Quebec | Mixed Progression

For my birthday I wanted to go to St. Alban, Quebec and get some early drytooling in before Bozeman. Day one was cold and we moved slow. Day two I got on Hysterie a couple of times and worked out all the moves, but didn’t quite have it in me to redpoint after spending the day out in the cold.

Hysterie – M9-

Day three I wanted to redpoint something more than my warm ups. Nathan had to do some work on route at the end cave and I started scoping out Plaquee Or, an M8+ on the far left. First go could have been better. There were good holds, but you needed to find them among the bad holds there. It was also steeper than I expected and I need more practice climbing at that angle. It could have been worse though, I worked my way to the top, checking out holds to try to redpoint 2nd attempt.

Next time up I was getting pumped a lot quicker. But I managed the two figure-4s I needed and put my feel into a horizontal crack to get a rest.

My tools were all mixed up though. Last time up I had clipped from this position. I felt my right tool was good, but I needed to get my left hand on the upper grip, a position already occupied by my right hand. The left tool that I placed in order to readjust definitely felt skatey, but I went with it. Big mistake! During the adjustment and a bit of flailing I popped off, with my feet still in the crack.

I wailed as my left foot got stuck. My last clip was still above the crack and I pulled myself up a little on my side of the rope to alleviate pressure on my foot. Things happened fast, but they also were in slow motion. I needed to figure out how to let got of the rope without dropping myself any more so Nathan could pull me up. A tool would have been handy, but I had dropped both of them. I’m not sure what I eventually grabbed, but I was able to let go of my end of the rope and Nathan could take up my weight.

We had been talking how the back spikes of my crampons were nothing but in the way. This is what jammed in the rock on my left boot when I fell. I fell so hard I bent the spike.

We had an 8 hour drive home from Quebec. Nathan was pretty cranky that he had to drive the whole way, but I wasn’t going to be able to work the clutch with my ankle, especially not through Montreal traffic. By the time I got home my ankle looked like this:

We decided to get a good nights sleep and visit Urgent Care in the morning. First check in, then X-Rays. The doctor came over about half an hour after the X-Rays and led me over to the casting room. My heart sank. I only have a “possible” fracture, but they put a temp cast on me anyway.