On March 25th, 2018, Squamish-based climber Adrienne Wheaton was climbing at Ground Up Climbing Centre like any other day. Wanting to get one more route in before finishing her session, she decided to lead a 5.11- on the pillar in the centre of the gym. With ten years of climbing experience under her belt, Adrienne could have not predicted what happened next.
Adrienne Wheaton on Peasant’s Route, Squamish, BC
Two thirds up the route, Adrienne went to clip the next draw with the rope in her hand and her arm extended when her foot slipped. The rope she was clipping wrapped around her hand (and the force of the fall immediately severed) her thumb and (left her middle and ring fingertips connected only by tendons and nerves).
‘I don’t recall making any conscious decision to reach out and grab the rope. I think on an instinctive level my brain kicked into survival mode and caused me to reach out to the rope. I have no idea if a draw was involved. It all happened so incredibly fast.’
After the fall, Adrienne looked down to see her hand was mangled and her thumb was completely gone. All she remembered next was screaming and being lowered to the ground.
That evening, Adrienne underwent an 11 hour surgery to reattach her thumb using veins taken from her foot. Her middle and ring finger were amputated at the distal phalange level. She spent the following week in the hospital in a heated room wearing a ‘bear hugger’ designed to increase blood flow into the reattached thumb. Leeches were attached to her thumb every two hours throughout the day and night to further encourage blood flow into the thumb.
On March 30th, 2018, Adrienne went back into surgery because of a suspected blood clot in the vein graft that was constructed during the initial surgery to allow blood flow into the reattached thumb. Most of the blood clot was removed and Adrienne spent the next 7 hours in the ICU having leech therapy in one final attempt to save her thumb. On the morning of March 31st, it was determined that the doctors were unable to reattach the thumb and her thumb was amputated on April 1st at the MCP joint.
Four months after her accident, Adrienne still faces a long road of rehabilitation. Her fingers are still quite swollen and mobility in her digits has been slow to recover. Almost daily she is involved in some form of treatment from acupuncture to physiotherapy and hand therapy to chiropractic. She reported that she still has a fair amount of pain in the stump of my thumb but has recently elected for a ‘toe to thumb transfer’ which was a very difficult decision. Talking to Adrienne recently, she noted that she misses climbing immensely.
Squamish Climbing Magazine has reported this accident so other climbers are aware of the consequences and possibility of the rope wrapping around the fingers while clipping and/or falling. Although we cannot offer any advice on how to avoid this occurrence, we do strongly recommend being aware of the rope while clipping, making sure not to grab the rope when falling, and not placing fingers in any place that may result in them becoming entangled with the rope.
During the process of reporting this incident, we were also in contact with the management at Ground Up Climbing Centre, who emphasized the importance of providing the proper counselling services to both patrons and staff who witnessed the event as well as having the proper gym protocols in place when an accident like this happens within the greater climbing community.
Please stay tuned for a potential fundraiser for Adrienne in which a portion of the proceeds would be donated to the Canadian Adaptive Climbing Society. For those looking to support Adrienne, please contact us directly at tim@armadillocreative.ca
