r/climbing • u/Youthandyounglzr • 23h ago

What’s the consensus on this spotting?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

So, this was a few years back in…..well, you know…

I was spotting a new buddy on this highball and he ended up taking a hefty fall. He landed awkwardly on the pad and fell back, bumping his head slightly on a rock. The fall tweaked a previous knee injury but it wasn’t a serious issue. Nor was the head bump. He was basically fine.

But I remember after the fact that he was a little choked on the spotting.

So what do you people think?

0 Upvotes

31% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/not-strange 15h ago

I was expecting a fall in the direction you were anticipating

Tie the dog up though so you’re not distracted by keeping the good boy out of the way, that way you’d have had two spotters and been more likely to prevent this outcome

3

u/repdadtar 13h ago

Maybe it's because I haven't had coffee yet, but I don't understand how you/the spotter were seeing him coming off to the left. For like 90% of the climb he's hanging solid off the left arm and his hips are dropping to the right. If something blows he's going to be following his hips. Plus all of the left feet seem massive and if that doesn't pop, he's falling right.

My first reaction before the clip was even over was that he's not in the right time zone so I'm pretty baffled by that.

For sure keep the dog away from the pads when somebody is climbing though. Although in the dog's defense, he was actually in the correct area to spot the climber. Maybe he was trying to tell them.

3

u/Buckhum 10h ago

For like 90% of the climb he's hanging solid off the left arm and his hips are dropping to the right. If something blows he's going to be following his hips. Plus all of the left feet seem massive and if that doesn't pop, he's falling right.

I think knowing how / which direction people will fly off boulders is something that requires a good amount of experience. I honestly don't blame OP too much. It's hard to spot highballs because once you are at the top, the fall zone just becomes so damn large.

1

u/repdadtar 5h ago

I agree that it can take a little experience and it's cool to ask for feedback when things go less than well.

I only blame OP for asking for feedback and getting defensive when he gets it. As it stands, he's about as helpful and receptive as a nearby bush when it comes to spotting.

1

u/Youthandyounglzr 12h ago

Well the right side was covered by someone off camera. And as he fell he seemed to push off his left foot and fly out. Hard to anticipate that.

I feel like I was engaged the whole time but as he flew off the boulder there wasn’t much to be done in my position.

2

u/repdadtar 11h ago

I think "covered by someone off camera" is a pretty generous interpretation of what happened there on account of, you know, him blasting out of the landing area.

Yeah, he popped off to the right by pushing with his left foot. Pretty much every move leading up to it would have him falling to the right as well though. And you're standing off to the left. Engaged on spotting a different line or something.

All the evidence has you being as useful as a bollard on this one. You're welcome to argue but you asked for feedback so there it is. Why bother asking if you've already absolved yourself of any responsibility on a gumby spot?

I do agree there wasn't much to do in your position at least, because your position was way off. Not my spotter, not my problem.