Friend fell 40ft, soliciting

[ex-powderbroker]

My buddy Pierce and I went climbing outdoors for the first time together, at the Gunks. He isn't a close friend, exactly, but I always felt close because of the experience. Even then he was way out of my league climbing-wise having worked at BKB for at least a year and could smoke me. And when he gets out of this hospital bed and recovered (fingers crossed) he probably still will. But, he took a hudge fall, and with that his life has dramatically shifted.

Pierce is kind of a throw-back hippy. Maybe that isn't very original these days, but he was riding his motorcycle to mexico to climb for a couple months while living in a tent before moving to Reno to learn how to be a professional rigger. I doubt he would have made it back to NYC after learning to ski at Mt. Rose, but those were his plans last I saw him, this September near Horseman.

Unlike a lot of hippies, Pierce never annoyed me, and he was always a blast to see at the gym and crag, and his pictures always got me super stoked to go.

This guy has absolutely no connection to TGR whatsoever, but he's a solid dude and if you felt like throwing him a few bucks it wouldn't be the worst money you ever spent. Either way, thought I'd dig up a few of those pics and throw them up here. Hopefully he heals soon. Falls obviously can and will happen, so no matter what this one already has a happy ending as far as I'm concerned.

beware, some ec climbing from the familiar places:












http://www.gofundme.com/ilut14?fb_ac...fb_ref=fb_cr_n

[raueda1]

Sorry about your buddy. Just doing a reality check here. Are you saying that you guys never climbed outside before?

[Tye 1on]

-donated-

[Gman]

Where/how did he fall?

[cat in january]

Must be a tough guy to survive a fall from that height. Enjoyed the East Coast climbing photos. Looks like the roof I did at the Gunks way, way back in the day.

[ex-powderbroker]

Sorry about your buddy. Just doing a reality check here. Are you saying that you guys never climbed outside before?

Sorry, this was not well written on my part. Our first day of climbing together was on 4-20-12. I was working as a hiking guide at the time and my company took any and all Brooklyn Boulders staff to the gunks as a corporate retreat day for them. We had never climbed on ropes, me at all. I believe he had previously been a boulderer for awhile, leading him at some point to employment at climbing gyms in general.

Some months after that, I got my first pair of shoes while he dropped out of city life to move to New Paltz and climb full time. Now I'm rad (not really) and he had gotten to the point of superhuman (really).

The cause I believe was human error on the part of the belayer. IE, dropped.