American climber Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, took a roughly 120-foot whipper attempting the first ascent of the North Face of Crooked Thumb in the Tetons in 1959. Bob Kamps caught the fall with a hip belay!!! At that time, before harnesses, it was normal to tie in by wrapping the climbing rope (usually a 150’, 7/16” diameter Plymouth Goldline) several times around the climber’s waist finished off with a bowline on a coil—no leg loops.

If a lead fall were to occur, especially a big one, there was a significant likelihood that the compression from the rope would cause significant, potentially fatal, injuries. Additionally, were the climber to be hanging in space with such a tie in for more than a few minutes, suffocation was a very real possibility.

Chouinard, and other Yosemite climbers, had recently started to tie in by wrapping and and then tying off several strands of 1 or 2 inch nylon tape (then available through Army surplus) around their waists and attaching the rope to that —calling the set-up a ‘swami belt’.

This system was significantly better at absorbing the impact of a lead fall. Fortunately, Chouinard was using a swami on that occasion,  and since the fall was overhanging and ‘clean’ he survived with only minor bruises. Once that story circulated through the grapevine, the main source of information for climbers in that era, many climbers quickly went to their local Army-Navy stores to purchase tape and make their swami belts. 

Report in American Alpine Journal

Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park (4), Teewinot—On August 7, 1959, Yvon Chouinard (21) and Robert Kamps were attempting the north face of the Crooked Thumb on Teewinot Mountain. Chouinard was leading an overhang using direct aid and one rope. After completion of the overhang he found that the friction on the rope was making further movement impossible. The remainder of the lead involved free climbing with very little protection, and no cracks. Chouinard was four feet below a belay position and thirty feet above his last piton. He grabbed a loose handhold and fell. Two pitons pulled out. A rope sling held. At the time of the fall the belayer had three feet of rope left. Chouinard fell a total of 160 feet. Because the face was overhanging, he hit the rock only once and ended in mid-air. He suffered only minor scratches and a long cut below the left knee which required stitches in the skin and muscle. Chouinard descended the mountain under his own power. He has since made a complete recovery.

Source: Park Ranger John C. Fonda, via Frank R. Oberhansley, Superintendent, G.T.N.P.

Analysis (GTNP): This fall was caused by a loose handhold and the restraining effect of the rope resulting from friction through snaplinks. Chouinard escaped serious injury only because the face was overhanging. He was, however, wearing a wide belt band of one-inch sling material. This conceivably cushioned the effect of the fall around his waist. An additional rope to avoid excessive friction and special care in testing handholds would probably have prevented the fall.

Per Wikipedia

In the Tetons in 1958, Kamps teamed with Chouinard to make the first ascent of the imposing Satisfaction Buttress; but the two were turned back the following year on an attempt on the forbidding north face of the Crooked Thumb on 12,325-foot (3,757 m) Teewinot Mountain, when Chouinard's aid pitons pulled out of the decomposing rock and he took a 150-foot (46 m) fall through open space, held on belay by Kamps. The climb was completed seven years later by Pete Cleveland.