This one could have been real bad.  My brothers were in for a visit and I wanted to introduce them to my new found passion of rock climbing.  Neither were very interested in climbing but did agree to drive with me to the Leavenworth area to give it a try.  We ended up at a place that was very popular with beginning climbers.  We may have done a little top-roping on one side of the road and then moved to the other where there were some more difficult routes.  As I recall this particular route starts out as a wide crack/chimney and then turns into a small hand crack.  At the top, you have a sloping foot stance and a decent under cling for your hands.  You have to hold onto the under cling with one hand while reaching over the top of a little bulge feeling around for the hand hold on top.  Once you have it you can release the under cling and do a little sloping mantle move over the top.

I had climbed this route several times on a top-rope.  However, for some unknown ego fueled reason, I decided to solo the climb (without rope) with my brothers sitting at the bottom watching.  I made it up to the last move and had set myself to reach over the top for the last hold.  In a blink of an eye both hands came off the under cling.  The stance is one where you are pushing up with your legs in order to lock you hands/arms in place.  As such, my legs pushed me up and away from the rock as soon as I lost the handhold.  This wasn't a very long route so I figure that I was falling from about 30' to 40' off the deck.  That would have been enough but what made it worse was that the landing was definitely a "killer".  There was a large block of stone at the base of the climb and it had a sharp exposed edge right in my fall zone.  Landing across it would have a devastating effect on any person's spine.

My mind blacked-out as soon as my fingers peeled off their hold.  My brain started working again a couple seconds later when I found myself hanging from a rope lower and off to the side from where I had lost my grip.  I had no idea how I go there and still to this day can not remember what happened.  According my younger brother, my legs started working as soon as the fall began and I essentially walked across the face of the rock as I was falling.  I traversed the 10' or 12' to where a rope had been placed and had simply grabbed it and hung on.  According to Z it all looked so controlled and easy going that he thought it was no big deal.  I don't even recall seeing the rope but I must have and my brain remembered where it was.  The other part to this is that my friend Rob had placed the rope earlier in case we wanted to climb this route.  Instead of setting up a top-rope and walking away he had for some reason tied the rope off.  That meant that it didn't just run through the anchor, dropping me to the dirt, when I grabbed it.  Just another little detail that kept me from splitting open like an over-ripe melon right in front of my brothers.

Up next... tying my shoes nearly causes a much longer fall.