I was trying to set a new pitch during a climb today. The crotch was directly overhead and I was throwing a reverse flip or back throw with a 10 oz bag. One of my throws went straight up and didn't make it through the crotch. On the way back down it bounced off a branch and formed a loop in the line that dropped over my helmet. The bag smacked the side of the hemet, pulled the line down across my face then tightened the loop hard around my neck as it ran out of slack. No damage done. I paused for a few minutes to make sure I was ok and contemplate what had happened. Then I shifted my position to make it more difficult for the bag to hit me on the next throw. I hit the crotch a couple of throws later and continued my climb.

I decided not to charge my thowbag with assault with murderous intent. After all I'm the one who threw it.

Otherwise had a good climb on a beautiful fall day
-moss

Don't kill the messenger. Its one of those what if's that you, or any of us, don't predict.

A very good message for us all!!!!!!

Tell us, mighty Moss, what was learned by your experience. Sureley you can sum it up in a wisdom package we climbers can take along with us on our next adventure upwards.

Pacing the floor until you reply,
Treeman

Ok you can stop pacing now, you must have worn out the floorboards by now!

Here's a handful of possibilities:

1. Pre-visualize your throw, try and anticipate possible movement of the throwbag.
2. Reposition to a better throwing location if the thrower is in direct line of fire in case of rebound
3. Don't take your eye off the throwbag if possible so you know exactly where it's going.
4. Do a better job of setting up a good in-tree throwing position to maximize chance of success and diminish possibility of injury.
5. Don't do that again!

-moss

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I make a particularly bad throw I smack myself in the head ("You dummy"). Sounds like the bag saved you the trouble.

I've got a nice 4" long burn and a nice quarter sized bruise on the back of my throwing hand today (I'm hoping for a cool scar from the burn!). This is the result of a badly thrown throwbag. Somehow I managed to get the line twisted AROUND my hand on the backswing, and upon release the line sped out a couple of inches leaving a nice burn, and looped the bag around to smack me right next to the coiled line on the _base_ of my thumb.

What did I learn, you ask, Treeman. I learned that if I return from a climb where I've been in a tree for more than 20hrs over three days, and I have no bumps or bruises, than I was really dreaming, I always do something that gets me scratched up. I also learned that it is really important to make sure you manage the lines around your throw line as much as your climb line while climbing. I think that I got a loop stuck on a button on my pants leg and that my thumb grabbed the loop on the way down causing the accident.

Climb Safe!
Icabod