Author Topic: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite  (Read 6687 times)

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Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #25 on: June 03, 2018, 10:38:45 pm »
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.

Crocs are different.  Dont mess with crocs
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #26 on: June 03, 2018, 10:46:40 pm »
Crocs are different.  Dont mess with crocs

I know they exist, but have you ever seen a croc in the wild in Florida?  I haven't.

Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #27 on: June 03, 2018, 10:53:40 pm »
I know they exist, but have you ever seen a croc in the wild in Florida?  I haven't.

I haven't see them but they exist.  More down by Miami but they found one in this area.  Much smaller then the aussie ones, not nearly as dangerous
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Online Smokin Joe

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #28 on: June 04, 2018, 12:29:02 am »
@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!
Mine was free climbing, about 60 ft. up, coming down, had been quite a bit higher. On limestone with chert beds. Turned out the chert bed I used for a foothold turned into a nodule in my hand while I was using it for a handhold and looking for a new one with the other hand. Oops. I landed feet first in a talus slope facing the wall, and rolled it out, easily 100-150 ft. of roll. Smacked my left knee on a flat rock when I landed, bruised both butt cheeks with my heels, and went somersaulting backward down the slope and out into the flats at the bototm. Someone was looking out for me, because one rock in the wrong place could have made for a very different outcome. Basically, I walked (well, limped) away, with a little help, once I got my bearings. The guy who was out there with me told me later, that he'd seen me come off the face and hollered, asking me if I was okay, and I replied, "F***, T____, I don't know. I haven't stopped rolling yet."

I didn't think it was that far (60 ft.), but a friend who saw it happen measured it out with a clinometer, tape, jacob's staff, and some trig, and the numbers worked out. I'd jumped off bridges and cliffs into water from 30+ ft. plenty of times, but that one was a long trip down (and every bit in slow motion). When I started falling, when I couldn't get a handhold I thought "Oh, sh*t. I've had it." Amazing how calm you can be in the middle of that adrenaline rush.

I mostly stuck to caving after that.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #29 on: June 04, 2018, 12:54:46 am »
Mine was free climbing, about 60 ft. up, coming down, had been quite a bit higher. On limestone with chert beds.

Yeah... Anytime you are falling and have to take a breath to keep screaming, it's too far...  :shrug:

Online Smokin Joe

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #30 on: June 04, 2018, 01:16:43 am »
Yeah... Anytime you are falling and have to take a breath to keep screaming, it's too far...  :shrug:
LOL! For me, it was just realizing this chert nodule isn't doing me any good in my hand, throw it (done!) Try to get a jamb hold in the hole it left (NOPE!)
Try to find even the smallest crack to hang onto with the other hand (also NOPE!).
(starting to fall backwards)
"Oh shit, I've had it!"
Kick off from the face to maintain controlled attitude of descent. If I hang up on a projection I could end up cartwheeling down. Realize all my muscles are tight. real tight. Little voice in my head says "Loosen up, fool, John Wilkes Booth broke his leg this way".
Start to relax a little,
Impact., left knee hit. Think "Shattered patella. Great way to kick off your geology career." Continue rolling backwards. A lot. Answer T____. Stop rolling.
Left knee hurt. T___ is there, asking me if I'm OK. Answer
"I hit my knee." He asks if I can walk. I reply I  don't know, help me up and we'll find out. The knee squeaked and popped and it felt like I had ice water running down my leg, The closer we got to the vehicle, the less noise it made. It didn't hurt much, just felt like it was packed in ice.
Considering that was when any knee operation meant a horseshoe cut and at least six months off, I took my chances and wrapped it in ace bandages for a couple of weeks, and it has only haunted me a few times in the last 40 or so years. The hardest part was explaining the round bruises on my butt cheeks (from landing on my heels) to my girlfriend....who did not climb.

« Last Edit: June 04, 2018, 01:21:00 am by Smokin Joe »
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #31 on: June 04, 2018, 01:25:59 am »
LOL! For me, it was just realizing this chert nodule isn't doing me any good in my hand, throw it (done!) Try to get a jamb hold in the hole it left (NOPE!)
Try to find even the smallest crack to hang onto with the other hand (also NOPE!).
(starting to fall backwards)
"Oh shit, I've had it!"


See, RIGHT THERE is where the rope kicks in and you miss out on all the rest of that ride...

Screw free-climbing.

Online roamer_1

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #32 on: June 04, 2018, 01:27:59 am »
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.

Not as shy as me. I will stay over here where sanity prevails and all I have to worry about is moose, griz, wolves, and cougars.

Online Smokin Joe

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #33 on: June 04, 2018, 01:29:05 am »
See, RIGHT THERE is where the rope kicks in and you miss out on all the rest of that ride...

Screw free-climbing.
:silly:

Yeah, that was the last one for me. At least I didn't have to listen to all that >ping<, >ping< >Ping< on the way down.... :beer:
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #34 on: June 04, 2018, 01:35:20 am »
:silly:

Yeah, that was the last one for me. At least I didn't have to listen to all that >ping<, >ping< >Ping< on the way down.... :beer:

LOL! That's right!
 :beer:

Offline GtHawk

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #35 on: June 04, 2018, 02:26:48 am »
Same here.  Ladders are almost too much of a thrill for me.
For me all was fine until I had sudden hearing loss in one ear, along with it went my sense of balance. So of course I left my indoor one floor job to work construction where I wood be at the edge of a parapet watt thirty feet or so leaning over and pulling equipment onto the roof or on a extension ladder twenty feet up. But the absolute best was being in a man lift with my boss with it at full extension of twenty five feet and him rocking it like a boat! Of course he thought it was hilarious because he fearless of heights. He got his though fell off the second rung of ladder and was rewarded with a compound fracture of his humerus. Don't believe that serious injuries only happen when your high. That's high, not HIGH.

Offline TomSea

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #36 on: June 04, 2018, 02:45:33 am »
El Capitan, Yosemite, pretty formidable looking:








Offline Sanguine

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #37 on: June 04, 2018, 02:56:04 am »
For me all was fine until I had sudden hearing loss in one ear, along with it went my sense of balance. So of course I left my indoor one floor job to work construction where I wood be at the edge of a parapet watt thirty feet or so leaning over and pulling equipment onto the roof or on a extension ladder twenty feet up. But the absolute best was being in a man lift with my boss with it at full extension of twenty five feet and him rocking it like a boat! Of course he thought it was hilarious because he fearless of heights. He got his though fell off the second rung of ladder and was rewarded with a compound fracture of his humerus. Don't believe that serious injuries only happen when your high. That's high, not HIGH.

See.  I'm right to feel the way I do about ladders.

Offline GtHawk

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #38 on: June 04, 2018, 04:16:10 am »
See.  I'm right to feel the way I do about ladders.
I used to routinely step off one rung early..................then I stopped wearing my glasses on the way down, stupid blended bi-focals!

Offline InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #39 on: June 04, 2018, 05:55:09 am »


I didn't think it was that far (60 ft.), but a friend who saw it happen measured it out with a clinometer, tape, jacob's staff, and some trig, and the numbers worked out.

Wouldn't it be easier to just climb back up to the same spot and then count the number of seconds it takes to fall?
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Online SZonian

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #40 on: June 04, 2018, 06:01:41 am »
I know they exist, but have you ever seen a croc in the wild in Florida?  I haven't.
No such thing as a "croc" in FL...alligators reign supreme...
Caiman in Central America and never had a problem with them in all my years (10+) of swimming in the Chagres River and the Panama Canal.
Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.

Offline InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #41 on: June 04, 2018, 06:18:47 am »
No such thing as a "croc" in FL...alligators reign supreme...
Caiman in Central America and never had a problem with them in all my years (10+) of swimming in the Chagres River and the Panama Canal.

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/american-crocodile/
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Online Smokin Joe

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #42 on: June 04, 2018, 06:22:27 am »
Wouldn't it be easier to just climb back up to the same spot and then count the number of seconds it takes to fall?
I think there is a time dilation effect....
(Or carry a measuring tape up, but the guy who saw me fall wasn't going to do that for some reason...)

How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline RoosGirl

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #43 on: June 04, 2018, 12:02:29 pm »
No such thing as a "croc" in FL...alligators reign supreme...
Caiman in Central America and never had a problem with them in all my years (10+) of swimming in the Chagres River and the Panama Canal.

I don't know if you know this, but when using the internet, besides posting to a news forum, you can also look up information on many different subjects. You shouod give it a try sometime.  There's a website called Bing and you can enter any subject in the search line and get back thousands of hits with various websites that have information on that subject.  For exampe, before teliing a South Floridian that there's no such thing as a crocodile in Florida you might have found this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_crocodile

Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #44 on: June 04, 2018, 12:40:35 pm »
I don't know if you know this, but when using the internet, besides posting to a news forum, you can also look up information on many different subjects. You shouod give it a try sometime.  There's a website called Bing and you can enter any subject in the search line and get back thousands of hits with various websites that have information on that subject.  For exampe, before teliing a South Floridian that there's no such thing as a crocodile in Florida you might have found this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_crocodile


@RoosGirl
Ahh sarcasm in the morning, almost as good as a second cup of coffee.
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Offline RoosGirl

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #45 on: June 04, 2018, 12:43:52 pm »

@RoosGirl
Ahh sarcasm in the morning, almost as good as a second cup of coffee.

Almost! At least as good as a cold splash of water on your face.

Offline driftdiver

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #46 on: June 04, 2018, 01:16:10 pm »
Just to bring this back on topic here is a video of a climbing alligator.   about 50 second in


https://youtu.be/7Qp_bUYPrTg
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Offline Sanguine

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #47 on: June 04, 2018, 01:36:22 pm »
At least American crocodiles are "shy and reclusive".

Offline RoosGirl

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #48 on: June 04, 2018, 01:55:19 pm »
At least American crocodiles are "shy and reclusive".

 :laugh:

Offline RoosGirl

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Re: 2 climbers dead after fall from El Capitan in Yosemite
« Reply #49 on: June 04, 2018, 01:57:19 pm »
Just to bring this back on topic here is a video of a climbing alligator.   about 50 second in


https://youtu.be/7Qp_bUYPrTg

Obviously photoshopped, everyone knows gators can't climb fences.