I was typing this for something else.

They are a few quick close calls that I have encountered in the last few years.  I was typing this for something else but i thought I better not waste all the typing....

I have had:


1) had a party dump their haul-bag above us on Cannabis Wall, Squamish. (idiots).
2) I had Louise Falls fracture at the top of the curtain, collapse and engulf most of my partner's gear. He was going to do the first pitch, I the second. We were racking up when we heard a "Crack, Boom"! I looked up and snow was in the air.... First I thought it was a avi coming over the top... But there was absolutely no potential for that... Either way I ran down hill and cut left towards the trees, all the while I can hear the massive amount of whatever it was crushing to the ground on my heels. I lunged behind a boulder and tucked in as tight as I could. After a bit, I yelled to my partner at the time to see if he responded, I feared the worst. He yelped back that he was ok and he had thought I was a goner!

He had managed to quickly climb up and take cover under the massive overhang on the right hand side of the route and he watched as I was being chased down my the massive amount of ice coming from above. I was at the base of the route playing with my tools and waiting for him to hurry up and finish racking. Little did I know what was about to come from above me. It wasn't until we started to dig for his gear that we realized the massive amount of ice that came crushing down! It was as close as I had ever wanted to come to something like that. Even though it happened in mere seconds, it felt like a eternity.

On the way down to the trail, we were met by a few of Canada's most prominent and distinctive Ice and Mixed climbers. They had planks on their feet and just happened to be up at Surprise Pass doing a easy ski loop. They came down to see if we were ok. They just happened to catch the route coming down from a pretty good view. They got to watch it all happen.

Needless to say it spooked the shit out of me. I had a few other incidents that season and this was just the cherry on the top. It was too close.

3) While spending the summer in Squamish I took a massive wipper on a Orange Alien. It was roughly a 40ft fall and the ironic part is that I had just purchased the cam that morning at the gear shop (it was a typical Squamish rainy morning) and the afternoon seeping crack got the best of me. Mmmmmm wet crack...

4) Climbing on Yam one spring, I was climbing with a guy who had done more routes on Yam then most people that I knew put together. He climbed under the radar and purely for himself. He was a tough dude, I guess that's what years of working on the "Patch" will do to you. We ended up climbing a spectacular scree field route with a bunch of crappy pitches and one fantastic pitch in the middle. We ended up topping out in good time, but while on the 2nd last pitch we looked over to our left and there was a 2 man party looking like they were having some trouble. They were slightly above us and looked like they were about to pull the crux roof on the route. We kept climbing and topped out. We decide that we should take a hike up and see if they topped out ok and say hello. By the time we got there the leader had pulled the roof and was on top trying to rig shrubs and sling blocks to make a anchor.... (Yay). We got chatting with him and it seemed his 2nd was having trouble and he asked us to stick around incase his less experienced partner had trouble with the crux roof. My partner and I knew we came up here for good reason, we both had a gut feeling that they were going to need some help.

It was very windy and impossible to comunicate with the climber over the lip and below the roof. After 15 mins passed and there was no movement on the rope, we all decided to haul his ass up, Great! You rig the anchor and I will make the tea! LOL. Seriously rigging a haul anchor out of pebbles and living sticks stuck in the ground is hard.. go figure.. Moving on, we rigged what we could and tried to haul him. It was a insane effort and we got absolutely nowhere. We pulled, modified the system, pulled more. All we were doing was stretching the shit out of the rope. I decided that I best run down the mountain and around the front side so I could see WTF he was doing. Once I got to where I could see him I tried to yell to him with no possible way for him to hear me. He was stuck under the roof, his helmet clipped to his harness (figure that one out) and looked like he still had a piece to clean. He had fallen getting to that piece and couldn't reach it. He seemed to be fumbling around doing something... I (we) hoped that he knew how to rig a prusik system and clean the gear so we could haul his ass up. Time had passed by now and dark seemed to be not to far away, I wanted him to do all of us a favor and do one of the most basic of skills and save us from 1) calling it in or 2) rapping over the top and helping him that way.

By the time I had made it back up and to the top, he had figured out a way to clean that piece. We started hauling, hoping to god that the anchor held. When the Doucher finally pulled the lip, or more accurately we pulled it for him, he was cut, bleeding and in good spirits. His helmet still hung off his harness and he acted like what had just happened was no big deal! I was pissed at the situation (glad it ended ok and that we could help) it was just the dude didn't realize how serious of a situation he had just been in. We both got a quick "thanks" I did a double check that the Doucher was indeed "ok" and we peeled out of there.

4) There is more....