Weekend Whipper: Texas Climber Nearly Sends, Takes a Twenty-Footer Instead

Readers, please send us your Weekend Whipper videos using this form. 

When Yamini Karandikar roped up for Ghost of Johnny Reimers (5.12b), she knew what she was getting into.

The limestone sport route sits along the Pedernales River, near Austin, Texas. Although at 35 feet, it’s relatively short, it’s particularly known for its runout between the final bolt and the anchor.

“Getting comfortable with falling is something I’ve been working on the past six months,” Karandikar tells Climbing. “Without that effort and lots of practice falls, I would not have been able to try this route.”

We can see why. In this video, Karandikar makes her way up pockets, clipping each of the six bolts as she goes. She’s power grunting, holding her breath, and sending. Then she reaches what she calls “the last hard move.”

“I hesitated,” Karandikar confesses. As she slowly drags her left foot to a higher pocket, she loses her grip on the pockets and falls backward more than 20 feet, losing sight of the chains.

Karandikar’s fall, while heartbreaking for her send, is a straight-A example of how to take an enormous whip. Helmet? Check. Solid protection? Check–-she falls on a permadraw, and her belayer’s clearly engaging the rope. By the time she swings back into the wall, she’s facing it, with her knees bent to absorb the impact. Positioning? Check.

Still, she lands below her first bolt, just inches away from a dead bush.

“It was the furthest I’ve ever fallen,” says Karandikar, adding that on the very next day, she came back and sent the route. This time, she “didn’t hesitate at all” and clipped the chains.

Happy Friday, and be safe out there this weekend.

The post Weekend Whipper: Texas Climber Nearly Sends, Takes a Twenty-Footer Instead appeared first on Climbing.