Bear Creek Accident

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Messages 1 - 42 of total 42 in this topic
Rattlesnake Arch

Social climber
Home is where we park it
Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 21, 2016 - 03:32pm PT
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/09/21/stanford-medical-student-killed-in-sierra-nevada-climbing-accident/
cat t.

climber
california
Sep 21, 2016 - 03:51pm PT

love you forever, maria.
Escopeta

Trad climber
Idaho
Sep 21, 2016 - 03:51pm PT
Bummer
Bldrjac

Ice climber
Boulder
Sep 21, 2016 - 03:54pm PT
Geez, what a week! So sorry to hear this, and learn of yet another death in the climbing community in such a short period of time. My heart goes out to everyone.....friends and family of these people. Ugh.....
snakefoot

climber
Nor Cal
Sep 21, 2016 - 03:59pm PT
This sucks! been a bad year all around.
crankster

Trad climber
No. Tahoe
Sep 21, 2016 - 04:10pm PT
More sad new from the High Sierra, bummer. Condolences to Maria's family and friends.
cat t.

climber
california
Sep 21, 2016 - 04:16pm PT
we went some amazing places, but really, all my best times with maria were the endless car rides and airport waits.



High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:20pm PT
Wow, she was an md phd student. That is very exceptional.
A huge loss for the community. Condolences to family and friends.
survival

Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:22pm PT
Damnit! Hard week to be a climber.

I'm very sorry to read of a brilliant youngster taken from us.
FRUMY

Trad climber
Bishop,CA
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:28pm PT
I'm so sorry. RIP
skcreidc

Social climber
SD, CA
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:40pm PT
Too young. Way too young. My condolences to her friends and family.
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:43pm PT
Absolutely tragic, so young and full of life.
Careful out there every one.
cwe7976

climber
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:47pm PT
10b4me

Mountain climber
Retired
Sep 21, 2016 - 05:57pm PT
Seemed like a beautiful, and brilliant person.
My condolences to her family, and friends.
Daphne

Trad climber
Northern California
Sep 21, 2016 - 07:20pm PT
Too too too many going too too too soon.

I am so sorry to all who knew her and all who are are grieving. Losses like this bring forward the grief remaining of our other losses. There are many shedding tears right now.
Gilroy

Social climber
Bolderado
Sep 21, 2016 - 08:29pm PT
I can't believe sometimes I am still here and then see such bright young ones lost, it just takes my breath away. Makes me blink to try to get why yet another is gone. Futilely seeking such reasons.

Finding only condolences for those closer now left so aggrieved in their loss.

Keith
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Sep 21, 2016 - 08:32pm PT
^
Nicely said.
Same.
GDavis

Social climber
SOL CAL
Sep 21, 2016 - 08:55pm PT
This is just terrible. Heartbroken today. We need these people in this world...
phylp

Trad climber
Upland, CA
Sep 21, 2016 - 09:04pm PT
She was not known to me and yet I have been crying for her loss all day. What a loss.
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Sep 21, 2016 - 09:08pm PT
hey there say, Rattlesnake Ark, oh my, this is awful news... :(

thank you for letting folks know...

my condolences and prayers for her family and loved ones...


another very sad piece of news, for all, :(


edit:

oh my, she was so open to learn about her profession, and
must have loved it... the look on her face, was so happy,
in these articles, oh my...

Investigating treatments for chronic wounds

Birukova’s research in the Bollyky lab focused on the role played by a virus called a bacteriophage in the formation of biofilms — viscous communities of bacteria, resistant to antibiotics and immune responses, that can colonize chronic wounds or coat medical equipment. She collaborated with researchers in the laboratory of assistant professor of chemistry Yan Xia, PhD, to design polymers and antibodies to disrupt biofilms with the aim of treating patients with deadly infections.

“The medical school community has suffered a tremendous loss,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. “Maria’s interdisciplinary approach to the treatment of antibiotic-resistant biofilms brought to bear insights from both chemistry and immunology in an attempt to devise new treatments for patients with few other options. Her work was a wonderful example of Stanford’s focus on translational medicine, and she will be greatly missed, both professionally and personally.”


:(
micronut

Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
Sep 21, 2016 - 09:10pm PT
Cat t and all the rest of you I knew her I am so sorry. I can see by the look in her eyes that she was full of life and stoke and beauty. Though I never knew her I feel her loss and feel for all those who knew her well. May the memory of her joyful spirit help you all along in the process of grieving for this seemingly fantastic young woman. A sad day indeed. My deepest condolences.

Scott
Stewart Johnson

Mountain climber
lake forest
Sep 21, 2016 - 09:45pm PT
Sadness overwhelms me..
johnboy

Trad climber
Can't get here from there
Sep 21, 2016 - 10:08pm PT
So sad to hear of this.

My sincere condolences to all of her family and friends.
Nick L

climber
Sep 22, 2016 - 12:37am PT
Yep Maria always kept us so stoked at the crag, on the mountains, in the car...

We will miss her so much.




Mexican climbing bean

climber
Sep 22, 2016 - 12:58am PT
johntp

Trad climber
socal
Sep 22, 2016 - 01:04am PT
I can't believe sometimes I am still here and then see such bright young ones lost, it just takes my breath away. Makes me blink to try to get why yet another is gone

I hear ya Keith.

Condolences to all.
dirtbag

climber
Sep 22, 2016 - 08:19am PT
My deepest sympathies to all who knew her.
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Sep 22, 2016 - 12:54pm PT
I'm so sorry to read this news, and even more sorry that I didn't get to meet her. My great sympathy to her family and friends.

My mother, who died at 104, used to say that her passing would finally give meaning to the term "untimely death," by creating a timely one. In a different sense, Maria's passing must almost define an untimely one. She must have been a talented, determined, brilliant and, perhaps most importantly, giving person. What a loss.

John
cat t.

climber
california
Sep 22, 2016 - 01:10pm PT
John, thank you for your words. It's a much more eloquent way of putting it than whatever I was scream-crying at fivethirty this morning about "story arcs cut off in the middle."
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Sep 22, 2016 - 02:20pm PT
My eyes Filled with tears, as this morns' news hits
It strikes to the very hart of this disease; we call life,
to Be - We eventually must Not Be. . .
If the abilities to go, aren't there anymore
it feels as if we have gone, not ready - already -
Just gone.

The old wise one never leaves, she is always up, watching the climbers.
Wishing them safe passage but not to fast, for she knows that climbers rejoice
as her glory, her heaven sent light comes into sight.

As climbers, more than any -
Love and revele in her arriving at full, casting shadows in the dark
and at full moons we howl, and climb, passing into the night.
I was struck at noon yesterday, the last day of a summer from hell
struck down in the knowledge that again without saying ;
"Hey, it is so good to see you again after all of these years"
Or things like "you told me so!" Or "would you believe that I have kids?",
"Who is that? Wow the young ones are so impressive these days"

I can only add words of grief and condolence to the folks more struck,
the most gutted by this next, never the last, passing through and on.

The rope is the way, the paths we take go everywhere, some get to follow the way.
Some get to live to see another Moon rise, but,
and it is the hard butt that gets you at the base of your trunk,
Like a punch.
For some of us, from the finest to the most banal, get the final call to go,
while out in the rain 'N snow.
Under the watchful Moon who's tears at our passing often show.

For us, those that remain, we must trudge on, the envy fading to terror, as our own mortality -the end beckons (us)

Each step we take while we are sure footed means less than that last one twisted step
That ends it all.

Rest? For the women and men I am thinking of, rest meant watching the moon rise from a high perch, snuggling with the very life that we now mourn.


[Click to View YouTube Video]
With the greatest respect TEARs & hugs of condolence, peace
Gnome,0D
Ryan Tetz

Trad climber
Bishop, CA
Sep 22, 2016 - 03:05pm PT
How did she fall?
alina

Trad climber
CA
Sep 22, 2016 - 04:07pm PT
She and Ian were on the East Ridge of Bear Creek Spire.
They were doing the climb with a rope but were tying in only for some sections. Towards the summit, they were soloing and Maria was ahead. A big chunk of rock broke from under her feet and she fell to the snow field below.
That lady was a crazy ball of energy that constantly made feel I wasn't squeezing enough hours into my day. I don't have much to add to the stories posted so far.
I spoke to her dad this morning... their grief is absolute.
steve s

Trad climber
eldo
Sep 22, 2016 - 04:41pm PT
Maria sounds like a brilliant person and it's so sad to hear of this accident. Condolences to her family, friends and climbing partner. May she rest in peace.
ms55401

Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
Sep 22, 2016 - 05:04pm PT
don't know what the East Ridge is, but if it's the obvious ridge, the NE Ridge, as described by Secor or Croft texts, that's somewhat concerning. When I climbed that (solo) more than 10 years ago it felt very solid. and given the traffic it sees, I would think pretty much anything suspect would have been trundled
Clint Cummins

Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
Sep 22, 2016 - 05:08pm PT
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/east-arete/106754645 (different than the NE Ridge)

Devastating for her parents and everyone.
alina

Trad climber
CA
Sep 22, 2016 - 06:11pm PT
Maria had a fair amount of experience with Sierra alpine. She had done the Evolution Traverse and a bunch in the Palisades.

I believe they were on the 5.8 A0 "overlooked classic."

Mark Thomas TR of East Ridge:
http://www.supertopo.com/tr/Bear-Creek-Spire-E-Ridge-An-Overlooked-Sierra-Classic/t12258n.html
SimonW

climber
Sep 22, 2016 - 06:49pm PT
I can't believe it.. I only knew Maria briefly as a gym partner but she was SO strong and SO smart.

If it could happen to her it can happen to any of us. Be careful out there.

RIP Maria...
RP3

Big Wall climber
Twain Harte
Sep 23, 2016 - 07:05am PT
Oh man this hurts...

She was always down to adventure with friends:

And she would always jump from the highest of rocks, into the muckiest of water.
roy

Social climber
NZ -> SB,CA -> Zurich
Sep 23, 2016 - 07:18am PT
This is terrible news. My condolences to her friends and family. It is a tremendous loss. Roy
pell

Trad climber
Sunnyvale
Sep 23, 2016 - 10:20am PT
So sad. She was so nice and young. Condolences to family.
anthony.

Social climber
Sep 23, 2016 - 02:58pm PT
Maria was one of the most badass people I know.

We have done amazing climbs, gotten benighted, had epics, and shared some of the most beautiful summits on earth.

She will forever live in our memories.






Ed H

Trad climber
Santa Rosa, CA
Sep 23, 2016 - 03:50pm PT
Very sad to hear this terrible news. Condolences to her friends and family.
Messages 1 - 42 of total 42 in this topic
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