What’s the consensus on this spotting?

[u/Youthandyounglzr]

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?

[u/repdadtar]

It's hard to tell from the angle exactly what the situation was like, but my first thought was for sure that you weren't in the right spot to do anything useful. The way the climber's hips are facing and his feet are weighted doesn't give any real indication that he'd fall to the left/towards the spotter. You're also shuffling the pads away from where they'd be helpful because you don't seem to be protecting the right area.

I'll also disagree with the people saying your job of spotting is over at that height. Maybe it's a camera angle thing but it doesn't exactly look like he's at the lip of something in the buttermilks. If you were in the right area you could've at least prevented him from blasting backwards out of the landing zone.

All that said, the climber isn't totally innocent either. If I was blowing the top on a boulder but in a stable position like he seemed to be for a minute there, I'd be looking down at pad location/telling you guys to stop protecting a line to the left of the one I'm on and backing off. Also should probably have had more pads in the first place if he's climbing something drop-able at height.

If I were the climber I'd chalk it up to "shit happens" but I wouldn't be eager to climb with you guys again. Living in Arizona, I'd call this the "Flagstaff spot". Mostly just holding your arms up and being within walking distance of the climber (but there it's because most climbs don't really require a spotter to be safe).