*** Accident at Seneca Rocks - Oct 7th 1995 ***

From: mxsst3@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Newsgroups: rec.climbing
Subject: Accident Report - Seneca Rocks 10/7/95
Date: 10 Oct 95 13:29:03 EDT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Message-ID: <45eahn$cgn@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu>

Saturday Oct 7: I was at the top of the first pitch of Dirty Old Man on the
east face of the South Peak. My second was 3/4 of the way up, when I heard
a girl scream and the sounds of someone falling. A guy by the name of Mark
(I think) was leading the first pitch of Soler and popped off about 30 feet
up. His pro pulled (this is the off-width section) and he landed on Broadway
Ledge and shattered his left forearm. His belayer was able to stop him from
falling off the the ledge -his legs were hanging over. He yelled out that he
was hurt bad - but that was good news because I then knew he was at least
conscious.

My "third" ran over to him and helped anchor him in. An EMT was close by,
uckily, and he tended to Mark. Once my pitch was cleaned, we rapped backdown
to Broadway. An instructor from the Gendarme was on the west face of the
North Peak, around the top of Psycho Driller, and he rapped down and got
help. It took a couple of hours for additional help and the litter to arrive.

Mark had also hurt his ankle - so he couldn't walk down. We got him in the
litter, and walked him up the ledge a ways to a point where he could be
lowered to the "path" down to Roy Gap Road. That was where I took off -
from what I understand it took about 4 hours from the time he fell until he
reached the waiting ambulance. Anyone who is familiar with this location
knows that Mark is lucky to bealive. The ledge where he landed is covered
with large boulders - he should be thankful he only broke his arm. He was
wearing a helmet - I'm sure that helped.

If anyone has other information on his condition, please post it.

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