Crazy Squamish Trad Fall
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Trad fall! “Experienced Trad climber Takes Massive Deadly Whip on small gear!!
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Squamish Climber Cheech DelaRoca takes a whipper on 12a finger crack from only a few feet below chains, a piece rips and he plunges further to a deadly ledge that he ricochets off of.
When asked about it he had this to say:
1. Before everybody starts reeming me out for not wearing a helmet, i agree 100% with you, i should have been. My helmet broke a week before and was waiting for new one to arrive.
I was confident leading this route on bomber gear and mitigating the risk.
2. A helmet most likely would not have saved me if i hit the ledge directly, as i most likely would have came in contact with any other body part and broke it. What did save me was that i pushed myself away from the wall at the last moment while whipping and finally right before the ledge.
3. The whip ended up being bigger than it should have because i started running it out, and made a poor cam placement (knowingly) but continued to keep climbing due to pump factor above my poorly placed piece. I started to prioritize sending over safety ...a scenario that can lead even experienced climbers to injury....