Back on topic: I took two work colleagues ? complete newbies ? to SWCC for the weekend, and we went into OFD I. They negotiated the stream with no problem, and when we got to Lowe?s Chain I told them to wait while I climbed up and rigged a ladder and lifeline for them. As I turned round at the top, Colleague 1 (6ft 3in, built like brick outhouse, pretty fit), said ?I reckon I can do that?. I told him to wait where he was but before I could even get the ladder out of the tackle bag he?s hauling himself over the lip.
Colleague 2 (5ft 8in, weedy, not very fit), clearly feeling the pressure, says ?I can do that?. Knowing that he can?t, (and keen to spare his blushes) I tell him forcefully that I?m going to rig it for him and that he should wait, but he?s determined and, to be fair, he gets to the top before I can even unravel the ladder. Just as I reach out to haul him over the lip by his belay belt, he vanishes and there?s a sickening noise as he hits the deck. I peer over and he?s lying in a crumpled heap at the bottom.
I?m thinking: how am I going to initiate a call-out? What if he?s unconscious? What if he?s broken both legs? Or his spine? Or his neck? What if he?s paralysed? But after what seems like ages (but was probably no more than five seconds) he gets up, dusts himself down, and waits rather sheepishly while I rig the ladder and lifeline and get him up. He makes it round the rest of the trip, with no problem, but owns up later in the week that he has a bruise the size of a dinner plate on his backside, and couldn?t walk for two days. He?s nagged me since to take him again, too.
I still break out into a cold sweat at the mental image of him in a heap on the floor, though.