Author Topic: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite  (Read 6686 times)

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Offline TomSea

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2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« on: June 02, 2018, 09:44:37 pm »
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2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK --
Officials say two people fell to their death while climbing the Freeblast Route on El Capitan inside Yosemite National Park.

Park rangers say they received multiple 911 calls reporting the incident on Saturday around 8:15 a.m.

Yosemite Park Rangers and Search and Rescue staff responded to El Capitan.

Read more at: http://abc13.com/2-climbers-dead-after-fall-from-el-capitan-in-yosemite/3553412/

Offline sneakypete

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2018, 09:48:11 pm »
 The only thing surprising about this is  how rarely it happens. This has to be the most dangerous hobby in the world.
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Offline TomSea

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2018, 05:12:11 pm »
They have these new franchises where one can go climbing, Vertical Endeavors is one. you get a harness and you are free to go try and climb. It costs something like $15 plus, for about $10, some sort of extra equipment. I forget. I'm sure it tells all on the web.

Vertical Endeavors: https://www.verticalendeavors.com/

I think there may well be some other such chains. One signs a waiver taking responsibility if anything happens.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 05:29:24 pm by TomSea »

Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2018, 05:20:11 pm »
The only thing surprising about this is  how rarely it happens. This has to be the most dangerous hobby in the world.

@sneakypete
Not really... I used to climb big walls. For all the exposure, if you have good gear, and religiously place it properly, there is little chance for trouble.

Usually climbing accidents are free-climbers... or happen at the top, or at the top of a pitch, where one might be off line for a bit. Every now and then, someone 'rides the zipper' (falls, popping protections as he goes), and when the pro is all gone, pulls the belayor off his pro too. but that is very rare.

Offline sneakypete

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2018, 05:44:38 pm »
@sneakypete

Usually climbing accidents are free-climbers... or happen at the top, or at the top of a pitch, where one might be off line for a bit. Every now and then, someone 'rides the zipper' (falls, popping protections as he goes), and when the pro is all gone, pulls the belayor off his pro too. but that is very rare.

@roamer_1

Those are the people I was referring to because they are the only people in actual danger.

And no matter how good you might think you are,you can still grab "rotten rock" that looks to be a good handhold,and it's "game over".
Anyone who isn't paranoid in 2021 just isn't thinking clearly!

Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2018, 05:50:35 pm »
@roamer_1

Those are the people I was referring to because they are the only people in actual danger.

And no matter how good you might think you are,you can still grab "rotten rock" that looks to be a good handhold,and it's "game over".

@sneakypete
Yeah... free-climbing is just prolonged suicide.
As far as rotten rock, if the rock is chaucey, you've got no business being on it in the first place.  :shrug:

Offline musiclady

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2018, 06:13:24 pm »
As an acrophobe, I have NO idea why anyone ever does this.  :shrug:
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline Sanguine

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2018, 06:15:04 pm »
As an acrophobe, I have NO idea why anyone ever does this.  :shrug:

Same here.  Ladders are almost too much of a thrill for me.

Offline sneakypete

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2018, 06:25:26 pm »
As an acrophobe, I have NO idea why anyone ever does this.  :shrug:

@musiclady

I was afraid of heights as a child,so I enlisted in the army to be a paratrooper. I figured that would cure the fear of heights.

Jump school was when I learned  people are afraid of heights because at a subconscious level they WANT to jump,and their inner mind is telling them to back off. I used to go into and out of LZ's in the army riding with my legs hanging out the side of a helicopter for a quick entrance and a quick exist,while heaving the ability to open fire and help the door gunners prevent the enemy from shooting the helicopter down. The yards that rode behind me knew to keep a eye on me while flying to and from the LZ because I would get distracted looking at stuff on the ground,and would lean out more and more as time went to get a better view. Suddenly one of them would grab my rucksack and haul me further back into the chopper. If they hadn't,chances are I would have jumped without even knowing I was doing it.

Damn good thing I'm not afraid of getting married.
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Offline TomSea

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2018, 06:54:37 pm »
Don't rule it out, it might be one's thing.  I know, I was in a skyscraper and the side was just a glass window, I was almost afraid to walk up to it and wonder at times, about how one could throw some heavy object through it. I've a friend who went up to the top of a tall building he tells me, being a custodian then, at the building and he laid on his stomach on the roof to look over the roof. He said one of his co-workers or the security guard, was real casual about going up to the edge.



I have a friend who would free lance in the four corners region, he just told me he would scamper up but I doubt he ever did it with really towering heights.  Lots of rock climbing in that area. It's like the acrobats tight rope walkers who cross the Grand Canyon or something, I'd be too fearful of a wind coming up as well.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 07:00:06 pm by TomSea »

Offline musiclady

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2018, 07:06:36 pm »
Same here.  Ladders are almost too much of a thrill for me.

It's funny.  I was able to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (and back up!) Bright Angel/South Rim, two different times, and as long as I was able to stay on the inside of the trail, I was OK, but we were at the North Rim and I tried to walk on a path that dropped off on both sides, and I had to crawl on my hands and knees to get back to the solid ground.

My knees turn to jelly if I'm watching a TV show that shows a person at the edge of a tall building.

I've never been able to figure myself completely out  ^-^. but I DO know that climbing up a sheer rock face is the last thing in the world I'd ever want to do, equipped or not.
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline musiclady

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #11 on: June 03, 2018, 07:12:50 pm »
@musiclady

I was afraid of heights as a child,so I enlisted in the army to be a paratrooper. I figured that would cure the fear of heights.

Jump school was when I learned  people are afraid of heights because at a subconscious level they WANT to jump,and their inner mind is telling them to back off. I used to go into and out of LZ's in the army riding with my legs hanging out the side of a helicopter for a quick entrance and a quick exist,while heaving the ability to open fire and help the door gunners prevent the enemy from shooting the helicopter down. The yards that rode behind me knew to keep a eye on me while flying to and from the LZ because I would get distracted looking at stuff on the ground,and would lean out more and more as time went to get a better view. Suddenly one of them would grab my rucksack and haul me further back into the chopper. If they hadn't,chances are I would have jumped without even knowing I was doing it.

Damn good thing I'm not afraid of getting married.

One of our sons was both afraid of heights and claustrophobic as a child, but he was determined not to let that stop him from doing things as he got older and fought through them both.  He said he learned to use the fear to make him better at what he needed to do.

As for being a paratrooper, I always thought that the feeling of jumping would be thrilling (I always loved those rocket rides at the fair when you went head first over the top), but would never ever actually do it.

I broke bones falling out of trees.  I don't think I'd fare too well jumping out of an airplane!  ^-^
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #12 on: June 03, 2018, 07:12:54 pm »
  Speed climbing


http://youtu.be/X5NoSZ0J5GY
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Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #13 on: June 03, 2018, 07:24:14 pm »
As an acrophobe, I have NO idea why anyone ever does this.  :shrug:

@musiclady
In fact, it was an increased fear of heights that sent me up the rocks.

Offline musiclady

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #14 on: June 03, 2018, 07:49:57 pm »
@musiclady
In fact, it was an increased fear of heights that sent me up the rocks.

I know that's happened with a number of people, but not with me.

I love hiking in the mountains, but not scaling up the mountains.
Character still matters.  It always matters.

I wear a mask as an exercise in liberty and love for others.  To see it as an infringement of liberty is to entirely miss the point.  Be kind.

"Sometimes I think the Church would be better off if we would call a moratorium on activity for about six weeks and just wait on God to see what He is waiting to do for us. That's what they did before Pentecost."   - A. W. Tozer

Use the time God is giving us to seek His will and feel His presence.

Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #15 on: June 03, 2018, 08:01:31 pm »
@musiclady
In fact, it was an increased fear of heights that sent me up the rocks.

@roamer_1

That's why I started diving.  That and I couldn't swim.
Fools mock, tongues wag, babies cry and goats bleat.

Offline Sanguine

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #16 on: June 03, 2018, 08:04:50 pm »

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #17 on: June 03, 2018, 09:25:30 pm »
@sneakypete
Not really... I used to climb big walls. For all the exposure, if you have good gear, and religiously place it properly, there is little chance for trouble.

Usually climbing accidents are free-climbers... or happen at the top, or at the top of a pitch, where one might be off line for a bit. Every now and then, someone 'rides the zipper' (falls, popping protections as he goes), and when the pro is all gone, pulls the belayor off his pro too. but that is very rare.
Good gear, well maintained and well placed. I found climbing down to be more dangerous, and especially free climbing, on the return trip. Did one of those a lot faster than recommended back in my college days.
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Offline the_doc

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #18 on: June 03, 2018, 09:43:03 pm »
I believe the most common cause of fatalities in Yosemite is swimming in high-country creeks despite clear warning signs.  The currents sweep swimmers over the waterfalls to their deaths.

In some ways, this is sadder than the deaths of climbers.  The climbers know their sport is dangerous.  The swimmers are just plain stupid.

Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #19 on: June 03, 2018, 10:00:53 pm »
I know that's happened with a number of people, but not with me.

I love hiking in the mountains, but not scaling up the mountains.

@musiclady
I never had trouble walking a ridge... or even a road or path cut into a cliff... The old school idea of 'mountaineering' never has bothered me at all...

I was running a painting company when it started, and I was freaking out setting scaffolding about 70 ft off the ground... Then later, a yard light, which involved a 24' ladder set inside an extended tractor bucket... By the time I decided to take steps to fight it, I was getting scared on a 12' step ladder. Not a good malady for a painter. Even though I was more of an executive in that company, I was on ladders all the time.

It took but a couple months on the rocks, and my fear of heights was defeated, utterly... In my third year, I was on multi-pitch big walls, four or five hundred feet up (on a 165 ft rope) standing on an edge no wider than a quarter, with pinch holds or cracks for my fingertips.

And in that I found a sort of ecstasy... I had so very much stress then, and life became such a simple thing on the rocks... Navigation was this immense puzzle and a bit of dance, tied together, and the only other things that mattered was you, and the rock, and God, and the ground. I always came off the rocks physically drained... which was awesome, but more importantly, ALL my stress would be completely gone.

Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #20 on: June 03, 2018, 10:03:47 pm »
@roamer_1

That's why I started diving.  That and I couldn't swim.

@driftdiver
Yep. Always face your fear. Kick its ass.

I refuse to go through life scared of things.
Except alligators and out-of-control fire.  :shrug:

Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #21 on: June 03, 2018, 10:07:02 pm »
@driftdiver
Yep. Always face your fear. Kick its ass.

I refuse to go through life scared of things.
Except alligators and out-of-control fire.  :shrug:

Diving in a natural spring with a 9 foot gator on the edge cure my fear of them.   Still have a healthy respect but as long as nobody feeds them they aren't much of a problem.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 10:10:17 pm by driftdiver »
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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #22 on: June 03, 2018, 10:11:06 pm »
Good gear, well maintained and well placed. I found climbing down to be more dangerous, and especially free climbing, on the return trip. Did one of those a lot faster than recommended back in my college days.

@Smokin Joe
Worst I ever had, we were 2 full pitches up a wall, working toward the top of the third pitch, and I peeled. Hit my first pro, and bounced, and for a second everything was great. Then the pro popped and off I went. Rode the zipper myself that day. Screaming terror... Even though I know that chances are more than good that one of them pieces of pro is going to stop you...

Second to the last piece stopped me finally... And my good friend and belayor had his knife out. What a ride!

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #23 on: June 03, 2018, 10:21:22 pm »
Diving in a natural spring with a 9 foot gator on the edge cure my fear of them.   Still have a healthy respect but as long as nobody feeds them they aren't much of a problem.

One of my good friends was an Aussie cowboy who was up here for roundup one time... A very, very capable man. Long story short, he made it back home, but the following summer, came up missing... Found his pony and his camp... found his dog... But he's all gone. His dog kept returning to a spot down on the river - He'd go there, lay down and wait, looking out at the river...

They figger a croc got him.
My fear of gators ain't in my way - Never gonna be a problem... Other than @driftdiver and @RoosGirl  will never have to worry about me showing up on their porch(es).

And I am ok with that.  😉

Offline RoosGirl

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #24 on: June 03, 2018, 10:27:50 pm »
One of my good friends was an Aussie cowboy who was up here for roundup one time... A very, very capable man. Long story short, he made it back home, but the following summer, came up missing... Found his pony and his camp... found his dog... But he's all gone. His dog kept returning to a spot down on the river - He'd go there, lay down and wait, looking out at the river...

They figger a croc got him.
My fear of gators ain't in my way - Never gonna be a problem... Other than @driftdiver and @RoosGirl  will never have to worry about me showing up on their porch(es).

And I am ok with that.  😉

Our gators here are typically rather shy, or they used to be until the ijits moved in and started feeding them.  But, I live on a big sand hill; if there's gators anywhere close to the house the whole world is in trouble cause we'd be coming up on 40 days of rain.