Warning: They made it out in one piece.

FTFA: "After struggling all day to free themselves they finally called for help on their mobile phones on Friday."

Verizon Wireless commercial in the works?

How about taking the stairs, or climbing something thatis'nt a sheer rock face?

/come on, people!

And this, boys and girls, is how not to go rock climbing

Hmm. They had safety equipment and they used it, which kept them from falling so they could be rescued. Sounds like they did something right.

The idea of rock climbing is to climb the rock.. Not dangle.

It's not called "Rock Dangling." Goofy English.

Nakito: And this, boys and girls, is how not to go rock climbing

Hmm. They had safety equipment and they used it, which kept them from falling so they could be rescued. Sounds like they did something right.

And had a way to contact others, should there be a situation they couldn't get themselves out of. Much better than those Washington state mountain climbers last spring.

Too many movies. Too much TV. Too little training and experience.

Trapped: The rescuers took more than five hours to reach the dangling Britons

Who are the Britons?

Need a license to buy a gun or drive a car, but any boob with half-a-brain can walk in and get all the rock-climbing gear he can carry. No experience necessary.

This rates right up with the damn fools who decide to climb mountains on sunny Fall days carrying nothing but a light sweater and a cell phone, ahem. Then they get up to 3500 feet by sundown and look out... It's cold! It's dark! It's snowing! I'm hungry! That's a BEAR! HE'S hungry! OMG,OMG!!!

New Hampshire started CHARGING these dummies for being rescued, like $2800.00 for the average search and resuce of lame Yuppies, and it suddenly stopped. "You mean we can't whip out the GPS and get saved for free? Screw that, I'm not going!"

Stupid is as stupid does...

foxbrook78: Trapped: The rescuers took more than five hours to reach the dangling Britons

Who are the Britons?

Why we all are. And I am your king.
King eh? I didn't vote for you.
You don't vote for kings
Then how did you become king then?

headstone: Too many movies. Too much TV. Too little training and experience.

Great picture - is that real or a 'shop? Because if it's real, I'm going to have to guess that Jesus doesn't actually love that guy very much.

headstone:
Too many movies. Too much TV. Too little training and experience.

I dunno. When climbing outdoors, one generally doesn't carry an entire camp kit up the wall. And a snagged rope that you can't get loose by yourself is a very extreme and rare climbing emergency:

TFA: After struggling all day to free themselves they finally called for help on their mobile phones on Friday. But their precarious position meant it took rescuers another five hours to free them.

They didn't just whip out their mobiles at the first sign of a snag, they worked the problem "all day". Simply put, they were expecting to be back on the ground with their warm woolies, well before night fell.

No Such Agency:
I dunno. When climbing outdoors, one generally doesn't carry an entire camp kit up the wall. And a snagged rope that you can't get loose by yourself is a very extreme and rare climbing emergency:


THIS. A snagged rope can happen to anyone on a heavily vegetated face, and has nothing to do with stupidity. A couple of friends of mine (both experienced climbers) got stuck halfway down the back side of a 12 pitch climb in Mexico. They were up there for over 12 hours, before one of them decided to free solo 40 or so feet of 5.12 in order to release the snag.

No Such Agency Quote 2008-09-21 03:33:12 PM
headstone:
Too many movies. Too much TV. Too little training and experience.

I dunno. When climbing outdoors, one generally doesn't carry an entire camp kit up the wall. And a snagged rope that you can't get loose by yourself is a very extreme and rare climbing emergency:

TFA: After struggling all day to free themselves they finally called for help on their mobile phones on Friday. But their precarious position meant it took rescuers another five hours to free them.

They didn't just whip out their mobiles at the first sign of a snag, they worked the problem "all day". Simply put, they were expecting to be back on the ground with their warm woolies, well before night fell.

It can be hard to know how deep you are in sometimes. It may be admirable that they didn't give up and call right away for help, but that forced a night time rescue with surely increases the danger.

I watched a cascading series of events one time while out mountain biking:
Offroader couldn't get his girlfriend's parent's old range rover back out the trail where he entered due to a muddy steep bank right at the end of the trail. With an easily passable dirt road in sight on the other side of a concrete barrier he proceeded to try to climb up the bank around the barrier for about 2 hours.

He got stuck several times tight against trees and did maybe $6-8,000 in damage by wrecking every piece of sheet metal on the truck including denting the roof and he lost low range in the process (transmission or transfer case? neither would be cheap). In retrospect, if at the beginning he had got a tractor or backhoe to move the barrier and let him out, it would have cost $100-200, but how did he know it was going to go that wrong? I would have liked to have been there when they brought the truck back home.

Frostbite? While surrounded by lush green foliage? Am I missing something?

I'm confused as to why they couldn't cut the rope and climb down (or up)?


/not a rock climber

And this, boys and girls, is how the idiot 'news' media reports on subjects they know absolutely nothing about.

It's called 'research.' Do it...or stick to subjects you're qualified to comment on. For most pseudojournalists that means hair implants, lip gloss, and metrosexual grooming tips. Friggin' poodles.

some_wild-eyed_8-foot_tall_maniac A snagged rope can happen to anyone on a heavily vegetated face, and has nothing to do with stupidity

Exactly. There is nothing in the article that says these guys were inexperienced climbers and this is something that can happen to anyone. In one of the photos, some of that gear looks pretty shiny, but that's about it. No info on the route, the grade, or anything else that would tell you that this was inexperience or stupidity. I guess you could assume that it was a trad climb and the leader had ascended while the two other guys were still at the belay ledge, but that's just an assumption. Typical Daily Mail--nice photos, no info.

Scutter I'm confused as to why they couldn't cut the rope and climb down (or up)?

If they had, I would posting a Darwin picture right about now.

It looks a little steep to cut the rope to me, but I'm no rock climber either.

No Such Agency: headstone:
Too many movies. Too much TV. Too little training and experience.

I dunno. When climbing outdoors, one generally doesn't carry an entire camp kit up the wall. And a snagged rope that you can't get loose by yourself is a very extreme and rare climbing emergency:

TFA: After struggling all day to free themselves they finally called for help on their mobile phones on Friday. But their precarious position meant it took rescuers another five hours to free them.

They didn't just whip out their mobiles at the first sign of a snag, they worked the problem "all day". Simply put, they were expecting to be back on the ground with their warm woolies, well before night fell.
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As you said:They didn't just whip out their mobiles at the first sign of a snag, they worked the problem "all day".

1. Poor judgment of their climbing abilities, or possibly a freak occurence. Compounded by:

2. Poor judgment of their ability to free themselves. Compounded by:

3. Poor judgement of the amount of daylight left, thus causing it to be a much more hazardous night rescue.

I'm not a climber, but, if I attempted something like this I would be damn sure to know all about the ambient conditions I would be exposed to [both night and day], among a great many other things. If I did have the misfortune of getting stuck, I would be greatly aware of the passing time, the impending dark and cold, and would call for help quite a bit earlier than they did. It sounds like the ego was a bit too strong in these two.

/know when to fold 'em.

Sliding Carp: headstone: Too many movies. Too much TV. Too little training and experience.

Great picture - is that real or a 'shop? Because if it's real, I'm going to have to guess that Jesus doesn't actually love that guy very much.
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Don't know if someone else 'shopped it. The pic I posted is untouched by me. If it's real, it's a pretty cool catch.

headstone

3. Poor judgement of the amount of daylight left, thus causing it to be a much more hazardous night rescue.


I agree and point out Croatia may not have the short response time for wilderness rescue as other places were outdoors people congregate.

Around here, the helicopter will pluck you off of 8-10,000 feet in less than an hour from the time they are notified, often 1/2 an hour is all it takes. Cells mostly don't work, so notifying them can be the hard part.

/Angeles or SB NF

chakalakasp: Frostbite? While surrounded by lush green foliage? Am I missing something?

The climbers probably said they were "really cold", and the reporter ran with it. "ZOMG, Frostbytez!"

Scutter: I'm confused as to why they couldn't cut the rope and climb down (or up)?
/not a rock climber

I know you're not a climber, but let's stop and think about this for a second.

"The photos show them dangling dangerously from the rock face as mountain rescue attempt to abseil down to reach them."

Yeah, they could be like... attacked by birds... or someone could say mean things to them and they wouldn't be able to go cry to their mommies.

Horatio Hellpop: In one of the photos, some of that gear looks pretty shiny, but that's about it.

LOL, You're so right! I didn't scroll down that far the first time.

Nakito: And this, boys and girls, is how not to go rock climbing

Hmm. They had safety equipment and they used it, which kept them from falling so they could be rescued. Sounds like they did something right.

one of the principles of rock climbing is to have redundant equipment so that you are rarely relying on a single piece of gear. Not having a spare rope qualifies as not being properly equipped.

They where probably done with the climb and rapping down. Also they were probably using two ropes for rappel. If when they pulled their rope the knot could have gotten snagged and caused problems.

I don't know very many climbers that climb with three ropes so the situation they were in could have not been their fault.

Also:

some_wild-eyed_8-foot_tall_maniac "...free solo 40 or so feet of 5.12 in order to release the snag."

Holy crap!

griffix0: They where probably done with the climb and rapping down. Also they were probably using two ropes for rappel. If when they pulled their rope the knot could have gotten snagged and caused problems.

I don't know very many climbers that climb with three ropes so the situation they were in could have not been their fault.

Also:

some_wild-eyed_8-foot_tall_maniac "...free solo 40 or so feet of 5.12 in order to release the snag."

Holy crap!

question 1: Unless I am mistaken, you usually pass the rope through the anchor withot a knot when rappelling down.

question 2: Why wouldn't you be able to rappel down with one rope, assuming they had 2?

MycroftHolmes, When doing a repel of a multi-pitch climb most climbers will use two ropes. These ropes are tied together by a knot, usual double fishermans. The knot is kept on one side of the anchors so it can be pulled.

Now if in the possess of pulling the rope, the know gets wedge in a crack or hooked around vegetation, the two ropes become useless. Now the climbers are stuck at the rap/belay station tied to the anchor.

One could potentially use part of the rope that they had to climb up, but if they were a a rap station there rope could be up to 60 meters above them. So they don't have a lot of options.

They could free solo up to the rope and free it. or do some kind of tandem climb on one of the free ends of the rope, but both are dangerous.

Personally if I had a method of calling for health and rescue insurance; I would call for help.

griffix0 Personally if I had a method of calling for health and rescue insurance; I would call for help.

That should read help instead of health.

griffix0: MycroftHolmes, When doing a repel of a multi-pitch climb most climbers will use two ropes. These ropes are tied together by a knot, usual double fishermans. The knot is kept on one side of the anchors so it can be pulled.

Now if in the possess of pulling the rope, the know gets wedge in a crack or hooked around vegetation, the two ropes become useless. Now the climbers are stuck at the rap/belay station tied to the anchor.

One could potentially use part of the rope that they had to climb up, but if they were a a rap station there rope could be up to 60 meters above them. So they don't have a lot of options.

They could free solo up to the rope and free it. or do some kind of tandem climb on one of the free ends of the rope, but both are dangerous.

Personally if I had a method of calling for health and rescue insurance; I would call for help.

Ahhh, OK. Most of my experience(from a previous life, years ago) was top roping or single pitch stuff, so I didn't know they tied the ropes together.