POV: You’re Trad Climbing and Take a Terrifying Fall (He’s OK)

“Sometimes you send and most of the time you don’t, and sometimes you take a good whip,” reads the caption on a video showing a trad climber taking a frightening fall. The climber is Casey Dubois, and he is “totally okay,” according to the video posted to Whipper’s Instagram page. The account posts whippers and assorted falls. (A “whipper” is a big fall climbers take.)

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The caption identifies Dubois as a trad climber, meaning he’s carrying and placing protection rather than clipping into pre-placed bolts, which is what you do in sport climbing. Typically, trad climbers are more reluctant to fall on their own anchors, whereas sport climbers might think less of repeated falls as they work through a tough maneuver.

In the video, Dubois’ fingers slip and he takes a vertical tumble, bouncing off the sheer cliff face as he falls. His anchor holds, but this fall looks absolutely terrifying.

Watch a trad climber fall here: