If you haven’t already heard about it, this is a trip report of a “non-club trip” to do the multi-pitch ‘Bellbird Wall’ at Pulpit Rock on Saturday,26th of March 2016 . Participants were myself (Bayu), Stefan, Manon and Wen Jun. An accident occurred during this trip when a loose rock fell onto Manon, injuring her therefore necessitating the two of us to spend the night at the bottom of the cliff and be airlifted the next day. There are a series of challenges and lessons we’ve learned through our attempt to do Bellbird’s multipitch, and we hope this can be useful to raise safety awareness for ours and others future trips.
At Bellbird Wall, the start of the pitch lies 100m directly below the end of the track which starts from the Pulpit Road carpark. The abseil is divided into two points of consecutive abseils, approximately 50m each. On the first abseil point, we joined two ropes together with an overhand knot, and put it through the anchor which is two ring bolts on a boulder. This means it’s crucial for us to remember that we have to abseil with both ropes going through our belay device, and which end to pull after we completed the abseil, if we pull the wrong end, the overhand knot will be probably jammed into the ring bolts. We also tied a figure 8 knot as well at the end of both rope’s tails to make sure we won’t abseil all the way through.
Wen Jun abseiled first with self-belay prussik since there was nobody at the bottom to do fireman’s belay, followed then by Manon and myself. We checked each person’s safety and ensured everything was correct before starting to abseil, except of course for the person who will abseil last, and this is when we escaped our first near-fatality incident. As Manon, Wen Jun and myself watched Stefan unclip his safety and start to abseil, we heard him shout “HOLY SHIT!” followed by him climbing back up the rope to safety. We couldn’t see what actually happened and we waited, until he was ready to abseil again. Once he reached the bottom, he told us that after he unclipped his safety and was just about to abseil, he realised he only fed one rope through his belay device, and it was the wrong end. Fortunately, he realised that as soon as he was about to abseil, and grabbed both ropes with his hands and clipped himself back to safety. If he had failed to notice that sooner and started abseiling on the wrong end of the rope, we might have lost a member of our club.
The bright side is: Stefan, you’re alive, and you’re getting fined 🙂
FIRST LESSON we’ve learned, no matter how experienced and confident we are, it is very easy to forget one tiny detail, one tiny detail that can determine whether you’ll be able to come back alive from the trip or not. So next time, let’s double check or even triple check our safety before we start abseiling, test the weight before unclipping your safety.
Continuing to the second abseil, again we joined two ropes together with an overhand knot, fed it through the anchor of the second abseil point, which is another two ring bolts on the cliff’s wall. This second point of abseil are right next to the top end of the first pitch. We were standing on a tiny ledge and we could see the top anchor of the first pitch about 5 m on our right facing in. Now here comes the second challenge, after we set up the abseil and threw the rope down, according to Wen Jun, there might not be landing points if we abseil straight down from the abseil anchor, so the actual landing point might be directly below the first pitch’s top end anchor, which was 5 m on our right. We could walk there and set the anchor from that point, but we’d need a 5m safety sling if we were to be safe, which we didn’t have.
After further discussion, Wen Jun decided to walk over there carefuly, with both ropes on his ATC and self belay prusik. Once he reached the anchor, he clipped his safety onto one of the ring bolts, extended the anchor with another sling and a locking binner, and fed both ropes through the locking biner. Therefore, the ropes were being pulled to the left, through the first pitch’s top end anchor, and directly below it. We knew that this way we wouldn’t be able to pull the rope through at the end of the abseil because the overhand knot wouldnt fit through the second anchor, Wen Jun just wanted to check once he reached the bottom if we can actually abseil directly down from the abseil anchor. Once he reached the bottom, he confirmed that we can take off the rope from the second anchor, and he’ll use the fireman’s belay system to help us land on the correct spot.
Stefan set himself up to abseil next and walked carefully to take off the rope from the second anchor, however he found a new problem. Regardless Wen Jun is down there to secure and direct us with fireman’s belay, he’s concerned that the ropes might pull him back to the right as he abseil from where he is and he might swing and hit the cliff’s wall. The three of us discussed what we should do and Manon decided to place the rope a bit closer to the abseil’s original anchor, but not all the way so we could still be quite close to the landing point and wouldn't swing out. As Manon abseiled down, again we head another “HOLY SHIT!” from Stefan. Stefan pointed out that a quite big chunck of ground where the ropes sits was starting to lift up and could have potentially collapsed on Manon. Both of us quickly put a lot of pressure on the ropes to hold that piece of ground from collapsing, and we asked Manon to abseil gently and slowly. Good pick up Stefan! But yes, you're still getting fined though for that first abseil.
After Manon reached the bottom, Stefan moved the rope slightly to the right, so it was sitting on a more solid area next to it, and he abseiled down, followed by me. However, there was something that the two of us failed to realise. As we had moved the ropes only slightly to the right of the piece of ground that was lifted and about to collapse, as we abseiled down, the ropes slid back towards the unstable piece of ground and got pinched in a tiny gap, a recipe for rope jam. Yay...
For the next 45 mins, Wen Jun spend his time prussiking up 50m to see what’s going on at the top. This is the SECOND LESSON we learned. Knowing how to prussik up a rope, is an important skill. Lucky that Wen Jun and Stefan carry prussiks with them and know how to perform one. If none of us had known how to prussik up, we were definitely getting stuck there.
The beginning of the prussik up process was a bit challenging, Wen Jun struggled to move both the chest and leg loop up due to too much stretch in the ropes. He re-tried and adjusted the prusiks several times at the bottom, and he figured out in the end it would be easier if we put weight on the ropes and create a vertical tension, so Manon attached herself with her belay device and hanged onto the rope as Wen Jun prusiked up. Halfway during the process, I swapped with Manon so she could rest, and this is when the accident happens. From the beginning we went down that second abseil, all the way throughout Wen Jun’s prussiking up process, we did realise the area is full of loose rocks. These rocks can look pretty solid, until you touch it and it will collapse. I can remember different sizes of rocks fell off from time to time, from tiny pebbles like m&m's to as big as my birthday cakes (which are usually big). We always gave warnings and manage to avoided most of it. And we weren’t too concerned about it especially since we’re all standing under a tiny ledge that sticks out and protects us from rock falls, and this comfort zone took away our awareness.
At some point, Wen Jun accidently knocked down a big piece of rock. The rock was looking solid and just like any normal part of the cliff wall, so it was totally unexpected it can collapse just like that. Wen Jun shouted to warn us. His warning is what saved us in the end. Both me and Stefan were already under the ledge’s protection, but Manon was standing outside of that area. Hearing Wen Jun’s warning, Manon bend over for the ledge, but the rock still hit her shoulder and lower back, knocking her to the ground into my arms and Stefan’s. The next thing we head is Manon screaming in significant pain. At one point, We thought she’s about to faint, because her eyes were starting to loose focus and no matter how many times I asked her to look at me and stay focus she won’t respond. I got her attention in the end, and she looked at me, definitely still in shock.
The THIRD LESSON and FOURTH LESSON we learned, never stand in an area open to rock fall risk, and that first aid kit and knowledge is important. just three weeks before this trip. I attended a basic first aid training run by Kylie and Laura, and they covered exactly what happened that day: what to do when someone got hit by a falling object. I feel like I can see Kylie suddenly popped out of thin air, waving her index finger at me while saying: "When someone got hit by a falling rock (or any other object), and the impact is strong enough to knock them to the ground, DO NOT LET THEM MOVE, because they might suffer a head trauma or spine injury." Kylie warned us that an injured person can be quite persistent and confident they’re okay a few minutes after the injury because of the adrenaline effect, but until we’re sure they’re okay, which can be difficult since it might be internal injury, it’s best to keep them immobilize. So we did exactly like the training taught us. We laid Manon on her back and I ask Stefan to grab my emergency blanket. We rolled Manon halfway on her side, while supporting her neck and back, slide the blanket halfway, did it again on the other side, and with the blanket we carry her further under the ledge. Stefan and I examined her shoulder and back, pressing gently to see what’s hurt, and we suspect that the rock missed her spine, because we could see the bruises are located on the sides of her lower back and shoulder, but we still don’t know for sure.
About fifteen minutes later, Wen Jun released the jammed ropes and came down to us, by that time, Manon has already calmed down a bit, and she claimed to be okay and would like to climb the pitch. However we decided that would be too risky. We don’t know the extent of her injury, and I suspected the pain would creep back soon after she’s completely calm, so we split the team into two.since we had the ropes back Stefan and Wen Jun could climb the three pitches to get help, while I stayed with Manon until help could come. It was already 4pm and I was sure there was a big chance we would spend the night there, so we decided to leave essential equipment with Manon and myself in order to survive the night. Stefan and Wen Jun left all their jackets, beanies, food and one rope, I also had an emergency blanket.
We helped Manon move to the safer area, far from the abseil or climbing wall, and waited there. As Wen Jun and Stefan climbed up, I realised one lucky thing : Manon and I took a selfie before, which means, I had my phone. When I am climbing, I almost never take my phone with me, but this time, accidently I did. I took my phone out, and we’ve got a SOS signal, which means we could call emergency service, so we did.
It took a while to explain where we were exactly , because the rescue team needed as many informations we can give about our whereabouts. They asks where did we park our car, what suburb, where is the nearest crossroads, which lookout is the closest, which track, how far down, they ask so many questions that Manon, starting to feel annoyed says “Bayu just tell the lady to google it!”
Approx 2 hours later, the rescue team arrived at the top of the first abseil point, they arrived exactly when Stefan and Wen Jun top out the last pitch, so they can give direct update of the situation. Stefan and Wen Jun inform our emergency contacts, even though Manon’s father was already on his way to search for her because she told them that we’re supposed to be back at 6, and if not, something’s wrong.
Meanwhile at the bottom, Manon’s adrenaline effect is wearing off, and she’s feeling a lot of pain and starts shivering. She can’t move anymore but she’s still conscious, just in a lot of pain. Soon after, the rescue team sent a helicopter to scout the area, and but decid it’s impossible to perform an extraction from where we are, because it’s too close to the cliff, and the grounds are too unstable. So they send down a paramedic and the rescue team leader to treat Manon. From that point, we had to abseil down another 50m below to a safer area. The paramedic perform a tandem abseil with Manon. The rescue team leader asked me if I am confident to abseil myself, and I said yes so he sent me down alone.
After we reached the bottom, there was another paramedic waiting for us. They put Manon in a stretcher, gave her morphine (she stopped moaning, started giggling again and asked me if we can play games like charades or memory game, I am so glad she’s okay I’ll play soccer with her if that makes her happy). The original plan the paramedics had was to extract us straight away, but the aircraft crew decided it’s too risky to do it in the dark, so we have no choice but to spend the night. The rescue team set up a camp under a big rock that would protect us from rain and wind, lit up a fire and hung some glow sticks, gave me a blanket and we spend the night there. The next morning the helicopter came back and airlifted us one by one. Manon and one paramedic was airlifted first and taken to the hospital, and they came back for me and the rest of the crew half an hour later. When I landed on the helipad in Blackheath, the first thing I see is Manon’s Dad, holding a camera and tells me “Hey Bayu! Look at the camera! Smiiileeee!” and that’s the moment I know we’ve passed the storm.
In summary of the down side, the whole epic day was a combination of pure accident but also a little lack of awareness of the terrain. The rock fall was an accident, however we shouldn’t have hang around either knowing the area is open to rock fall risk.
On the bright side, I believe everybody in the trip maintained a good teamwork and each contribute important skills and role to save the day. Wen Jun had the most knowledge and experience of the area, also regarding multi-pitch climbing and prussik techniques. Stefan picks up on a lot of missing tiny details quickly, and very precautious. Manon was the one who remembers to inform her parents about our trip and regardless the unfortunate accident that she had to experience, maintain a positive and calm attitude. I’ve done my informal basic first aid training, I also talked a lot, which either helped Manon from being distracted from her pain or just making her feel ridiculously annoyed :p
In the end, we summarise these are the main important lessons we’ve picked up along the way
- Knowing how to make a prussik and use it for either self belay or ascending is important, especially when you’re dealing with abseils and climbing
- Wear your helmets! And stay out of areas open to rock falls risk, if you have no choice, be aware all the time and give warnings as soon as you notice a rock is falling
- Take your time and do you safety check before performing an abseil or climbing, double or even triple check, investing a few extra minutes as long as it will secure your safety is worthed.
- Inform your emergency contacts before you go on any trip. Inform them who are you going with, when, where exactly, how long, when you should be back and when they should worry
- Always carry an emergency communication device, a PLB, EPIRB or as simple as your phone
- First aid skill and kit is important, injuries and accidents can occurs very unexpectedly especially in outdoor activities
- Doing a proper research of the area you’re going to explore is important. Read track notes, ask people who has done it before and what are the important notes about the area
PS: Special thanks to Vicky for picking me up from train station and drove me home, my wallet was in Manon's car so I had to beg for spare changes to people in order to buy bus ticket, but nobody's willing to give me anything because I probably looked dodgy