Experienced ice climber describes Jan. 9 accident in Cascade Pass
By Phil Brown
On what started as a normal day, Bob Emery dropped off his 4-year-old daughter at daycare and drove to Cascade Pass to meet Bobby O’Connor and three Northwood School students at an ice-climbing cliff known as Pitchoff Right.
A guidebook describes Pitchoff Right as “the single most hacked, chopped, gang-roped piece of ice in the park.” It’s a popular place to practice, given the variety of climbing options and the ease of setting up a top rope.
“I probably have done that climb more than any other,” said Emery, 38, a seasoned climber and a math teacher at Northwood, a private school in Lake Placid.
This time, however, something went badly wrong. When Emery got to the cliff, O’Connor – the director of the school’s outing club – was part-way up the wall. Emery tied into a rope and started up a different part of the cliff. Both were belayed by students.
To protect against a fall, Emery twisted in an ice screw and clipped the rope when he got about 12 feet up. He then continued climbing. After another 12 feet or so, he stopped to put in a second ice screw. Suddenly he fell to the ground, striking his forehead against a rock and suffering a concussion. Though he wore a helmet, it did not protect the area of impact.
“I don’t remember anything from choosing the screw until I was in a litter,” Emery told the Explorer.
Another party at the cliff called 911. State forest rangers and Keene firefighters responded and lowered Emery down an icy slope to an ambulance. He was driven to a nearby helicopter, which had landed on the road, and flown to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. Tests revealed he had fractured his skull.
Two weeks after the Jan. 9 accident, Emery was still recovering at his Saranac Lake home. He didn’t need surgery, but until the fractures mend, he avoids activities that could aggravate his injuries or bring on headaches. Doctors even told him not to sneeze – a directive that can be hard to follow. “I have sneezed a few times. It feels like my head is going to explode,” he said.
What happened?
What caused the fall is a mystery. While twisting in the second screw with one hand, Emery gripped an ice ax with his other hand, the pick planted in the ice. He theorizes that the ax dislodged, perhaps due to a slight shift in body position, leading to the fall. His belayer, a Northwood junior with climbing experience, did nothing wrong, according to Emery.
O’Connor heard Emery yell “Falling!” and turned to see his friend plummeting to the ground, more or less in a horizontal position. O’Connor lowered at once to assess Emery’s injuries. He and the students packed their spare clothing around Emery to keep him warm. After a minute or so, Emery came to and tried to stand, though he has no memory of this. “Bob was on the helicopter within an hour of the fall, which is amazing,” O’Connor said.
When O’Connor phoned Northwood, school officials jumped into action. One administrator drove to the cliff right away, while another headed to the Vermont hospital. When the three students returned to campus, they were greeted by the school psychologist and debriefed. O’Connor praised the on-the-scene reactions of the students, who had been trained in wilderness first-aid and rescue. “It was a silver lining to see their training pay off,” he said.
The accident could have been prevented if Emery had hiked to the top of the cliff and set up a top rope rather than leading the climb. But because the climb was well within his ability, he did not feel he was taking a risk. A ground fall might also have been prevented if he had put in a second screw sooner. But again, given the ease of the climb, he did not think himself in danger. “At that grade [of difficulty] I should be able to stop and place a screw anywhere,” he remarked.
Emery, who grew up in Connecticut, took up rock and ice climbing after moving to the Adirondacks in 2007. He expects to climb again, but it’s too early to tell how the accident will affect his attitude. He’s grateful for the support of his family, friends and the Northwood community.
“Climbing has always been a private, meditative thing for me,” he said. “The hard part of this accident is how it affected my family, my school, my climbing partners.”
Thanks to Phil Brown for this clear-eyed account of the January 9th ice climbing accident at Pitchoff. It also brings back some unsettling flashbacks to me from similar events during my fourteen years as a ranger lieutenant serving in the High Peaks region.
Phil’s story needs to be told and retold, read and reread, to remind all of us who live and recreate in these vast Adirondack wildlands to be careful, and to be adequately prepared. Caution is always best, but nevertheless, bad things can-and do-happen, despite our best efforts to prevent them.
When accidents happen, we must always be ready to respond effectively to the situation at hand. Thanks to the forest rangers and to the legions of emergency and support persons who assist during these emergencies. They are the best!
As Phil would likely agree, the best accident is one that never happens. Let’s all try to keep it that way.
I agree – accidents are just that – accidental and unpredicted. We can’t always avoid them, or point a finger at a mistake or failure. But this story turned out well because the climber was experienced enough to have people around him that were able to respond to something unforeseen happening. THAT is critical to climbing safety – and even hiking safety. I am glad the situation turned out as well as it did. KUDOS to all involved and the rescue teams!
Concussions are no joke. I felt that when he said he sneezed and it felt like his head was going to explode and you can’t even begin to describe to what magnitude it actually feels like. It was a long recovery, it was like my brain was a computer rebooting all of my systems. In my prayers,I wish you a speedy recovery!
I lived on my grandmother’s farm in Clayburg on Standish Rd. for many Summers. The love of the Adirondacks is in my blood. My ancestors settled there in the late 1800s after leaving Ireland due to the Potato Famine.
Poor anchor choices. Place first anchors off belay close together at first. Basic climbing knowledge.
After a career in NY civil-service, I wish to advise everyone that what happened to Bob Emery was an INCIDENT. The event is NOT an ‘accident’ until investigated and concluded thus by ‘competent expert(s)’ — e.g. It’s a motor-vehicle COLLISION, until an investigator declares it an unavoidable accident, or a preventable occurrence. — More importantly, glad that sneeze-adverse Bob is on his path to recovery! We need good clear-headed teachers. 🙂
Thank goodness the outcome was not a tragedy! Wishing you continued recovery, Bob, hope to see you back in the saddle in the future. Thank you and Phil for sharing so we can all learn. There are a lot of lessons to extract. I haven’t seen anyone mention belay training specifically for leading. (See AAC Universal Belay Standard: Lead Belaying on YouTube.) Having said that, I’m now considering how different our ice leading environment is, compared to rock. An ice leader may not count on their belayer to be as mobile and dynamic as a rock belayer, with crampons on their boots, and with all sizes of ice chunks as tripping (and falling) hazards. So ice leaders should have reasonable expectations of what their belayers can and cannot do, and plan to compensate to minimize risks. For example, place screws to allow for rope stretch so that a static belay will still prevent a ground fall.
And use ice tools – ice axes are for mountaineers! (;^)