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ClimbingRanger
Trad climber
Yosemite, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 2, 2016 - 03:25pm PT
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Hello climbers,
In early September, a rappelling accident on the East Ledges descent of El Capitan resulted in a fatality. This is our sixth descending fatality in the last two years. As we said in the recent Reed's Pinnacle accident - slow down, double check your systems, and use appropriate backups. The climb isn't over until you're on the ground.
In an attempt to prevent these accidents and create a culture of safe climbing we have been reporting technical rescues at Climbing Yosemite. The East Ledges accident can be read here: Accident Report: East Ledges, El Capitan
Stay safe,
Yosemite Climbing Rangers
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Gunkie
Trad climber
Valles Marineris
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Random rope in a tree? So sad.
Gravity is a bitch and plays no favorites. Slow down; be safe. 15 minutes of extra checking enroute on the descent saves a life. 15 minutes later to Manure Pile parking lot.
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Moof
Big Wall climber
Orygun
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F*€£ fixed garbage. Death by convenience and abandoned tat.
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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So sad. One simple way to avoid such a situation is don't clip into a rope unless you can determine where it is anchored (and also inspect the anchor).
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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RIP Rick Vales
and Thank You for having so much trust in your climbing family, sorry we let you down.
Condolences to Rick's loved ones.
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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i'd also like to know who the son of a bitch was that left a blue rope in a tree!!!!!!!!!???????
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Sula
Trad climber
Pennsylvania
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Thank You for having so much trust in your climbing family The old saw is "Trust, but verify."
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Matt's
climber
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ANALYSIS
The East Ledges Rappel route descends an approximately 500 foot section of vertical cliff. Most climbing teams complete this descent with rappels via bolted climbing anchors. Multiple trees exist on the cliff between the bolted anchors.
Based on post-accident conversations with climbers who had descended the East Ledges in the days prior to Vale’s fall, there were ropes “fixed” along the rappel route. These fixed ropes were of unknown origin, but were being used regularly by climbers to expedite their descent of El Cap. In the post-accident review, climber’s acknowledged a blue rope stuck in a flake and tree hanging adjacent to the standard rappel route.
When YOSAR arrived on scene, they observed a blue rope rigged through Vale’s ATC rappel device. While it is impossible to know the exact sequence of events that preceded Vale’s fall, it is likely that he arrived at a ledge between the first and second anchors, saw the blue rope in the tree to his right and considered it to be the next rappel. He then removed his ATC from the first line, called “off-rappel” to Luke and rigged his ATC onto the blue line. At some point while weighting the blue line, the rope dislodged and Vale fell to the base of the rappels.
I wonder how a random rope would get stuck/abandoned by the east ledge raps?
very sad.
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WBraun
climber
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Now it's one of the most dangerous places on El Cap.
But I guess we need them so SAR can get up there quickly, eh?
Stop making up bullsh!t.
Sar doesn't need fixed ropes on the east ledges.
You don't need any ropes to get up the east ledges.
There's a way further up from the east ledges to get to the top without ropes.
Or you can do the one pitch climb traverse at the east ledges descent itself.
It's you climbers that put the fixed ropes there since you can't figure out even a simple thing.
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monolith
climber
state of being
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Not hard to imagine a scenario of why the rope was there. A party pulls their rope, it gets stuck in the flake and tree late at night. They spend some time trying to free it but are so tired, out of food/water, and being so close to ground, they give up and descend on a fixed line or another of their ropes.
Now that it's been demonstrated what a hazard stuck ropes are, they should be removed or at least be cut if possible to make them clearly unusable.
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jeff constine
Trad climber
Ao Namao
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Werner nails it again. Nice meeting you in Marina Del Rey last week.
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anita514
Gym climber
Great White North
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How bad is the Falls trail from the top?
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monolith
climber
state of being
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Another reason to bring a knife. For quite a few years, I never brought one. Then I thought about some scenarios and put a small folding blade in my chalkbag side pocket. The very next climb, on Steck Salathe, our rope got stuck and we had to cut about 10 feet off.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Fixed lines and stuck ropes are completely different realities . . . You better know what you are dealing with before deciding to trust your life to either one. Unfortunately this incident was a result of poor judgement.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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How bad is the Falls trail from the top?
it's quite a long way but topping out on El Cap and walking the trail east takes you past Eagle Pk. and over to the Yos. Falls, and then down.
alternatively there is a longish walk out to Tamarack Flat, but in that direction you also hit the Old Big Oak Flat Rd. that takes you down to the west of El Cap...
the East Ledges are by far the quickest way down, and the fixed lines are a great convenience for people commuting with loads. As Werner pointed out, there are other ways to ascend/descend the East Ledges, but all ways require careful scrambling.
I've used the fixed lines in the past but always in the daytime, when checking their status was possible. There have been some incredibly manky cords hanging there in times past.
When you find yourself rushing to get down from some place you have to ask yourself "why?" and often slow it down a bit. I remember a retreat off of Sherwood Forest that took forever, locating some relic bolts and finding safer anchors, and a last rappel to the floor that, in the daytime, we could probably have scrambled down, and the final, interminable walk down Eagle Creek, a substantial hazard itself in that tired darkness.
Anyway, it is horrible that the consequences of not cleaning up after yourself could take a fellow climber's life, consider those consequences when deciding to abandon ropes on often used paths.
A tragedy, certainly, for the friends and family of that young climber.
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rbord
Boulder climber
atlanta
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We get what we pay for.
Blame the individual's trust of the gear, and their lack of verifying it. Blame the person or community who left the stray rope.
Whatever we do, don't blame ourselves and our glorification of our pursuit, chopping bolts on a route to make it suitably risky, admiring the abilities and achievements of our most risk-loving participants.
We willingly participate in a culture that glorifies risk. Like our rape culture, what do we expect? This is just part of the fallout.
But still, it kind of works for us, so we keep doing it. If we can just tweak the circumstances/mistakes in the little picture, we can ignore the human tendencies driving the 'mistakes' in the big picture, or at least blame them on someone else.
My condolences to family and friends.
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jstan
climber
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What with bouldering and fast ascents on Yosemite rock we are leaving and using fixed ropes like never before. We need to get this new paradigm figured out quickly. And nylon does not hold up well at all under ultraviolet.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Not again! It always pains me to read these accounts, because, even after 49 years of climbing, I remain perfectly capable of making "a mistake only a beginner would make."
That said, I fail to see the connection between bold routes and accidents on the descent. The mental qualities necessary to lead a bold pitch don't differ from those necessary to get down safely. Does anyone really compete on who can cut the most corners in rapping down?
The victim and his friends and family, as well as his climbing partner, have my deepest sympathy. Sorry that we're doubtless causing extra grief by our Monday morning quarterbacking and bickering.
John
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