Rock Climber Critically Injured After Fall On Virginia’s Afton Mountain
Posted by Jason A. Hendricks on September 2, 2008 |
Rock climber John Higginbotham is in critical condition tonight after taking a 40 foot fall on Virginia’s Afton Mountain. The fall occured on a very technical part of the mountain and authorities are attributing the fall to equipment malfunction. It is not known what piece of equipment authorities are referring to, at his time.
John Higginbotham’s climbing partner phoned 911after the fall. Rescue crews were on the scene within minutes and had to extract Higginbotham from the side of the mountain, bring him up to the top, then air lift him to the University of Virginia Medical Center. His condition at this time is not known, other than he is listed in critical condition. I will have to update more when further information is available.
Let’s keep John in our thoughts and prayers. These accidents are always tough to deal with, especially when it may involve no fault of the climber. Equipment malfunction is quite rare, but it does happen occasionally-I am sure more will be known over the next few hours, and we all hope that John can pull through –
I wanted to thank Jason Hendricks for his kind words. The prayers are more than likely the reason I’m recovering as well as I am. The climb at Raven’s Roost was actually closer to 60 feet. I fractured my femur and split my pelvis in half. I’m having some radiating nerve pain but I’m ahead of schedule with my therapy and was able to go 50% weight-bearing 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I should make a full recovery.
As far as the climb, I had reached the top of the climb but wasn’t able to traverse the last ledge which is one of the more technical parts of the climb. As I let go to be belayed down, my belay device failed sending me to bottom. Fortunately, I don’t remember the fall.
Thanks again to Jason.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Thank-you very much for stopping by, Jon. The update is much appreciated. Thank-you for the kind words. I am glad to hear that you are doing better and that you should be able to make a full recovery. That is a scary incident and I didn’t even go through it…
What type of belay device were you using? Have you notified them of the malfunction? It would be interesting to know what they had to say about this, and whether this problem has occurred previously.
When I cover mountains like Mt. Everest, or K2, we are talking thousands of meters to the top. You fell approximately 60 feet. I know that might not sound like a big fall to my readers, but believe me, lesser falls have certainly killed people. Luckily Jon, medical help was on the scene in a very short time.
Once again, thanks for stopping by with the update and glad to hear that the prayers are slowly bringing you back around.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:40 pm