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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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She was barely hanging on by the time I ran back to grab her.
Classic Werner.
"Hey Merry, you try an keep up with me on the aptly named "Death Slabs". We're gonna be going up some treacherous territory, way off the trade route…. but you'll be fine…. your with me… I… am a legend!"
 So, I guess the only question I have after skimming the first page is…. Have there been any deaths on these slabs?
Maybe a morbid curiosity, maybe just wondering how the name came about.
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Onewhowalksonrocks
Mountain climber
portland, Maine
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I think North Dome Gully has seen more deaths then any other down climb in the Valley. Known as the "other death slabs"
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, guido...
oh my... thanks for the history note there and sharing your
story...
also, oh my, werner... and merry...
glad to hear that all is well and you both made it back...
:)
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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It's only 3rd class but the route finding is a little tricky. Providing you stay on rout, and are fit enough to quickly scramble through the exposed sections, the "Death Slabs" are routine. Get off route over oi the right and it can turn into a nightmare with the chances of getting "cliffed" high.
JL
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WBraun
climber
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Off top of my head there's 3 deaths that I can remember on the death slabs.
They were never called the death slabs.
These modern climbers came up with this bullsh!t name.
It was always called the slabs to half dome approach.
The Korean climbers 2 winters ago go caught in a nasty slush avalanche there.
We started to climb up that night to the injured Korean and had to turn back because more slush avalanches were coming down.
The Korean climber had to be helo evacuated the next morning.
A touron followed the first fixed line at the bottom once and proceeded to wander straight up from there and got ledged out once.
There's a lot of traffic on those slabs now a days and pretty hard to get lost on them.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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from A Climber's Guide to Yosemite by RM Leonard and DR Brower (Feb. 1940)
see http://home.comcast.net/~e.hartouni/climbing/ACGttHS/ACGttHS.html
Half Dome -- From Mirror Lake
First ascent unknown. Donald Buchanan, Yosemite, has made more than 20 ascent of this route. The first barrier is a 200-foot cliff stretching along the entire base. This can be passed by an easy gully at the W. end. Upon reaching the ledge on top of the cliff, traverse E. to polished massive granite at angle of 35º to 40º rising just W. of the water-course. The principal problem is to avoid brush without getting onto rock of too high an angle. At the base of the tremendous overhang there is an easy route to the Clouds Rest saddle. There is water at the base of the main face in all seasons.
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RattyJ
Trad climber
Pine Grove
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The first and only time I've ever been up there I was traversing under the exposed slab when I heard some rocks coming down.
I didn't see anything big at first and then all of a sudden I caught a soccer ball sized rock out of the corner of my eye heading strait for my head. I started to duck and move out of the way when a fraction of a second later the thing struck my backpack ripping it from my back and spinning me around twice. My waist strap was still attached and it took me down for a ride. Felt like I got hit with a cannon ball. It hit so violently the shoulder strap tore a muscle in my shoulder I still have problems with. That was at least 5 years ago.
Wish I'd have gotten that on video. We had a good laugh then continued on finishing one of the best routes I've ever done in a day. We walked down the 1/2 dome trail back to the valley.
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
It ain't El Cap, Oregon
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Rattyj...*
A bit of spray but still an impressive story. Big rocks come toward ME I tend to return to camp rather than carry on.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Soccer ball? How 'bout refrigerators and microwaves? . . . ;-)
RattyJ, spray on dood, full credit - I woulda turned around.
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WBraun
climber
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In September 2005 we watched the recovery of a solo climber who died while off route to the right of the standard approach.
You meant to the left of the standard approach.
He was several hundred yards to the left.
Another party was using that false approach also that day and discovered him hanging upside down dead with massive head trauma from his fall.
They called YOSAR and me and Merry climbed up to him.
We believe he fell the day before ......
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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I was climbing the death slabs on the day he was recovered, humping loads to Tis-sa-ack with Moose Mutlow. Moose had to bail early that afternoon and turned around. When I saw the chopper, I thought for sure it was for him...
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Jan 10, 2013 - 01:31am PT
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Dec 31, 2012 -
Went up the "Death Slabs" this October ... I was curious if you guys were on an assignment, or what?
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
the crowd MUST BE MOCKED...Mocked I tell you.
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Jan 10, 2013 - 01:45am PT
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Reilly, where's that photo from? Heinous!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 10, 2013 - 01:53am PT
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"...but those with good routefinding ability can find ropeless passage."--Steve "The Non-Roper" Roper
Translation: it's really Class 4++.
I never heard anyone in the world call them anything but too much work, let alone Death Slabs. Try lugging a rack of iron in addition to the H2O up that slip n' slide and be in a good frame of mind at the end.
And down several quarts of water already. There's a river on the other side, geez.
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Fishy
climber
Zurich, Switzerland
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Jan 10, 2013 - 05:53am PT
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I climbed North Dome with Le Bruce in Spring 2011 - witnessed a group of enormous car-sized blocks fall straight down the face of HD, impact near the base then continue to crash all the way down the death slabs.
Anyone on the approach that day would have been wiped out. Here is a pic with the first dust-cloud appearing just after impact (the cloud finally filled the entire death-slabs approach gully).
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Jan 10, 2013 - 11:37am PT
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Seems like spring-early summer is the worst for rockfall. Any confirmation on this?
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gstock
climber
Yosemite Valley
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Jan 10, 2013 - 11:42am PT
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Left panel shows the seasonality of documented rockfalls throughout Yosemite Valley for which the timing is known (1857-2011), right panel shows the seasonality of just those rockfalls from Half Dome over that same time period.
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Rhodo-Router
Gym climber
sawatch choss
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Jan 10, 2013 - 11:49am PT
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Well OK. Thanks Greg!
Is there a possibility that there are simply less observers present during the cooler months?
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gstock
climber
Yosemite Valley
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Jan 10, 2013 - 12:01pm PT
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Yes, that is certainly a possibility, and no doubt there are many smaller rockfalls that are either not observed or not reported. However, I do think that certain cliffs really are more seasonal than others with respect to rockfalls.
We have documented >1 cm of daily movement of exfoliation slabs due to thermal stresses (heating and cooling of the rock). An interesting correlation for Half Dome is that more rockfalls occur from the NW face during the months that it gets more direct sun.
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life is a bivouac
Trad climber
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Jan 10, 2013 - 03:56pm PT
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There is a very large flake, that one climbs on/past, roughly half way up Tis-sa-ack... (it is about 25 feet high and maybe 10 feet wide) You get to stand on the crusty broken-toothed top edge to place a wee pin up under a thin flake, and I swear it vibrated with the wind... I don't remember breathing very much...
Does any one know if it's still there?
It is/was a serious candidate for terminal velosity.
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