I Got My Head Stuck in an Offwidth. Here’s How I Got It Out.

One hundred feet above the ground, I found myself stuck headfirst in Flavor Blasted (5.13-) in Moab, Utah.

This past summer, I have been training in my Moab garage for Century Crack (5.14b), a monster offwidth roof crack in the White Rim. Every four weeks or so, my partner and I have been climbing an offwidth outside to stay sharp. The crack trainer is great, but we wanted to make sure we were strong not just in the simulator, but on real rock.

That deload week, after hitting our training goals, we decided to try a local offwidth we hadn’t done yet, Flavor Blasted (5.13-). It’s a horizontal roof crack with shade, and it looked like a good challenge that wouldn’t totally wreck us for the next training week.

Flavor Blasted starts in a tight, awkward chimney below a long roof about the size of a #6 cam. The horizontal roof dips down before it expands into a number 7 cam size. Toward the end, as the roof turns vertical, it widens into size 8 territory for about 30 feet up to the anchors.

Climbing in Moab in July isn’t ideal, but we live here. You can’t change the weather, you just seek shade, hydrate, and do your best.

Getting Stuck

The common beta is to chicken-wing above the anchor, invert into the sixes, then layback the roof, making progress by pulling on holds along the left wall. After shuffling far enough into the sevens, you reach a hand jam, re-orient upright, and head into the tight vertical chimney.

I tried that beta on my first go that day, but it didn’t feel great for me. I have small feet, so instead of going feet first, I often do better leading headfirst with my upper body in tight,size-6 roofs, then progressing forward using a combination of arm bars, gastons, and leg bars. This route also had great footholds on the left wall, so I could push off those while driving my right shoulder into the opposite side of the crack. It felt much more efficient for my body, so I went with that beta.

The downside was that instead of skipping the tight, initial transition zone by inverting, I had to go through it. On my second go, I was adjusting beta and trying to stay tight to the wall when my head scraped along the interior and… wedged.

Right above my ears. Like a perfectly placed nut.

At first, I tried to stay quiet and work it out. I shifted forward, backward, up, down. Nothing. Finally, I said it out loud.

“This is new. My head is really stuck.”

Don’t Panic

I’ve learned that panicking never helps. Thrashing would only get me more stuck, so I stayed calm and focused on my breathing. I bumped a cam closer and higher above me and clipped my Petzl Connect Adjust to it.. My goal was to make sure I didn’t wedge myself into the constriction in a worse way.

I pulled the tether tight so I could rest. I love the Connect Adjust. It’s great for back-cleaning roofs, working beta, and in this case, precise emergency tethering.

I didn’t want my belayer to take, since the climbing rope might pull my body in a direction I couldn’t control with my head stuck. I reminded myself: If I got it in, I can get it out. That mantra helped me stay logical.

I tried shifting again, still no movement. Then I remembered to tilt my head.

That gave just enough clearance. I slipped free.

Watch Eden stay calm and dislodge her skull from the rock:

After hanging in my harness for a moment, it felt right to keep going. The plan was to refine the beta to avoid that same pinch point, so I back-aided to the belay. After a ten-minute rest, I sent the route clean using the same torso-first, non-inverted beta, this time remembering to duck my head.

Reflection

A helmet would have prevented my head from fitting in that tight space, but it also might’ve made the rest of the route impossible to fit. The vertical section is so tight it could’ve been a liability, which is why I chose to go without in the first place. In retrospect, maybe the only real lesson is this: Don’t climb offwidths.

If something goes wrong, breathe. Stay calm. Self-rescue is the best rescue if you can manage it.

Ideally, you don’t get stuck in the first place. Helmets are cool, and I would’ve preferred my helmet to get stuck versus my skull. But if you do get stuck, keep your cool, and maybe you’ll wiggle free.

The post I Got My Head Stuck in an Offwidth. Here’s How I Got It Out. appeared first on Climbing.