HikeArizona.COM

Been following this story for awhile:

http://www.azfamily.com/news/local/Woma ... 98474.html

Dent in her skull!? Lucky girl to fully recover. Remember to wear a helmet you adventure junkies!

A good reminder for sure. Hope she's okay!

Hmm, thanks for the update. I recall hearing about an accident in Bear Canyon about a month ago but had yet to hear what fully happened... Glad to hear she's recovering well!

Dang, it looks like there were at least a half dozen SAR organizations ready, willing and able to save her bacon with just a phone call! With that kind of response available, why even bother being careful? Just kidding of course, safety first at all times for sure. But its sure nice to know you can call in the cavalry if the stuff really hits the fan - thanks to all those SAR folks out there, and I hope to never need you! :stretch:

Have to say that TV clip is SO typical of TV3. She was hiking and fell 30 feet off a cliff, so they show photos of rock climbers? Maybe they are photos of her, I can't tell, but still, the photos are completely unrelated to the real event.

Well most people have no idea what technical canyoneering is so they'll often call it rock climbing. That dude in southern Utah who cut is arm off while canyoneering; I've heard it reported that he was rock climbing, mountaineering, and hiking (I'm still waiting to hear kayaking) but have yet to hear them say that he was canyoneering...

That reminds me of an issue we had in the Southern Arizona Hiking Club some years ago. Used to be, the club was smaller, and some of the guides would lead roped hikes to Babo, Cathedral, Thimble, etc. So then, an accident happened, with a newer guide. The club has liability insurance for us guides, which is nice.

I climbed Babo from the Sells side with this newer "guide" and a whole bunch of people who had NO business up there. They just wanted their "peak" to mark off their "list." A couple of us with climbing experience went first, up on belay, on that little, very easy 5.2 pitch, and she and I climbed over the big boulder beyond in about 2 seconds flat and got up to the peak. Then we sat and waited for 4 hours for the rest of the group--about 14 others.
Turns out that boulder stopped them cold. I was like, "What boulder?"

I was so disgusted by the whole thing, I can't even tell you... Those people knew so little about climbing they always referred to a simple roped climb as "technical climbing." I told a group of those old biddies one time that it was not considered technical climbing to just use a rope. They said, "Well, that's what we call it." It is very good their insurers put them out of the business of climbing with ropes, since most of them were so frickin' clueless. It still makes me mad. I watched a 70-year-old woman try to down-climb that pitch--she refused to rappel, she had not gone to the rappelling class the guides had offered beforehand. It is a total miracle she did not fall and have many broken bones. There was ice and running water on that pitch that day. I wanted to climb Babo pretty badly back then, but next time will go with small group of people who know what they are doing.

You can always tell a novice climber without even having to go climb with them, because they will always say "repel" instead of "rappel."