Rescue on Rundle - Our Story on the Rundle Traverse
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- In this video we tell the story of our two attempts at the Rundle Traverse in Banff AB, Canada, the second of which resulted in a very badly broken leg and an incredible helicopter rescue performed at almost 3000m by the Parks Canada Visitor Safety Specialists.
We discuss the conditions and decisions that lead up to the accident and also take a look retrospectively at how the event will change us as mountaineers going forward.
A massive thank you to all those involved with the rescue at Parks Canada, in particular the two Visitor Safety Specialists who aided us on the scene and the pilot who successfully got them there and extracted our team. We also want to show our appreciation for all the staff at Banff Springs Hospital who worked as part of my surgery and recovery, I will be forever in your debt.
This traverse is responsible for a significant number of rescues every year and anyone attempting it should make sure they are prepared for a true alpine expedition requiring competent rope work and confidence on high level scrambles/low grade rock climbs.
We hope you enjoy this video and perhaps learn something from it.
Look after each other out there.
Have fun, stay safe.
AS
A thoughtful well-documented story. Wishing you safe and exhilarating adventures, where every step brings new discoveries and every summit is a testament to your spirit.
This is a very helpful video. I think that the "climb rating" gets far more attention than the "consequences" side in risk assessment. I know I am guilty of this way of thinking in many cases. But a broken leg is nothing to sneeze at. It is quite inconvenient and may carry a life-long impact in reduced strength and functionality. I have experienced this with a broken wrist on Grotto. Glad that was the worst of it for you.
I have my high angle tower rescue ticket, advanced first aid and rope access. I climb cell towers in Alberta and I really love alpine climbing in my spare time I’m in the mountains almost every weekend. I keep thinking I want to upgrade my certifications and take helicopter rescue I love to help people and can be comfortable and calm in situations like this I really should. Cell towers are fun but search and rescue is as important as it gets
“Experience is something you get immediately after you need it”. Saw that somewhere recently. Glad you and your friends are well, and that the Parks Canada Team was so quick to respond. Nice vid and a good debrief. Stay well, play safe.
Great video, glad you're ok. Thanks for sharing your story.
Great video, thanks for sharing your experience!
How much did the helicopter ride cost?
Thats a bummer about that leg. Hope it healed up nicely. Rite on. Keep livin.
HOLY SHIT GUYS !!! I solo'd that traverse back in 1996 did it in the fall and had to pack all my water. It was brutal. WOW! I had forgotten all about that. Lived in Camore way back in my twenties. Haha those were the days.
As a climber this scares me to no end. Gonna have to invest in an SOS beacon when I get into alpine and multi pitch
First, let me say I'm glad you're all okay, and I appreciate the work that went in to this video! Some other points:
1. The condescending, hypercritical tone many have taken (mostly on reddit) is totally out of line. Even if criticism is warranted (as it seems likely it is in this case), there are constructive ways to do it. The tendency to see someone else's honest mistake/slight overconfidence as reason to personally attack another climber and assume moral superiority.. that is the absolute worst part of the climbing community. Criticism is fine, just do it in a way that actually acknowledges the person's humanity. Making a mistake that requires others to risk their lives for you should always result in serious introspection and reevaluation, but I don't think you were glorifying your story at all (as some have suggested). I hope you don't let the comments ruin your psych.
2. I think your assessment of the problem in your pre-accident risk assessment was spot on, and very important for other climbers to consider as well. You can't just assess the probability of an accident and go from there--you must also consider the magnitude of the impact of that unlikely event. A 10% chance of a mild ankle sprain is fine; a 10% chance of a compound fracture and subsequent heli rescue is not. Sounds obvious, but very few people correctly weight the impact of an unlikely event in their risk assessment. Nassim Taleb's 'The Black Swan' deals with this subject extensively.
3. You were right (in my opinion) to not include the footage of the compound fracture itself, but you absolutely should have shown the beginning of the fall. Even if the footage wasn't great (gopro in a chimney is unlikely to be great footage). It would have 1) gotten you more views :) and 2) been far more instructive for other climbers, which is the primary reason any climbing accident story should be shared. By not including it, I think many perceive the focus of the video was "listen to this crazy story about me!" rather than: "I made a mistake and I'm humbly owning up to it." To be clear, I think your actual attitude IS "I made a mistake and I'm humbly owning up to it," I just think the beginning of the video, and not including the moment you fell, gave many the opposite impression.
4. I can't think of a reason you wouldn't have included the beginning of the fall (it's the most exciting, rare footage you could have, it would be a huge draw for your video and channel, etc etc), except that it is embarrassing to you in some way. Not wanting to include it for that reason is totally understandable. Maybe it was an easy move, or a very obvious mistake on your part, or a moment of altitude-induced insanity etc, and you thought if you included it everyone on the internet would label you an idiot or a terrible climber or whatever. A reasonable fear, but I think simply confronting it head-on would have made for a better film, helped a lot more climbers, AND prevented any internet-troll backlash.
5. #4 required a LOT of assumptions on my part so I apologize if I was way off on the reason the footage wasn't included.
6. Bottom line: Video was great, don't listen to mean internet comments (except mine!), and I hope you get back to climbing and making videos soon!
Any particular reason you didn't show the fall? These things can be helpful for other climbers to assess risk
Mainly because the footage is pretty graphic. Not sure seeing a leg break is in keeping with the youtube guidelines. I thought it better just to explain what happened rather than showing it. :)
@@burningdaylightadventures1497 fair enough
Great video, boys! Glad to know you're alright!
I was stoked the whole time, nice film
Boys very well done!
Gumbies on Rundle
Awesome editing! Hope you guys are all good
"EEOR itself is a 3-4 hour affair" - dear lord are you kidding me? You guys were way out of your depth here, and lucky to come away with only a broken leg. Also... the reason no one had attempted it yet in the season because no one in their right might would attempt it at that time of year. Your poor decision making put not only yourselves but also parks safety at risk. Not only that, but you make this video about it and paste it all over Reddit for what? A hero cookie? You guys really need a reality check here.
Bud, From looking at your Xray it seems they nailed your Tibia but didn't do anything with your Fibula. Not sure if you had a 2nd surgery after this video or not?! Well I had a Tib/Fib fracture exactly like yours (say for maybe an inch higher) in a low speed motorcycle crash 4 years ago. The ER Orthopedic surgeon as well as most other Orthos regurgitated a misconception which they for some weird reason hold on to. "Fibulas are useless bones which do nothing". I found out the hardway this is not true at all. They also only nailed my Tibia initially and I went through a full YEAR of rehab/ physical therapy and was not able to fully gain my balance back. Only after alot of "2nd opinions", lots of frustration and a letter from my Phisycal therapist (detailing my balance problems due to an unstable Fibula) did I find an Ortho surgeon who agreed that Fibulas are NOT useless and that we should internally fixate mine. After another 10-12 Months of Physical therapy (Post Fibula fixation) I was able to regain my balance about 96% and am back climbing, surfing and doing the sports i enjoy. My fibula was not as shattered as yours but i'm sure a competent and willing surgeon can put it back together. (I ended up with a plate and 8 screws on mine). Mind you i'm in my 40s so you're recovery should be faster but please do not believe Orthopedic doctors who tell you your Fibula is useless, that is a often regurgitated myth! The truth of the matter is Fibulas support 15% or more of body weight and are a crucial connection point for ligaments and tendons critical to balance. Please head this warning and get your leg properly fixed!!
Thanks for sharing your story and hope to see you back out adventuring in good time!
The ending of this was hard to watch… I’ll start by saying I like the idea of the video, but you are sending the wrong message. The way y’all throw around buzzwords like “consequence” and “risk” definitely screams experience level. You did not accurately assess risk because no matter how good you are at climbing, the risk is what can happen, not how likely you think you are to fall. You’re on chossy stone here and you have the potential to die no matter how good you are at climbing. There’s also no measure of introspection at the beginning or end indicating how you figured out how inexperienced you guys are for taking on this climb out of season and under-protected which indicates to all of us you learned nothing. This wasn’t a freak accident, this was summit fever and ego clouding your judgement and building overconfidence. This idea of safety net too is all out of wack. Yes good friends are great for moral support, but unless your friends much more experienced in something like climbing or first, that’s not a safety net indicating you don’t really know what that is. A safety net is something that can keep from this scenario from happening which would be best exemplified by bringing gear along so that you can take the extra step and place some protection and fall on your gear. Secondary to that, first aid, it seems y’all have very minimal first aid experience, you know nothing about how it changes in a remote setting, and you don’t even mention that you even know response time. I can tell you you’re lucky as hell it only took 20 minutes for a chopper to get to the top of the mountain in pristine weather. I could keep going but my main issue is the way this portrays failure to the outdoor community. It makes it look okay that SAR came and bailed your butts out when you had a minimal understanding of what you were doing. This was entirely luck all around and it makes people think that SAR is an acceptable first safety net. Y’all had virtually no plan and just jammed the SOS button which is always a last resort. Granted it would’ve been needed, but it I also saw little comprehension of what it means to bring in a helicopter team and endanger the pilot and crew, and what if they couldn’t come that day and the weather wasn’t perfect like in a lot of situations where it won’t be? No indication of how you planned on handling it and that’s where higher level of first aid is training is a must for this trip. If your splint wasn’t stopping the bone from moving around before the vacuum what even was it’s purpose? That’s about as effective as no splint at all. Please please please reconsider the impact this video can have on a growing community. I’ll top this off with saying I really like the idea of this video but it could use a change in tone, you guys messed up and it happens but it would be much better served if you go back and retool and talk about inexperience clouding your judgement. The vibe at the end is something of “this was a freak accident and not our fault and nothing will stop us from getting back out”. The tone should be “wow we made some stupid mistakes and we learned our lesson about inexperience, please do not make this mistake yourself”. Again, I like the idea of the video, you’re just not sending the right message here.