Some lads and I go climbing and rappelling, often at Red River Gorge and generally through the summer/fall. I took some of my regulars and a new guy (5'6" tall - Brian) to a place called half moon arch a couple of years ago. It has a rock hand that sticks up that you have to climb over and then its a couple of hundred feet down. Great place to rappel. So, I take Brian, show him the fundamentals, send him over a 12 foot cliff. He doesn't listen to me and winds up swinging into the rock, catching his arm between the rope and the rock, minor injury. Little bone bruise. We then go to the top of the arch and set up. CK Medill climbs over and lets himself down (CK is always brave...always the first to jump into the action. CK is 6'6". He and I have never been injured anywhere, anytime...not so lucky with everyone else...eg Rob Fischer broke his tailbone actually on half moon arch 5 years ago taking a slide. Luckily he ran into a tree on the way down.) Anyway, it was Brian's turn to go. I hooked him up, checked his harness and all of the points for double backs. He climbed up onto the hand and started to climb over and got stuck. So, being a good friend...I threw him over. (One of the few times that I've actually thrown a friend over a cliff.) He rappelled just fine. Though he spun on the way down. That's not the story.
CK and I have been climbing and doing other outdoor adventures for quite a while now. (We're the old men on the mountain.) As CK and Brian were coming back up the mountain, they hit a spot where the footing was really bad because of a recent burn out caused by lighting. So, CK told Brian to wait and CK would find a way up for him. Brian either ignored the instruction or didn't hear it. He followed CK. A ledge broke under Brian's foot (always remember to keep your weight evenly distributed between both feet.) Brian began a rapid descent down a steep decline of about 25 feet. At the end of the decline was a sheer drop of about 50 feet straight down. Brian ripped down the 25 feet decline kicking up dirt and dust, CK was yelling "Brian grab onto something!" There was nothing to grab onto! He just kept sliding! So, you think that the story ends, "and Brian stopped right at the edge." Right? Nope. Brian went right over the edge. Dropped 50 feet! (No exaggerations ... these stories are fun because I don't have to exaggerate. ) Clark skidded down to the ledge, expecting...well...use your imagination. Brian had fallen the 50 feet, breaking tree limbs on the way. He had landed in a naturally formed stack of brush from the burn out. He looked like a baby eagle lying in a nest. Dirty. Bruised. Wind knocked out. No broken bones. Not impaled. I watched them scramble up to the top of the mountain. Brian had north-south streaks on his jeans, shirt, arms, hands, glasses... I felt kinda bad. I asked him if he wanted to go again. He declined. His wife won't let him come out and play with us anymore, but I was really rather proud of him. His worst injury of the day, was the bruised arm from the 12 foot descent.
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