Rope Cuts! Climber Survives 70-foot Fall in USA

A highly experienced rock climber, Greg "Grug" Cameron, was in a climbing accident last week where his rope cut and he fell 70 feet. He was climbing the route Chocstone, a three-pitch 5.10a in Eldorado Canyon when he fell and the rope cut.

This isn't his first time dealing with a climbing accident that he's overcome. In 1995, Grug tried to free-solo Generator Crack 5.10c in Yosemite, but fell and broke his back. He required a helicopter rescue. 

Grug then visited Canada and made the first free ascent of Pipeline, a wild 5.10+ offwidth multi-pitch above Squamish. It was legendary. He then visited Ontario and made the first ascent of The Return of the Degnoid in 1977 with George Manson and Rob Rohn as one of Canada's first 5.12.

His belayer on Chocstone, Dean Brubaker, wrote on the MP forum, I was climbing Chockstone with Greg when the accident occurred. Greg took a lead fall near the top of the second pitch and his lead rope was either cut or broke during the fall. I was belaying him from the top of the first pitch. Greg had a couple of good pieces in before the traverse – they held an earlier lead fall and I’m pretty sure the gear was still in place after the rope was severed. I don’t know if there are any sharp edges at the top of this route, but I suspect that was what caused it. Maybe someone that knows the route better can comment on that.

It breaks my heart to think about this. But I want to thank the many people that helped out with the rescue, including the first climbers at the scene, the Eldo park staff, Rocky Mountain Rescue, and the Boulder County Sheriff’s department. Please PM me if you were one of the folks who helped with CPR. Greg’s wife would like to thank you and so would I. Greg is one of the toughest people I ever met and if anybody can pull through this it’s him.

And Karl Manteuffel added, "Wanted to share this as we were a part of the triage scene. The climber’s rope was severed during his fall. Probably happened on the sharp arrette near the top of the second pitch. His climbing partner said that his gear held, but the rope snapped, and he didn’t know why. The rope seemed generally in good shape, 9.5 mammut.  He probably fell over 100’’ and luckily hit a tree which broke his fall substantially. I was leading about 3/4 of the way up Xanadu when I heard a yell from the second pitch of Chalkstone. My climbing partner was quick to holler at me to throw in a piece and get lowered off, as he saw Greg fall. A different party immediately called for search and rescue and 911. Then we got on the phone with an excellent medic who guided us to perform CPR based on his presentation. Working together with some young climbers that were on puprple haze, cpr was continued for about 30 minutes until search and rescue showed up and took over. Everyone involved was levelheaded and did an amazing job including his climbing partner who was administering rescue breaths. Blessings to Greg and his family."

Send some good vibes out to Grug and those close to him as he goes through this recovery.

Greg "Grug" Cameron. Photo by Chris Van Leuven