They can't go to the gym

Christmas is the only day they close the gym, so the pad posse shows up at Carderock. I'm sure none of the staff show up on 4/20.

Should you do a crap rig on a 5.13b?

That's the climbing rope running over their rope bag (nylon on nylon), the cordalette is maybe 7mm, single carabiners, gate down towards the rock. He said, "You've got it." She was at the second move on Silver Spot.

Something they saw in a video.

Sling the loose block, use single carabiners on each anchor.

Canal Project

The canal work should be downstream of the climbing area, but some activity must occur nearby to refill the canal.

Did you know about this? Looks like nobody did.

C&O Canal National Historical Park N ews Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 4, 2017
Contact: C atherine Bragaw, Catherine_Bragaw@nps.gov, 301-491-6265
Maintaining the flow
$6 .7 Million in improvements coming to watered sections of the historic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Potomac, Md. - A $6.7 million construction project will soon be underway to improve several locks, waste weirs, bridges and other water control structures within one of the most popular segments of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (C&O Canal). These improvements will help the park’s historic structures withstand impacts from Potomac River floods and make the features easier to maintain.
Construction is anticipated to begin on or about December 4, 2017 and extend until spring 2019 (weather dependent). Project work will focus on eight different areas between Little Falls and Swains Lock (Milepost 5-17). The exact timeframe for work will be determined soon. Please check out the C&O Canal website and social media for details.
To provide safe access to the work areas during the construction process, the canal will be drained in these areas at various times throughout the project. Draining operations began November 26, 2017. Precautions will be taken by the park to protect wildlife within the canal during these operations.
This project consists of work in the vicinity of the following areas of the C&O Canal: Swains Lock, Great Falls Tavern, Olmsted Island, Carderock, Rock Run Culvert, and Lock #7. During construction, visitors will be directed to follow easily navigable detours around the work areas.
-NPS-
ABOUT THE C&O Canal: Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park preserves and interprets the historical, natural and recreational resources of the C&O Canal. Over 5,000,000 visitors a year enjoy the opportunities for recreation and understanding that the Park has to offer. For more information, visit the Park’s website at www.nps.gov/choh.

Unclear on the concept.

Two good knots, lots of rope, what's the carabiner for?

Barely there.

Maybe the tree root helps.

More 8 mil.

Plus the carabiner with the gate down so it can open.

Yard Sale

Use everything you own, webbing runners, 8MM, single strand and as a loop, double carabiners until you run out and use single carabiners.

I don't care who taught you this, it is insane

Adding links to the belay chain is not OK, much less weaker, less secure links.

How old is that stuff?

Hopefully it was stored in the dark, but it sure looks faded.

Why not use the ENORMOUS tree?

We've gone from two anchors to three now.

They did not use the tree on the right, the rope goes to the two tiny trees at the left.

Every choice is awful.

You could probably pull this rock out by hand.

Tiny trees, single wire gate carabiner, gate down, this anchor isn't functional, it is just clipped around the rope.

Single anchor over a sharp edge, and yes, that is a loose block.

It was all they had.

Yes, that's 8MM green rope for one climb, old, single strand webbing, with a carabiner instead of a knot.

Not actually an anchor.

1. This is a dead tree. 2.This is not a tensionless anchor, not enough wraps. 3. The anchor isn't at the base of the tree 4. The pack is just waiting to be stolen. 5. The climber was on the rope, this anchor isn't working.

More is less.

The block on the left would have been fine, instead they went for a less positive system including the small loose rock at right.

I one no problem with a single anchor around the enormous tree. The climbing rope running over rock edges, not so much.

What's wrong with this picture?

Local "instructors" are teaching this. It introduces two unnecessary links in the belay chain. This guy understands that the clove isn't stable, his solution is to tie an overhand cross loading the carabiner and wrapped around the locking collar so it can be loosened. Each choice may seem innocuous, but they add up, more importantly, it shows sloppy thinking, inattention to the details that keep us safe.

Brand new boat rope.

Why is 8MM a bad idea? Look at the sharp edges. See the REALLY sharp white nubbins in the center? I think the dark spot near the top is a fly, not rope damage.

Don't tie off something that is small enough to move.

I'm sure these slings are designed to hold a ton, or did they already hold a ton?

Two slings on the same rock is not redundant.

A detailed photo of the 8MM on a tiny corner of the rock.

Brand new, but what is it? Haven't seen an eye splice in climbing gear.

Hammocks: curse of the crag.

Return of the boat rope.

The chock is behind the loose block.

Right across the only trail.

Can't anybody tie a knot without a carabiner?

Stopper between the loose rock and tree, anchor of really old climbing rope.

A new case of your worst nightmare

A totally preventable death at a top rope area.

A Rock Climber's Death Highlights Dangers of an Increasingly Popular Sport 

By MOLLY WALSH @MOKAWA

click to enlarge

• COURTESY OF RON RYAN
• Rebecca Ryan

Two smooth branches nailed into the shape of a cross adorn the trunk of a scraggly maple tree below a photograph of 20-year-old Rebecca Ryan. The makeshift memorial at the popular rock-climbing destination known as Lower West Bolton is a reminder that Ryan and her easygoing smile will never return.

She died in a fall at the rugged 90-foot wall of rock in Bolton on September 16, as two friends waited below.

The loss of the University of Vermont junior devastated fellow students and her family. It's also triggered conversations about safety in relation to a sport that is growing in popularity with adrenalin junkies around Vermont.

Ryan fit the climber profile. The young woman skied alpine race courses at 40 miles an hour, kayaked in waters off Alaska and picked her way over ice-covered glaciers. She'd been climbing for at least two years and had even checked out the competitive circuit.

The Vermont State Police say they have not completed the final report on Ryan's accident and denied a public records request from Seven Days for the document last week. The preliminary one, penned by Vermont Department of Public Safety search and rescue coordinator Neil Van Dyke, was posted at climbing resource website neclimbs.com in response to climbers who were calling for more details about the accident. His account did not name the two climbers who were with Ryan, and Van Dyke, a veteran ice climber, also declined to identify them to Seven Days.

UVM has a rock-climbing club, but this excursion was just an outing among friends. Ryan and her companions had headed to Lower West to tackle a popular climb. A half hour from Burlington, it's an easy walk from a parking pull-off on Bolton Notch Road. Seven Days visited the site last week with Seth Maciejowski, an avid climber who serves as president of CRAG-VT. The nonprofit group, based in Richmond, promotes safe climbing and works to preserve and expand access to climbing areas in Vermont.

click to enlarge

• MOLLY WALSH
• Seth Maciejowski

Signs at the start of the path mark the area, including one that warns: "Rock climbing is dangerous. Climb at your own risk!" Another notes that CRAG owns Lower West and urges visitors to join the group. CRAG has about 150 members statewide. 

The sun filtered through the birch, beech and maple trees en route to the base of ancient cliffs. Autumn leaves helicoptered to the ground alongside the walls of schist — a gray, coarse-grained rock — that form a buttress 90 to 120 feet high.

Nobody was scaling the cliff that day, but evidence of its popularity was everywhere. The slippery lichen known as rock tripe had been scrubbed clean along the well-traveled vertical routes. Here and there, white marks indicated spots where climbers covered their hands in chalk to better grip the crags. Numerous steel bolts screwed into the rock provide more reliable protection.

Ryan and her climbing partners were not using those permanent bolts that day on their route, known as Harvest Moon. Instead, they were "top-roping" — a technique that involves looping the rope around a tree or through a secure anchor at the apex of the cliff. One end is secured to a harnessed belayer on the ground; the other is attached to the climber above. The belayer keeps the rope taut as the climber ascends, to prevent a fall.

Climbers can lower themselves in the top-roping scenario, too, with the belayer providing a counterweight and slowly giving the climber more rope to descend.

The trio made several climbs and were ready to leave, according to the preliminary report. Ryan ascended one more time to collect equipment at the top, where the rope was anchored onto two rings bolted into a boulder.

In the report, Van Dyke refers to Ryan as "climber #1." Her climbing partners, referred to as "climber #2" and "climber #3," believed the plan was for "#1 to ascend, clean the anchor and rappel down." Cleaning anchor entails resetting the rope at the top, so that all gear can be collected and ropes pulled down from the ground after a final descent.

Rappelling would have involved Ryan threading the rope through a piece of gear and lowering herself from the top anchor — without the assistance of a belayer below.

According to the report, Ryan climbed up and called "Off belay," signaling to her partner on the ground to remove belay equipment from the rope, presumably so she could rearrange the roping and "clean anchor." The belayer took off the harness, believing that Ryan would rappel down without help. Then things got confusing, according to the report.

"About 5 minutes later #1 called, 'Are you ready to lower?' Both #2 and #3 shouted 'no' back, and #2 rushed to put their harness back on. Less than a minute later Climber #1 was observed in an uncontrolled fall down the face, which she did not survive."

Ryan did not have a rappel device on her harness. It was found in a pile of gear at the base of the climb, according to the report.

Van Dyke concluded that the "most likely scenario" was that Ryan had intended to rappel down but realized she had left that crucial piece of equipment behind. She probably didn't hear the "no" shouts from below and leaned back to descend, expecting to be lowered, and fell. But it's also possible that she slipped, his report says. There's no way to know for sure.

Her loss hit Vermont climbers hard. They're weighing in on online chat boards, paying their respects, attempting to analyze the emerging details and also reflecting on the dangers of the sport. Some climbers have offered their own close-call tales.

click to enlarge

• MOLLY WALSH
• A makeshift cross fastened to a tree at the Lower West Bolton cliffs

Rock-climbing deaths are rare but not unheard of in Vermont. Two years ago, in 2015, a Sunderland rock climber fell to his death in Dorset as a result of a rappelling error. There have also been fatalities and serious accidents at Smugglers' Notch, news stories and accident reports show. Some are tricky to categorize. For example, in 1980, a man died after a 30-foot fall while climbing at the Notch without any ropes or gear — an incident Van Dyke considers a hiking death not a climbing one. Vermont State Police do not keep a tally of rock-climbing fatalities. 

For all the technical gear that climbers use, from carabiners to harnesses, one of the most important tools is communication, Maciejowski emphasized.

It's "imperative" that your partners "know exactly what you are doing," he said.

When in doubt? Walk down. Some commenters noted that's what Ryan should have done if she couldn't hear her partners. At West Bolton it's an easy 12-minute hike from the top of the cliff to the base.

Despite the dangers, more and more people are negotiating rock faces. Indoor climbing gyms and mini-walls at playgrounds and resorts are proliferating — and leading newcomers to the sport to then venture outside.

Twenty years ago, the cliffs at Bolton had just a few marked routes, said Maciejowski. Now, there are probably 200, he said. Students from Middlebury College, Saint Michael's College and UVM climb there.

And there are plenty of other spots, too. CRAG owns 58 acres at four cliff bands in Vermont and is raising funds to buy property near Lower West known as the Bolton Dome. The nonprofit is negotiating with the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont for permission to climb at Rock Point, the limestone cliff in Burlington overlooking Lake Champlain. CRAG members are also working with state officials on getting signs to mark a popular route for bouldering — climbing huge rocks without ropes — at Smugglers' Notch. So far, most of the group's minimal funding has come from memberships, donations and grants.

click to enlarge

• FILE: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR
• Climber in Lower West Bolton

The sport draws thrill seekers such as Ryan. She'd always been game to conquer whatever challenges the mountains offered, recalled her father, Ron Ryan, a consultant and entrepreneur who lives in Knoxville, Tenn.

When Rebecca Ryan was a child, the family lived in Missoula, Mont. The little girl learned to ski steep faces and bowls that left her own mother, Martha, quaking at the top, Ron Ryan said.

Their daughter started alpine racing in Montana and continued training after she, her two siblings and her parents moved to Tennessee. She enrolled at the Green Mountain Valley School, a ski academy and boarding school in Waitsfield, and thrived there during her teen years. A crash at Sugarloaf in Maine slowed her down.

"She fell on the headwall. Her leg was twisted around behind her head, and she broke her femur pretty cleanly," her father recalled. A surgeon put Rebecca Ryan back together, but she had lingering problems.

"She competed the next year, her senior year, but she was under tremendous pain and really didn't ski terribly well," he said.

So Ryan found other outlets. At UVM, she enjoyed hiking, camping and teaching people with disabilities how to ski. A practicing Presbyterian, she found a deeper spirituality in the UVM InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She spent her spring breaks on mission trips with the campus group.

"It was something much more powerful than someone who gets up and polishes their shoes and goes to church every Sunday," her father said. "It was something she was much more committed to than that.''

He declined to discuss any details of the accident, saying it was too difficult.

"I think that one of the most important things that gives us as parents comfort is that she lived an extraordinary life," he said. "It was short, but it was very beautiful."

He and his wife sometimes talked to their daughter about the wisdom of her athletic pursuits, especially after a fall during an indoor climbing competition caused a second major injury during her first year at college. The compound fracture to her right ankle required surgery and more rehab.

Still, Ryan recovered and made inspirational posters to help with the journey. One of them, her father remembered, summed up her attitude well. It quoted a line from a Harry Potter book that said: "What's life without a little risk?"

related stories

After a Hiker's Death, Vermont Finds Ways to Improve Search and Rescue
• by Terri Hallenbeck

More Outdoors & Recreation »

Bad news, good news.

Single strand webbing, carabiner instead of a knot, 3 feet up the tree.

The ever popular boat rope.

Lots of extra rope to use instead of the cordalette, carabiners and runner.

Wire gates because that's what you bought for sport climbing.

The good news, they didn't use this fuzzy crap.

Trail booby traps.

Fortunately, the trail wasn't crowded.

This looks like a retraced figure eight using 5MM spectra or kevlar. Using this material with nylon is high risk.

The climbing rope is running right over a sharp nubbin. Each anchor is clipped into only one carabiner.

The ultimate mystery knot?

Two of everything, but at least three knots

Weaving runners together doesn't make then equalized or redundant.

Carabiners instead of real knots.

One old piece of climbing rope. There are knots at both ends, so it isn't even a loop.

Some trees aren't so good.

I have pictures of people anchored to this tree.

The fresh breaks show how little was attached.

Gotta use that tiny tree.

Girth hitch your wired nuts together.