Lost Tent, Gear, and Rope on Jagged

[Been_Jammin]

Thanks... i know how to retrieve a single rope rap using a tag line... i was curious what the OP's game plan was... as it sounded like the line was fixed with no retrieval method in place.

[justiner]

Now I'm wondering why climber 2 saw the rope (used the rope?) deemed it questionable in safety, but also left it there what's going on. How many people are going to rap and injure themselves before it gets removed?

[andrew85]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone. I have a friend in there now who was able to retrieve a lot of my gear from my campsite, but the rope is still on the summit. I'll have a full trip report up in the coming days, but my plan was to retrieve the rope with a pull cord. Based on a pic sent to me after I had been rescued, the way the rope is anchored in currently at the summit is not how I had set it up (I suspect repositioned by the hiker that had assisted me and yelled down at me from the summit that he had disconnected the rope, but I hadn't begun my rappel yet so I asked him to reconnect it). I attached a maillon to ONE of the summit anchors and was going to use a locking carabiner to be able to slide the end along the rope that was looped over on itself (the picture sent to me shows the rope going through one anchor and the locking carabiner at the end attached to the other anchor which would not work for a retrieval system, again this is NOT how I set it up). Either my rope or the pull cord got stuck when I began my initial rappel and I wasn't able to retrieve it. I tried upclimbing about 15' but couldn't get past the first bend in the rope (an upclimbing obstacle I admittedly hadn't practiced for, but know realize I should have), but reading several accounts in which a 60M was successfully used I believed that I would get all the way down even if I couldn't get my rope back. I got to the lower ledge where the rope indeed was about 4-5M short and from there, I had no way to get off. I realized it was an emergency situation, called SAR, but because I wasn't injured and secure on that ledge, they said it would be overnight. 14 hours later as SAR was making their way up to me, a random hiker saw me up on the ledge still and tried to help me off. He threw me a rope and perhaps in my fatigue at that point or excitement that I had a lifeline to get off the ledge I'd been on so long I didn't properly check to see that it stretched far more than the rope I used to get there, but when I committed to rappelling off of it I fell several feet unexpectedly before my harness finally engaged. Got banged up pretty badly, with my ankle taking the worst of it. Didn't think it was broken as I was still ambulatory, but I was definitely in pain and heard a loud pop as well. The hiker summited and made it back down to where I was and helped me down to meet SAR where they helped me down into the basin and flew me out. An ER visit later that evening confirmed my ankle was broken.

As for the rope still being on the summit, I assume it's going to be one of the more difficult things to retrieve if someone's even able to get it. But I do ask anyone still going out there if you do summit and are unable to retrieve it but still see it anchored in, please disconnect it or position it in such a way that people doing try to rappel down it as they will cliff out on that ledge above chimney 2 and I don't want anyone trying to use it thinking it goes all the way down. Thank you.

[Jorts]

I’m not familiar with Jagged so forgive the ignorance. What prevented you from ascending the rope after you had rappelled to the end? And what obstacle higher up prevented you from jugging past it too?

With regards to your pull cord getting stuck, not sure I follow. Couldn’t you have loosened it while on rappel? Sounds like it might be a moot issue anyway.

Able to explain transitioning from your rope to the good samaritans rope a little more? Was it a rope extension issue on his rope that led to the whipper that broke your ankle? I didn’t follow what you meant by your harness engaging. Loaded the dynamic rope quickly and it extended? If not for the rope extension slam, would you have been able to make it the rest of the way without SAR?

[jscully205]

Sorry this happened. A 60m works, but I remember an intermediate station that was needed to get to the ground. Did you see an established one up there? Wouldn't have thought to see if a single 60 would reach because I knew it wouldn't.

Did you have too much slack in the rope before sitting back on the 2nd rappel? Sounds like that's what happened by your "harness finally engaging."

[Veory]

My guess is that he didn't bring the gear required to ascend and/or didn't know how to use the gear he had to ascend? Makes sense you'd want to take as little as possible, but could be a good lesson learned. If you're going to bring a rope, always bring a way to get back up it! All it takes is using a rap device with guide mode to lock the nose to your harness, and a prussik with a sling.

I can certainly understand why you preemptively got on the dynamic rope. After standing on that ledge forever you were probably just excited and hopped on without considering the difference between their rope and your static rope which you'd been making friends with for so long. Easy to get clouded judgement under those circumstances. Huge bummer about the ankle.

This leads to another lesson though, always go prepared to build your own anchors. Never rely on existing anchors to get down safe. 50 feet of tat and a few rap rings is cheap and light.

[Buckie06]

This is what we saw when we summitted on the 5th around 11am. It looks like the OP rigged his rappel on the single bolt (not recommended!!), then someone else came and fixed it with the locker to the second bolt? You can see the climbing rope on top of the pull line right off the summit, that's likely why he could not pull. I think such a thin tag line (seemed like 2mm?) was not the best application for this. I regret rapping on this fixed line as it could have seriously injured us too, and I told my partner we should use it.

The fixed line seemed intentional so we did not remove anything. Had I known the rappel does not fully reach I would have removed the rope from the summit when we were up there.

[Eli Boardman]

Glad OP is ok, sorry about the ankle. I took a small fall on rappel myself this summer when a thin dynamic rope unexpectedly shock-loaded after slipping off a rock projection, which released extra slack, so I understand how these things can happen.

My advice would be to never rappel a rope that you aren't prepared to ascend. I've ascended a 6mm single-strand rap line (with 2mm pull cord, similar to OP's setup) when it got stuck using nothing more than my rappel device (ATC), simply by yarding up the rope with one hand and using the other hand to pull slack through the ATC as a progress capture. It's not easy but it works. If you don't want the possibility of having to batman up the rope, bring a cord and know how to tie a friction hitch.

[Jorts]

Good discussion of the various ways to ascend:
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/t ... scend-rope

When I was on Sunlight Spire in October a few years ago, my partner led and summited then I followed. He was a much better crack climber than me. It started snowing midway up the wall and my untaped hands became worthless. I ascended the rest of the way on a harness prussik and a foot prussik. When I got up there with it now snowing harder my partner commented, “I haven’t pulled rope in awhile.” I explained, “yeah dude. I did the aid version of this climb…”

[alexhenes]

Excerpt from silverton_medical_rescue Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc_uk0CESlf/?img_index=1

"Stranded rappeller on Jagged Mountain in the remote Weminuche Wilderness leading to lead climbing and rope pick-offs: complicated mission and an overnight stay for a single rappeller cliffed out "

Wondering how/were the rope pick-offs were performed? Sounds like SAR personnel were required to lead climb to reach the stranded party?

[Jorts]

Wondering how/were the rope pick-offs were performed? Sounds like SAR personnel were required to lead climb to reach the stranded party?

Not sure Alex. But if they ascended the standard route, they still would’ve protected it most of the way as a “lead climb”. Speculating that they climbed the standard route and performed a pickoff by rappelling down to him from above. That’s how most pickoffs are executed.

[cottonmountaineering]

glad you're safe OP