THE ACCIDENT!!!

Sorry it has taken me a few days to get to writing this post, as you can imagine heavy narcotics do not make it super easy to focus a train of thought. Although, maybe some of you are wishing I wrote a post from deep inside the land of Morphine and Valium?

Since the number one question so far has always been, "What happened?", I'll focus this blog post there. Future posts will include the x-rays and recovery efforts.



Saturday morning I made an early start up Mount Hood to Frenches Dome, a volcanic uprising on the flanks of Mount Hood just bellow Lolo Pass. Frenches Dome is setup for what is known as sport climbing, whereas the climbing routes are setup with bolts every 10 to 12 feet. The lead climber (me) will clip one side of a quick draw into the bolt (two carabiners tied together with a short sling known as a dog bone) and then clip his rope into the other end of the quick draw. So as the leader goes, he will limit his fall to double the length of rope above the last bolt.



So the higher above a bolt you go, your fall would be double that distance. The added complexity, if you fall while you are pulling out rope to make the next clip you add one times that rope length to the distance of the fall. Falling while clipping is the most dangerous place you can fall while sport climbing and should be avoided at all costs.

So naturally, I fell while I was clipping into the 6th bolt placing me roughly 50-60 feet up the rock. However, since the bolt was at head height I was probably about 6 feet above the previous bolt with the added rope slack of about 4 feet to help with the clip , I fell 20-30 feet (the rope stretches up to 34% of the length of the rope out).

As I fell my right leg clip an outcropping of rock on the right side of my foot causing all of my energy to be transferred onto the left side of my ankle. Breaking my Fibula mid leg on the right, sheering my Tibia just above the ankle pushing it inward breaking off my Talus bone (the inside knuckle).



Once my fall came to a rest, help was requested by screaming to nearby climbing parties and I was lowered slowly to the ground. Once on the ground I was stabilized and assessed by a couple volunteers with PMR (Portland Mountain Rescue) and 9-1-1 was called for extraction and transport to a Portland Hospital (Providence Portland).



The ambulance team and the Reach and Treat (RAT) team arrived on scene together, drugged me with Morphine and Valium and put me in a specialized litter and took me down the mountain. By my estimates from time of impact till time of extraction I was on the ground for approximately 1 hour, pretty fast if you ask me.



My thanks goes out to everyone that assisted in my rescue, help keeping me calm and safe.