Weekend Whipper: Teeny Tiny Cam Prevents 100-foot Fall
Readers, please send your Weekend Whipper videos, information, and any lessons learned to Anthony Walsh, awalsh@outsideinc.com.
Here’s a wild one: Leland Baldwin was leading pitch six of Stilgar’s Wild Ride (5.8) in Red Rock Canyon when he took quite the fall from 600 feet off the deck.
Just moments before, Baldwin had been cruising along a section of mellow terrain and hadn’t felt the need to place much pro at all. He fiddled in a 0.1 Wild Country cam (the second-smallest size they make) and balanced out across a steep right-trending traverse. With plenty of weight on his hands he snapped off a key hold, causing him to spin outward and tumble down the pitch. That sole 0.1 held fast in the soft sandstone—thank goodness—preventing what he thinks would have otherwise been a 100-foot fall.
Baldwin sustained no injuries in this fall, though was surprised to learn that the seat of his pants had completely ripped off. “Tread lightly on sandstone!” his friend Allen Warner advised. We shudder to think how much more clothing would have burned off had that 0.1 failed. It’s yet another reason to protect the “easy” terrain!
The entire climb (including the fall, and 50 other minutes of footage) is available on YouTube here.
Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.
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