Posted by JRM on February 05, 2001 at 10:45:38:
In Reply to: Re: Diving with a helmet posted by mike on February 02, 2001 at 18:40:50:
I do most of my climbing in Yosemite, or up in the Sierra high country (Courtright/Wishon area, sometimes Kings Canyon). The only real advantage of living in Fresno is we're equally far from the beach and the crags.
I took it in the head at Five Open Books in Yosemite Valley. It's over by Yosemite Falls. Some Euro-trash decided to rappel diagonally accross the route I was climbing, and knocked a bunch of mungy rock off. Since that time, I've always worn the bucket, and I've been hit in the head many times. I actually get hit in the head by a rattlesnake one time at Burroughs Mountain, when it rolled off a ledge above us. That was an exciting moment! I got brained onetime even with the helmet on, up at the Lost Arrow Spire, when the rope jammed up a flake, and I was down yanking on it from the notch. Well, I managed to clear it by breaking a goodly portion of the flake off, which promptly fell, hit me dead center in the head, and deflected off onto my shoulder. Climb cancelled.
Speaking of hairy situations, I had my first real one underwater yesterday, which I'll be discussing in a new thread.
JRM