Listen, Plan, React.

When someone at the climbing store tells you not to put your protection into Hawaii's gray rock, they're not lying. Try the red instead.

I took a trip in 2017(military funded) to Hawaii to learn some big wave rescue skills to implement in my platoon. Naturally, I couldn't wait for the beginning of the course to fulfill my adrenal needs so I took to some rock climbing the weekend before we started the course. I went to a climbing shop, bought a rope, and sent it out to the eastern edge of O'ahu. When I was purchasing the climbing rope the man behind the cash register vetted me for a while and let me know that the gray rock of Hawaii is not to be trusted, "it feels solid, but it ain't". I told him I heard him loud and clear and carried on, not giving much thought to what he said. At the mountain's base, the mist curled around a mass of green that can't be found outside of the Pacific Islands. I was in awe. It's one thing to get to climb and have fun but to enjoy the hike up is on another level for me.

Once I got to the base of the trad (traditional climbing) area of the mountain I got my book out and scoped an easy route to start. The issue with this route that I now know to be a big issue, is that if you don't follow the line correctly you end up on a very difficult route. I learned this one the hard way. I followed a scramble up about 20 feet, super easy stuff... so easy in fact I didn't place any protection into the rock. If you are unaware, you shove protection into the nooks and crannies of a cliff face to secure your rope in case you fall. I ascended about 10 more feet and realized I was a little tired and in a rather difficult spot... I frantically placed a HUGE piece of protection into a massive GRAY crevice in the cliff face. With my adrenaline pumping and my forearms giving out I yelled to my belayer "FALLING!". That's the standard call out if you fall so your belayer knows to take up slack, lock off the rope and brace for your fall using their body weight as a counter to yours.

This is when I learned that advice given is not always advice taken. I protected in gray rock as I was specifically told not to do. I didn't feel like I had many options at the time, but if I had searched I would have found a much smaller nook made of reddish-brown basaltic lava rock that would have held my weight on a much smaller piece of protection. However, in my panicked state, I threw advice from some sage old man out the window, threw a monster Cam into the wall, and paid the man for it. I fell between 25-35 feet to a rock floor. The height may have been different I'm not sure, the guy who life-flighted me off the mountain couldn't remember, and seeing as I can't remember anything after the fall for 8 hours I think I may never know.

I broke my left elbow, ripped my right elbow out at the joint and at the shoulder, suffered a TBI, and some scrapes and bruises. All-in-all I got away alive and that shocked the EMS team so I'd call it a win. After my injuries I convinced the Command back in Virginia Beach that I shouldn't change my flight to an earlier one to get home because it would cost them double to change it (it wouldn't) and they couldn't refund my hotel receipt (they could... I lied). So after being given a bottle of painkillers I skipped out of the hospital and enjoyed the rest of my vacation in Hawaii. The struggle of an 8-month full recovery was less convenient and fun.

The moral of the story? Listen to what people tell you and make a plan for it. You may find yourself in a moment when information is scarce, you're panicking and you aren't ready to make a new plan. Make little plans for contingencies in your head before you step off on a mission, activity, or project at work, you may find that the information you've been given could save you.