Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Chris2
Trad climber
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 02:11pm PT
|
Any thoughts? (works on 3/8" cable)
|
|
Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 02:45pm PT
|
without meaning to be too judgemental, people of questionable intelligence were still headed up. There were 41 people sitting up there that had to be evacuated. They were probably fortunate that lightning wasn't part of the storm, but what the hell were they thinking?
I bet most climbers or hikers could tell stories like this. In the White Mountains a few years back, Leslie and I reached a summit around noon, just as the cloud ceiling came down like thick fog. You couldn't see the start of the descent trail from the summit cairn, so without noting landmarks it would have been easy to head off the wrong way. We got out of there quickly, figuring lunch could wait.
As we hiked down, thunder rumbled and it started raining hard. But we were astonished to pass a whole procession of teenage hikers with adult chaperones, some sort of organized group. They all wore summer shorts with no raingear except plastic trash bags ... and continued hiking up towards the lightning.
All this was on a trail, but they sure could have lost people that day.
|
|
corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 04:16pm PT
|
the cost of one rescue / recovery on Half Dome might cover
the expense of beefing up the cables to make them less slippery.
Doubling the number of cross boards would be cheap. (rock bolts to secure them possibly)
Ideally any exhausted tenderfoot, caught on the summit by rain and hail, should be able to descend safely due to the inherent design of the cables route.
|
|
Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 04:24pm PT
|
Given the environment, it would never be possible to create a route up Half Dome that was 'safe' for all. Not within the constraints of being in a national park, anyway. The magnitude of the necessary 'improvements' would be enormous.
|
|
Fuzzywuzzy
climber
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 04:44pm PT
|
Cables down May 3, 2009
|
|
Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 04:52pm PT
|
I wouldn't mind dying in Yosemite.
Of course, dying on the cables would be P-r-e-t-t-y embarrassing.
But, then, I'd be dead.
|
|
Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 05:04pm PT
|
Hey, it's what I do, Dearie.
I went up the cables in deck shoes once with a san-jan girl from the deli. Some ranger in the saddle saw 'em and told me I'd never make it.
Didn't have the heart to tell him we'd come straight up from Mirror Lake............
|
|
pud
climber
Sportbikeville
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 05:19pm PT
|
This news strikes me as no less tragic than the recent deaths of many climbers here and elsewhere.
A man obviously persuing an active lifestyle and doing something he enjoyed.
My most sincere condolences to his friends and family.
|
|
Argon
climber
North Bay, CA
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 05:38pm PT
|
If the cables were completely removed, what would be the best/easiest way for climbers to descend from the summit?
|
|
jstan
climber
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 05:59pm PT
|
And the fastest?
|
|
Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 06:02pm PT
|
Ya wanna climb it? I'll go......
It's a Lonngg Way......
|
|
August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 06:20pm PT
|
If the cables were completely removed, what would be the best/easiest way for climbers to descend from the summit?
May I be the first to ask?
Are the fixed lines on Half Dome up?
|
|
Mr_T
Trad climber
The 7th Pin Scar on Serentiy Crack
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 06:21pm PT
|
"Among them are 144 drownings, 122 deaths in hiking and scrambling incidents, 104 deaths in rock-climbing efforts and 159 in motor-vehicle accidents."
One grown adult dies on Half Dome and folks are saying the cables should be removed.
159 people die... and where's the clamor for closing the roads to bus transit only?
|
|
jstan
climber
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 06:30pm PT
|
The 7th Pin Scar on Serenity Crack
Who would have thought Serenity was to become a true poster child?
Simply amazing.
|
|
'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 06:47pm PT
|
Brenda just called Josh - the deceased's family is staying at the Ahwahnee, gratis now - and she said she heard that the cause of the fall was that the cable broke. The people on the summit refused to descend without the cable in place.
Can anyone confirm this? I haven't read all the posts, but opened the window to show them all, and did a search for "fail", "break" and "broken" and those words don't appear anywhere above.
My condolences to the family. Huge lawsuit coming now I bet if his death was caused by hardware failure. Will they now close the cable route due to liability concerns?
Edit: I overheard Josh talking on the phone, and assumed it was Brenda he was talking to. So I called her, but she doesn't know anything. So Josh was talking to someone else. When I see Josh I'll ask him where he heard it.
|
|
Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 07:14pm PT
|
Either bodes bad. It could be the beginning of what will be the end of the cables. Guess we'll see. It's sad that people have no sense of personal responsibility anymore and that the NPS should have to worry about a suit. Hopefully you heard wrong info, Pete.
|
|
corniss chopper
Mountain climber
san jose, ca
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 07:34pm PT
|
found an account of someone who just got down before the fatal incident
http://www.hikehalfdome.com/blog.html
"Mighty Hiker posted:Given the environment, it would never be possible to create a route up Half Dome that was 'safe' for all. Not within the constraints of being in a national park, anyway. The magnitude of the necessary 'improvements' would be enormous."
|
|
Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 07:41pm PT
|
A lawsuit doesn't mean the end of the Cables. Look at the suit involving the rockfall at Glacier Point, which went nowhere. The NPS is a pretty sturdy structure that's going to survive given one of what is likely many different claims filed during any given year. I think the thread about the many forms of injury visitors have sustained is apt. People get hurt doing all kinds of stuff. We don't close the parks as a result.
I too find it hard to believe that a cable would break. I could see the possibility of one of those poles popping up, which still wouldn't render the things useless. If that is the case, then I think there is a basis for liability. If you're going to install equipment for others to use, you're doing so with the applied assumption that you're doing so in a proper and safe manner. For example, you wouldn't invite anyone to ride a ski lift but not properly maintain the thing.
I don't see a valid basis for the Cables being removed, even if the case gets some traction. Personally, I think a greater risk of harm is posed by people who use it without the appropriate sense of respect: the knuckleheads who push and shove their way up it, pass over people and stop on the plank the people they just passed were aiming for. etc. I even saw a lady have her four year old kid wrap its arms around her neck as she climbed up the thing. That looked sketchy.
|
|
'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
|
|
|
Jun 15, 2009 - 07:44pm PT
|
Josh told me he heard it in the grocery store. [I normally do knott repeat hearsay, except with the attached caveat]
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!