Ep 8 - Falling Way Too Far - Alina and Ben by The Sharp End published on 2016-09-01T17:45:09Z Alina and Ben were climbing the Braille Book in Yosemite Valley. When Alina slipped while leading the third pitch, she fell much, much further than expected and suffered a serious spinal injury. In this episode, Ashley talks to both climbers about what went wrong that day and how Alina is recovering from the accident. Alina blogs about her recovery at http://SmallRestlessHuman.com. Genre Climbing Comment by plymphc Wow, I really hope that Alina recovers fully. A take away from this accident that was completely missed was that using a grigri would have likely reduced the fall significantly. Of course grigri can still open if it gets forced into the rock, which is why you always would have a piece above the anchor before launching out. Alina mentioned not placing above the anchor because rope drag was a concern. In a scenario such as this you should still place something above the anchor and have your belay unclip it after you have placed a few more higher up. This protects you early on while avoiding rope drag. I also have to say that Stanford climbing club has an unusually high number of accidents. I think there is a culture of unnecessary risk taking among bay area climbers in general. 2017-10-16T16:11:18Z
