weeks leading up to my fall I had done more
committing ice climbing than ever before.. I had climbed over 2000
meters of ice and mixed terrain, in an alpine setting, with the
easiest pitches going at WI 5--and most quite a bit harder. I had the
confidence and the skills but I had also obtained a level of
complacency.
Complacency KILLS! It has no place in the mountains. If you become
lazy in the mountains you will pay dearly. Another unwritten rule.
Until this moment I had never fallen on ice; I had fallen many times
in the winter while leading mixed climbs. I took falls off thin
technical ice onto bolts. I had taken several falls when the pillar I
was climbing snapped. As long as you were dangling in mid air, off a
solid bolt or piece of rock gear, there was not much to worry about. I
had also seen and heard of many ice climbing falls where the outcome
was fine; the stories were classic. Maybe I started to doubt the
validity of the “Golden Rule”.
When this accident happened I was doing something no more technical or
committing than my instructor allowed me to do on my first day of ice
climbing. I was bouldering no more than 10 feet off the deck on grade
4 ice. However, there were a few components that led to my tragic
failure: it was cold, the ice was brittle, I was traversing, my
equipment was un-maintained most importantly I was bored. My tools
popped, I jumped off and landed on my feet. No problem? Wrong!
Crampons bite into ice very well and offer no slippage. Good bye
ankle, hello crutches. Hello 8 months of physiotherapy, goodbye
climbing goals.
“OK,” I thought, “so I broke my ankle. I learned my lesson and will be
back in six weeks.” Think again! Let me tell you a little something
about ankles. Ankles are very complicated joints, they are hard to
stay off of, they take a lot of abuse in everyday activities, and they
have chronically low blood flow resulting in slow healing times. I
have since heard of many climbers that have ended their careers
because they broke their ankles while falling on ice. Many of the
falls occurred while bouldering or soloing easy ground. Many of the
climbers were extremely talented. All fell victim to complacency.
So, in this day and age of falling on mixed climbs and “ice is the
easy part”; STAY FOCUSED, respect your environment, show respect for
your sport. Keep your picks, mind and body sharp. Keep preaching and
living by the Golden Rule. Ice climbing is only the easy part when
you’re not falling!
Jan. 2003
By: Rob Owens
Unedited version of a piece I did for Will Gadd’s book “Ice and Mixed
Climbing” Copyright 2003 by The Mountaineer’s Books.
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