Accident on North Maroon - 8/15/15

[Somewhat of a Prick]

There was an accident on North Maroon on 8/15/15. I just updated my TR for the day to include the information about the incident at the bottom. It can be found here:

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=16381" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[GregMiller]

Glad to hear you all made it down safe, sounds like a textbook successful self-rescue.

[oldschool]

Accidents suck..no way around it. They are called accidents for a reason. You guys came prepared, were prepared, and did such a good job helping the injured climber. Too many people go into the mtns unprepared and not able to self rescue. Congrats. In the heat of a moment such as this, you take all available info and make a decision based on lots of things. IMO, you guys did it very well... sound judgement, good choices.

[spiderman]

I'm glad that you were so prepared to help out the victim. It is impossible to avoid danger no matter how careful you are. I can't believe how fast stuff flies down the gullies. My son almost took out another hiker with a shuriken-shaped rock that zipped down the gully and bounced up to head level. Rockfall is funneled onto the path of climbers.

[Hungry Jack]

Wow. What a harrowing experience. Glad to hear the injured man will likely make a full recovery.

I watched that video multiple times. That utterly $h!tty rock on the Bells terrifies me. I cannot imagine the traverse being any more puckering given the unpredictable nature of those slabs.

[scottaskinger]

Wow! What a crazy, scary day. Your level of preparedness is awesome and has me rethinking a few things myself to be more prepared if I ever encounter a similar situation.

A question for you. After the first one of you (I'm not sure who is who and which of you started this post) made the leap and the rocks tumbled, how did the second one cross? You/he surely didn't make the jump, did you? I can't even imagine being in that situation. I would be so rattled after those rocks tumbled that I would want to be immediately transported off the mountain into my warm, comfy living room, sipping hot cocoa under a blanket.

[onebyone]

After doing the Crestone Traverse and starting the descent down the needle, a softball sized rock almost killed me. My buddy who was 10 feet below me yelled, "Rock!" In a total instinctive move I turned my head and raised my hand to protect myself, where the rock literally skinned the hand I raised to protect my head. I thought my hand was broken at first, but thankfully it wasn't since it was not a direct hit. The rock was moving at a ridiculous speed and if I didn't jerk my head a few inches, it would have been a direct hit and I'm pretty confident it would have killed me. The helmet I was wearing would not have helped I believe. Here's the clincher, there was no one above us. We were the only ones on the mountain.
So, my hand was pretty beat up, which was funny, because we had to descend Broken Hand Pass.