Pendulum

After we returned early from Yosemite and got some sleep, we decided to head out to the Quarry to slip in a bit of climbing since we cut our trip short. The place was pretty crowded. We headed to the back and found the route "Fear the Smear" (5.8), a 45' sport route. Christian lead the route and the rest of us top roped it. It was a pretty difficult route and I wasn't quite feeling it that day. I ended up going up a couple of times because I refused to let the route beat me. I did better but I still didn't do it as well as I would have liked. Emily did a couple of laps on it as well.

We still had a little daylight left and Christian has been wanting to try a route called Fun Factory (5.7). Christian thought the route was pretty fun but it seemed a little scary to us as some of the loose blocks were bolted so that it would not fall. When Christian got near the top, there was a crack with bats squeaking inside. I think that they were readying to go out and Christian was blocking their way. We were afraid that he would get bit. In the end, he decided to just put the ropes through the rappel rings and come back down since it probably wasn't a good idea for any of us to go through tonight.

Unfortunately, as Christian was coming down and cleaning the pieces of protection that he placed, we had a bit of an accident. I was belaying Christian from a spot that was some 20' left of the line that lead up to the anchor. The ground was rocky and uneven. As Christian cleaned his last piece, and I was going to finish lowering him back to the bottom of the route when the rope pulled me off my perch and I went swinging. I tried to stay on my feet but I hit my shin on some rock and my elbow too and went spinning, stopping only after slamming my back into another boulder and landing on my side. Christian was helplessly dangling from the other end of the rope. He swung out in a pendulum too and hurt his leg a bit but he couldn't get to me until I finished lowering him. Emily was hysterical. I was in a great deal of pain. Luckily, I missed my spine and had hit on the right side of my lower back. I was finally able to let Christian down and he gave me a blessing and helped me up. Everything seemed to be working. It was just very painful.

After the initial shock, Caitlyn got to work, clearing a path for me so that I would not have to stumble over loose rock to get back down. Christian put Emily to work putting away our gear to give her something to distract her. It was slow going but we were able to walk back to the truck.

The kids made dinner while Christian tried to make me comfortable and distract me. I pretty much lived on the recliner for the next 5 days or so. Christian had to take the kids to school and pick them up while going to work in between. On the 5th day, I was finally able to drag myself into the car to pick up the kids so Christian could get more work in. It was all pretty traumatic but nothing was broken and I seemed to be getting better everyday...slowly but surely.