Climbing Narcissist » Injury

A Not So Merry Christmas For Patxi Usobiaga

Narc — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:34:15 +0000

Via Kairn is this unfortunate news that Patxi Usobiaga added his name to the already long list of 2009 shoulder blow-ups.

A Not So Merry Christmas For Patxi Usobiaga from Climbing Narcissist

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Beth Rodden On The Road To Recovery

Narc — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:24:43 +0000

Coming off a successful 2008 in which she redpointed her hardest route, Meltdown (5.14 trad), Beth Rodden has been mostly under the radar in 2009 as far as the online climbing world is concerned. As the title of this post indicates, this update is unfortunately not about her doing something noteworthy out on the rocks. Rather, it’s to share news that Rodden joined a growing list of well-known climbers to have surgery on their shoulders in 2009.

Writing on the Petzl blog, Rodden shares the progression of her injury the past 6 months that ultimately led to her decision to have surgery:

I tore my labarum in June of 2009 while bouldering in Yosemite. The boulder problem that I tore it on is fun, but far from spectacular or memorable, which seems to be typical for me (I tore my ligament in my finger on the purple problem on my woody). But, none the less, I found myself deciding to rest for 6 weeks and then try and rehab and climb with the labarul tear. I went on an amazing trip to South Africa and thought I was coming back stronger than ever until I hurt a pulley on the opposite hand. While trying to favor the left hand and the right shoulder, I realized that my shoulder prevented me from climbing a variety of styles. Yes, I could climb vertical finger cracks, where my hands were always in front of me, but as soon as I tried wide cracks, gastons or steep climbing, my shoulder held me back, and I was faced with a very tough decision.

One thing that I have always envisioned in my life is climbing. Ever since I started climbing fifteen years ago, I cannot imagine a future without some sort of climbing. And in the end, I decided that longevity of climbing in my life far outweighed the six months or a year this might take me to recover from.

I emphasize that last part because I think it’s a particularly salient point. The struggle between resting more vs. climbing through an injury is something I think we’ve all dealt with. Surgery is the worse case scenario obviously, but in some cases it is the best long-term option as Rodden points out.

Here is a brief video Rodden put together about her surgical experience. Don’t click play if you are averse to seeing medical situations.

Best of luck to Beth in her recovery.

BTW, while surgery sucks those warm blankets they give you during surgery are amazing!

Beth Rodden On The Road To Recovery from Climbing Narcissist

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Pro Climber Injury Update

Narc — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:40:23 +0000

It’s no secret that I’ve had my fair share of climbing injuries over the years. Being injured is something I’m actually pretty good at if there is such a thing. Given my predilection for spending time on the disabled list, I’m especially sympathetic to other climbers who are forced to take time off in order to recover from an injury be they professional climbers or not.

While climbing injuries happen can happen to anyone at anytime, 2009 has been an especially bad year for a few pro climbers who suffered injuries that make my knee injury earlier this year look benign by comparison. Urban Climber caught up with injured climbers Dave Graham, Chris Webb Parsons, Ethan Pringle and Angie Payne to see how they are recovering from their busted ankles and shoulders. There are some valuable lessons to be learned from reading their stories, especially the fact that Webb Parsons has had to dole out over $15,000 due to not having insurance at the time of his injury!

Urban Climber Injury Update

Pro Climber Injury Update from Climbing Narcissist

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Be Careful What You (Sort Of) Wish For

Narc — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:35:24 +0000

As climbers we spend most of our time concerned about avoiding injuries to our precious upper body extremities, most obviously our hands. Injuries to seemingly non-essential climbing tools like our legs are usually not at the forefront of our minds. In fact, last year I often argued with Mrs. Narc that I would MUCH rather have a leg injury than an arm injury. I was pretty emphatic about it really. This was at the time that she was spending 6 weeks on the couch with a broken ankle so she was nonplussed to say the least. After the events of last week in Rocktown, I’m starting to come around to her point.

Concerned with getting the most mileage out of my injured finger and non-existent skin, I didn’t do much warming up at the beginning of a day of climbing at Rocktown. I spent a few minutes doing jumping jacks to stay warm while the rest of the crew worked The Orb, and when we moved to the Sherman Photo roof I got right down to business.

Sticking the last move on Nose Candy

Problem one, Nose Candy, went down in short order and I moved 5 feet to the right to try Sherman Photo Roof. Sherman Photo starts on a large jug and moves to two pretty poor crimps on a roof. The key (for me) to using these crimps is a really good heel hook on the starting jug. I was actually surprised how good the heel hook was and I nearly flashed the problem.

Feeling pretty pumped (the good kind), I pulled on for a second go. Pull on the start hold, reach up left to 1st miserable crimp, right foot lodged firmly behind the start hold, pull like hell with my right leg and then…POP…POP. As I collapsed on the pad the rest of the crew ran for cover as they thought we were taking enemy gunfire. Well, not really, but they were a bit confused as to where this noise had come from.

Unfortunately, the noise came from my knee, and I spent the rest of the trip hobbling around looking for problems that didn’t require much use of the right leg (there are quite a few actually). Back home I was resistant to the idea of seeking medical attention due to my propping up the entire health care industry in 2008 with my frequent trips to the Doctor. However, I finally succumbed and sought help in the form of an MRI for which the results are still pending. Apparently I might have torn my meniscus a disruption to my LCL, but I remain stubbornly optimistic.

The moral of the story is that despite the amount of time we dedicate to keeping our precious fingers, elbows and shoulders in tact it is just as important to make sure the rest of our bodies don’t fall apart either. It’s not that hard to drive to your job that pays for your climbing trips with a blown tendon, but a busted up leg is another story.

To drive home this point, here is a great video I came across from Jason Kehl. It’s from a 2003 PCA comp in Salt Lake City, UT where he tears his ACL dismounting from a problem but perseveres to finish the comp. Unfortunately it looks like Kehl is still having problems even 6 years later!

This is what happen to me… from Cryptochild on Vimeo.

Be Careful What You (Sort Of) Wish For from Climbing Narcissist

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