Accident on Zebra Zion: Fall on Morning Glory Wall

You can just spot the climbers on a ledge right in the middle of Morning Glory Wall. Photo: Vaqas Malik.

by Sarah Bradham

It was Sunday, May 4. The Advanced Rock class had been in full swing for two months. This would be the second weekend the students would spend at Smith Rock State Park honing their lead-climbing skills. The day dawned sunny and clear and Forrest Koran, an AR student, headed out to the Morning Glory wall with Noon Pokaratsiri, his instructor for the day.

The plan was to climb Zebra Zion (the entire route is called Zion, combining Zebra and Lion’s Chair, but it is routinely referred to as Zebra Zion—our own Jeff Thomas holds the first ascents of these routes), a very popular and well-known multi-pitch trad route. There are a few variations, and Forrest chose the 5.6 traverse sport route to start. They were feeling lucky that the area wasn’t overly crowded, even though it was typically a pretty popular one.

The first two pitches were uneventful. The second pitch is considered the crux, with a 5.10 roof right off the belay, then a nice 5.8 hand-to-fist crack.

As they moved up to pitch 3, Forrest and Noon, in a bit of foreshadowing, talked about a rescue “scenario” they had run through in the classroom portion of AR. It was based on the 3rd pitch of this route—a very run-out knobby traverse. They both agreed that executing a rescue here would not be very fun.

Making their way up to pitch 4 involved climbing up a slab to a bolted anchor. Forrest set out on the final pitch, leading onto a traverse leftwards from the anchor, before the route would turn upward once again.
The first part of the pitch seemed heavily chalked up and very polished. He was feeling tentative at this point. He had gotten in two pieces. The first, a black Alien, and the second, two lobes of a size .3 BD x4. He chose to protect with small cams over nuts out of concern over dislodging gear in a pendulum fall. The first piece was okay. The second piece was psych pro at best. He was 15 feet from his belayer and had just pulled up onto a ledge to stand on.

After the fall. Waiting for rescue. Photo: Vaqas Malik.

He doesn’t know what happened next, but he remembers falling. And hitting the slab below. The pieces had pulled. He was hanging on the low-angle slab just below the bolt anchor where he started pitch four. He started conversing with Noon. He was in an out. His mind was a little muddled. He didn’t remember losing consciousness but Noon, a trauma nurse (just the kind of person you want to have on hand in an accident), told him he had been unresponsive for five minutes. He dangled 30 feet below Noon. When the accident happened, she had the presence of mind to lock off the belay while finding her phone and calling 911. Rescue was activated. Now came the waiting game.

Forrest doesn't remember having pain. There was a lot of blood coming from his elbow but he wasn’t particularly concerned about that. It was his ankle that he was worried about. Although it didn’t hurt, it looked swollen and seemed to be at an odd angle. He was a little nervous about his spine. Had he hit hard enough to do damage?

Behind the scenes the rescue mechanism was in action. A hasty team of two rescuers raced up Cocaine Gully and one rapped down from the top. Once on scene, the rescuer strapped Forrest’s neck into a C-collar and stayed with him for the duration of the rescue.

Forrest began to experience pain from his harness. He had been hanging for two hours before the first rescuer was on scene. Even though he was on a relatively low angle wall, all his weight was still on the harness. The leg loops were cutting into his legs and there was a significant amount of pressure around his waist. The rescuer helped him get a foot stirrup setup so he could stand up on his good leg and take some pressure off his harness. This was an incredible relief.

Meanwhile, the larger rescue party was heading up Misery Ridge. Once at the top of the pitch they drilled several bolts and set up a 7-1 haul system and, using a 600-foot rope, the extrication from the wall began. They lowered down a litter, packaged Forrest inside, strapped him down and then lowered the litter to the base of the wall.

The CAMP helmet cracked, just as it should, on impact.

It will be retired as will the cams.

From the time of the accident to the time he was at the base of the wall was five hours.

Now came the evac debate—ground or helicopter? While he had been unresponsive for five minutes, since coming to he was cognizant of his surroundings and the situation. Forrest didn’t think his injuries were that severe. He was concerned about the cost of a helicopter ride. He advocated for a ground rescue.

However, in the end it was decided to fly him out. Six hours after the accident he was at St. Charles Hospital in Bend. He was evaluated, run through CT scans and x-rays, bandaged up and released within four hours of arriving at the hospital.

Forrest spent two weeks on crutches with a sprained ankle and had a bandaged elbow. He suffered a minor concussion from the fall. His CAMP helmet cracked upon impact and protected his head. It will be retired, along with the Alien and x4 cam that popped when he fell.

Upon reviewing the accident he’s still not completely sure what went wrong. Looking back he feels as though he had spent very little time climbing outside in the months leading up to AR, instead spending his time during the winter months in the rock gym. He was not as experienced in the outdoors as he was indoors and his judgement for evaluating routes and hazards had yet to be fully honed.

He had been tentative setting out on the fourth pitch traverse. He remembers the route looked more polished than he was comfortable with. He had a very difficult time finding cam placements and he knew that his pieces weren’t good. They were better than nothing, but he wasn’t confident in them. Properly extended, he thinks that passive gear would likely have been more secure. When he pulled up on the ledge it’s possible that his foot slipped on the polished rock and then he was in free fall.

His takeaways from the event are that he wants to step back a bit in grade and get more experience outdoors. He knows he’s a strong climber. He’ll get out to Smith again starting in June. He’ll tackle some 5.7s and 5.8s. He’ll follow. He’ll learn more, honing not only his technical skills but his comfort on rock.
He has plans this summer to get some time in at Leavenworth before attempting the East Ridge of Forbidden Peak. If that goes well, he hopes to tackle the Torment-Forbidden traverse in late season. And there’s a rock route on Mt. Stuart that is calling his name.

As Forrest looks towards his future plans and goals he said, “some things are more dangerous than others, and I’ll be thinking harder about what’s worth doing for the position or the quality of climbing.. I’ll also be more willing to punt leads to a more experienced partner when I’m not confident that I can protect adequately.”