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Climbers Fall To Deaths From El Capitan At Yosemite National Park

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By Kurt Repanshek - June 2nd, 2018
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park/Kurt Repanshek

Two climbers fell to their deaths Saturday from a lower climbing route on El Capitan In Yosemite National Park/Kurt Repanshek file

Two climbers tackling the "Freeblast Route" on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park fell to their deaths Saturday morning. 

Rangers received multiple 911 calls about 8:15 a.m. reporting the incident. An investigation into the incident was ongoing Saturday afternoon, and no further information on the matter was available.

The Freeblast Route is on the lower section of the mountain on a section known as the Salathé Wall "named by Yvon Chouinard in honor of John Salathé, a pioneer of rock climbing in Yosemite," according to Wikipedia. "The first ten pitches of the route are commonly known as "Free Blast" since they can be quickly climbed free at a 5.11 rating or less."

Just about two weeks ago the park recorded another fatality when a hiker slipped from the Half Dome cables and fell to his death during a thunderstorm.

Comments

Submitted by Rudy Stefancik on June 4, 2018 - 3:18pm.

Regarding the death at Half Dome...

This the 2nd time that I know of that someone was killed on the cables while it was raining since the initiation of the daily permits. I'm surprised there have not been more of them. I predicted this when the permit system came in about 8 years ago. When I went to do those cables 14 years ago, I had planned to go up on a Wednesday but looked at the weather forecast and saw a threat of rain/thunder storm and put it off 1 day. 

Permits have to be obtained weeks if not months in advance. A couple of dozen or so are available 1st come 1st served in the morning. I believe the total number of permits is about 160 off the top of my head. The problem comes when a person has a limited time in Yosemite and came from a long distance and sets out for the 8 mile 4800 ft hike up to the cables and gets there and has to make a decision if it is safe to go on up. Then they factor in that they may well not get another permit during their stay. If they are a novice, they may not realize that coming down is more dangerous than going up and that the polished rock is like an ice rink when wet. 

There is a ranger there to take the permits but last I heard, that ranger does not have the authority to shut down the cables. The ranger can only advise a hiker that they will be in added peril if they go up the cables in rain and/or possible lightning. I suppose the reason they don't close the cables is that the Park Service my be at legal risk if something unexpected weather wise happened after letting someone go up without being stopped by a range


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