Trip Report
Helicopter rescue in the south of France
Saturday November 29, 2014 9:16am
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David C
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About the Author David C is a trad climber from UK. |
Comments
RyanD
climber
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Nov 29, 2014 - 10:18am PT
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Wow!
I don't know if you are lucky or not but you are alive.
Probably lucky.
Great story.
What was the final prognosis on your back?
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David C
Trad climber
UK
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Author's Reply
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Nov 29, 2014 - 10:33am PT
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I lost about an inch in height. But I'm still climbing.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Nov 29, 2014 - 11:24am PT
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A TR from hell where the pain is balanced out by a great ironic talent. TFPU!
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
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Nov 29, 2014 - 06:26pm PT
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Glad you are mostly ok, a really nice write up!
Thanks!
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nah000
climber
now/here
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Nov 29, 2014 - 06:57pm PT
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well written... thank you.
glad to hear you are still using all four limbs...
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thebravecowboy
climber
The Good Places
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Nov 29, 2014 - 08:08pm PT
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I am happy for you!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Nov 30, 2014 - 12:17am PT
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so, what happened after the seafood dish? How long were you there when your belongings were returned? did you fly home? see another doc? climb the next day?
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David C
Trad climber
UK
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Author's Reply
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Nov 30, 2014 - 12:56am PT
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Our stuff was returned in the middle of the night. I laid in the tent immobile for a week until i could move. Then we got the boat out and the train back to the UK.
My main problem now is snowboarding. I must never land a jump with my spine vertical. This is ok on real jumps, but a sudden 3 inch drop in poor visibility isn't nice.
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John Duffield
Mountain climber
New York
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Nov 30, 2014 - 09:34am PT
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wow, Thanks!
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wheatBeer
Social climber
TheBronx
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Nov 30, 2014 - 10:06am PT
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Give us a run down on the injury and recovery. Where the French not up for fixing you up? Isn't all of Europe on government healthcare?
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David C
Trad climber
UK
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Author's Reply
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Nov 30, 2014 - 01:57pm PT
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It was awhile ago. I'm fine except I can never suffer a jolt of any form to my lower back.
Healthcare in each country can be very different - and I don't think it helped that we were not locals. Their only concern was if the damage was enough for me to end up in a wheelchair, once they proved it wasn't I was on my own. It the end I simply returned to the UK.
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Nov 30, 2014 - 04:46pm PT
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This is a great fiction story. Except it's not fiction. It really happened to you, which is horrifying. I'm glad you survived OK.
The thing that really annoys me about this story is how they basically kicked you out of the hospital in your condition. Someone should have arranged emergency transport for you. Isn't this one function of foreign embassys? You'd think the British Embassy could do something to help one of its citizens in an emergency.
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David C
Trad climber
UK
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Author's Reply
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Dec 23, 2014 - 04:12pm PT
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I guess we could have asked for help in Paris, but we were separated from our money and other stuff.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Dec 23, 2014 - 06:08pm PT
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Wow, remind me not to get injured in France. That was some third world
merde, that. The term 'at sixes and sevens' springs to mind. Glad
you pulled through, despite the 'help'.
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WBraun
climber
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Dec 23, 2014 - 07:19pm PT
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LOL David
That's some funny writing about being in the midst of a horrendous epic.
Thank God you didn't become paralyzed .....
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Dec 24, 2014 - 12:17am PT
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hey there say, david c... wow, just saw this...
oh my... :O
thank god you are okay, now...
(well, if you take care of your back, as you say)...
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Dec 24, 2014 - 01:51pm PT
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We land and I’m gently extracted from the chopper onto a trolley. Then the fighting starts. Raised voices become screams. Screams lead to pushing. Pushing to punches. Apparently we have landed at the wrong hospital and they won’t have me. I need to go to another hospital. The chopper won’t or can’t take me. Why this leads to a punch-up between my rescuers and the hospital staff I don’t know. I’m left lying confused in the sun.
What the f*#k!?
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Dec 24, 2014 - 03:39pm PT
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F*#k France.
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Daphne
Trad climber
Northern California
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I'd bookmarked this to get to it later and just did. Wow. We need to retire the word "epic".
I am so glad to hear that your health has returned to the point you describe. I wish you many years of climbing, and thanks for the report which will live in my bones.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Wow. Glad you're mending after that ordeal: an amazing story, very well told, producing an equal measure of grimaces and laughs.
It brought back memories from my first visit in 1976. When Gramicci and I first arrived at the beach at En Vau in 1976, laden with ropes and gear, a young woman arose out of the water, diving mask in hand, and strolled toward us.
She was topless, of course,and she was a vision like Botticelli's Venus, but more beautiful.
She looked me right in the eye and smiled as she walked past.
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David C
Trad climber
UK
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Author's Reply
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Jan 27, 2015 - 01:11am PT
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Thanks for all the nice words.
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