Warning- This blog contains near death stories, typical Joe
injury stories, and a happy ending ;)
My body fell apart yet again on January 10th,
2015. That's right. I know the date. Never a good sign.
On that day I came very close to completely tearing my A4
tendon in my middle finger, which, I've been told, is a bad thing. I had just
finished an eight week training program a few days prior to my injury. I felt
that I was in the best shape of my life. I should of taken a week off after
this training program, but I promised my best friend Tyler I would go to the
Tour de Bloc with him (I don't really
like competition climbing, but I promised Tyler I would support him that day).
Due to copious nocturnal beverages Tyler was incapacitated
the day of the competition. I prepaid. I was going.
Second boulder problem into the competition and everyone
around me heard a "POP" noise.
Now, such a noise is challenging to understand at first. You
can't really tell what or where was the origin of this sound.
Did I break the hold?
Did I slip off a foot and kick the wall?
Is someone breaking out the champagne for a feat of excellence that a fellow climber just achieved?
Did I slip off a foot and kick the wall?
Is someone breaking out the champagne for a feat of excellence that a fellow climber just achieved?
To those lucky climbers that have not experienced such a
sound in their climbing lives, I commend you and wish you all the best. For
those unlucky climbers, the following is probably similar to what you have
sadly experienced.
From the time it took my auditory sense to hear the sound and
make the true connection to its source my middle finger was twice the size of
my other fingers. Literally. My right hand could not close.
GAME OVER.
Back to level one.
After an injury of this magnitude, and a climbing trip on the
horizon I had to rethink life and decide, "what now?"
Option 1- Cancel my upcoming one month climbing trip with my
father and just work for the next 5-6 months?
Option 2- Work on my weakness' for the next 5 months -
Core/Stretching and still go on the one month climbing trip with my father, but
do easy/gross/puke/scary/someonesaveme TRAD routes?
Weird enough I ended up picking Option 2! I got the job done
with training on my core/stretching for 3 months, but I never did get the same
"stoke" feeling as training for climbing or touching real rock.
The start of our adventure |
Now, a climbing trip with Karel Skopec (My good luck charm
father of mine) is never complete without a few near death experiences. Day one
we drove 14 hours away from the -40C weather of Ontario to T-wall in Tennessee
and arrived with a welcoming gun shot from the famous Tennessee
inhabitants.
Admittedly we were a little lost, and I suppose looked a
little suspicious as we kept circling around the same neighborhoods looking
for our destination. Apparently the locals thought my father and I were
robbers, so like any concerned citizen would do, they kindly shot at us first
and asked questions later. Luckily, they called the cops too which ended up in
our favor as the police eventually explained to them that we were just lost
Canadians looking for some rocks to climb.
Day Two- First off I should preface this story by stating my
father only gave me 6 different camalots
and one full set of nuts to trad climb with for the whole climbing trip.
Holding two out of the six Camelots |
Also, if any climbing guide book says “Use a runner" (A
runner is a super long sling to reduce rope drag (Rope
drag occurs when the friction generated from the rope running through the
quickdraws and over the rock builds to the point where the climber noticeably
feels the drag and potentially cannot climb any higher)), you USE A RUNNER.
Well day two of our trip is where I found out the hard way
what a runner entails and why using a DMM Revolver (used to reduce rope drag on
sport routes and help extend the life of your rope) just doesn't cut it.
I started climbing up a 5.7 that was around 90 feet long.
Once I got to the roof I placed a cam with my lucky Revolver and continued to
traverse 10 feet left. Usually, this climb is suppose to be 5.7, but the sloppy
ledge where people mantle onto was covered with MUD and I just couldn't hold
onto the ledge. I only had one option, which was traverse another 5 feet left
and crimp my way up and back onto the big MUDDY ledge.
I felt myself slipping off the big muddy ledge more and more
and at this point I couldn't place anymore gear. I tried climbing higher, but
the rope drag was so bad that I literally couldn't climb any higher. My feet
were barely on at this point, and the amount of mud under my fingers far
outweighed the amount of rock.
Joe: “If I fall, I'll be falling 30 feet and pendulum into
the wall and might not walk away from this event.”
Karel: “It's good Joe, it's good!”
Sigh.
There was a tree a few feet away from me and I immediately
knew what I had to do. I yelled down to my dad "I'm jumping for the tree
Dad!!!”
Luckily enough I caught the tree!! I wrapped both of my legs
around the tree (thank you precious stretching regime!) and had to use both of
my sap and mud ridden hands to pull up enough slack to climb up to the anchors.
After one week of trad climbing, I knew I was slowly running
out of lives and drove down to the Obed for some juggy sport climbing.
First off, Obed sport climbing is unreal! The Obed is mostly
known for bolted routes which consist of a style akin to a gorilla jumping from
jug to jug. One would think I would be safe with all this sport climbing, but I
kinda forgot to mention there were many refrigerator sized death-cicles falling
from 100 feet above me.
I got to the anchors and was washed over with joy. Finally.
No one else around, just me and my dad having fun climbing. My feet hit the
ground and I started walking towards Karel. Then the massive death-cicle hit
the ground two feet behind. Directly in the spot I was standing when I was
first lowered. The icicle exploded and ice chunks exploded off the ground and
hit my cringing body.
Oh.
My.
GOD.
I can't believe how lucky I was. Had I not walked towards my
dad before untying my knot who knows what would have happened. I nervously laughed it off which worked to
hide the fear tears.
I hoped this was my last near death experience, but oh no,
the day was not over. Our exit led us up a hill. A very steep hill. A very
steep hill covered in ice.
My Honda Fit began to go backwards 3/4 up the hill leaving me
with no control of the car. On my left side there was just a normal ditch and
on my right there was an unpleasant tumble. Again, the Skopec luck kicked in
and my car decided to slide over and get stuck in the ditch. Karel used his Czech Republic army skills
(I'm not exactly sure what he did since he said I had to look away because I
apparently am not “ready” to learn his ancient arts. All I can say is that I
heard what sounded like the roar of a bear mixed with the majestic call of an
eagle amidst a ruckus of metal being hammered (presumably by his bare hands))
to get the poor Honda fit out of the ditch.
My dad "Were sitting on this heater like chickens". |
I'm happy to say we spent our last two weeks in Red River
gorge where we continued to have good old son and father climbing fun without
the presence of death or danger at our back.
Fast forward 6 months after my injury, and I'm currently 90%
recovered! Lately I've been still training 6 times a week, Repeating old routes
I've done before, and still loving life! I'm slowly creeping back to where I
was with sending 5.13+ in a few tries, but I'm still staying away from very
crimpy routes. My goal this season is to
send a few more 5.14's and bolt routes at Lion's Head, Ontario not just for
myself, but to bolt from 5.5 to 5.14.
A quick slightly kinda serious note. I know. Bear with me :)
Mono Training |
I just wanted to say that experience can only get so you far
when it comes to safety. Gear is not 100%, but it is a heck of a lot better than
nothing at all. You can't bring everything up the face, but guidebooks and
recommendations are out there. Use them both to your advantage. Like me, there
are a good many of my experienced friends that could have made some dangerous
situations a little or lot safer if they had the right gear or did a little
more research. Whether you're new to climbing or you've been at it for awhile,
take a little extra time to check out that guidebook, read that blog or listen
to a local. Have fun out there!
Finally, I would like to give a shout out to my sponsors who
have helped me to achieve my past goals and step toward my future dreams.
Maxim Rope- You honestly cannot go wrong with any of
Maxim ropes. I prefer the Pinnacle 9.4
Boreal Shoes- Boreal provides every shoe for every
style of climbing
ChossPile Hand Repair-
If you find your skin needs a repair from crimping too hard, then try
out Chosspile Hand Repair
Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym- This gym has support
me with everything I need to get strong in climbing and they even allow me to
set boulder problems to mimic my projects outside.
Petzl- Not really my sponsors, But Matt from Petzl
hooked me up with a brand new petzl harness, which has supported me with
comfortable falls.
If you made it this far through the blog then I'm surprised
and happy you didn't get bored ;)
Thank you for reading another one of my adventures!
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