How many El Cap Deaths?
Bigwallbob
How many El Cap climbing deaths?
I was trying to figure this out with a guy doing Bad Seed, while waiting to do
Zodiac. Morbid subject, but I really am interested, as I am trying to write an
article comparing the dangers of big wave surfing to big wall climbing. How
many total climber deaths on El Cap? Not counting base jumpers or rappellers.
We figured around ten. Anyone with a more exact answer?
1. Two people who fell off the Trip.
2. The "American Triangle" accident--three guys?
3. Japanese on the Nose (2)
4. the careening body that John Long mentioned off the Nose (1)
5. He thought two others on the Nose.
6. ZM soloist, five years ago.
More?
Clint Cummins
>
>How many El Cap climbing deaths?
>
>I was trying to figure this out with a guy doing Bad Seed, while
>waiting to do Zodiac. Morbid subject, but I really am interested,
>as I am trying to write an article comparing the dangers of big wave
>surfing to big wall climbing. How many total climber deaths on El Cap?
>Not counting base jumpers or rappellers.
>We figured around ten. Anyone with a more exact answer?
complete list.
I count 15-17, starting from your list, and looking though my
collection of "Accidents in North American Mountaineering" (ANAM)
from about 1974-1996. Of course, it's hard to assess the risks
without knowing the number of climbers on El Cap during that period
of time.
Clint Cummins
----------------
>1-2. Two people who fell off the Trip.
1 - fixed rope cut by sharp/rough rock while jumaring back to top of p2
(late 70s?)
2 - Carol Moyer, 1983 (ANAM 1984). Following a downward diagonal
pitch 4 on jumars, when they came off the rope (she wasn't tied
in to end of rope).
>3-5. The "American Triangle" accident--three guys?
I presume you are referring to the 3-guy fatality while rapping
down the Stovelegs on the Nose. The hanger they were clipped to
had a pre-existing crack, and they weren't clipped to the other
hanger(s). It was an old Dolt hanger, which was made of metal
that was too brittle. I have heard they loaded it beyond their
combined weight when a haul bag was cut loose, I'm not sure if
this was confirmed. (early 70s)
>6-7. Japanese on the Nose (2)
Sadatamo Keiso, Kenji Yatuhashi, October 1984 (ANAM 1985).
They froze on the last pitch (50' from the top), in a snowstorm.
>8. the careening body that John Long mentioned off the Nose (1)
Vague reference. Do you mean:
Mike Blake, 1973 (ANAM 1974). He was jumaring the last pitch,
Jumar or tie-in failed,
but he was tied into the end of the rope. However, the rope
broke. It was never determined exactly why, because there
were no obvious sharp edges. Perhaps a defect in the rope.
>9-10. He thought two others on the Nose.
1 - Wolfgang Schrattner, 1987 (ANAM 1988). Was following the
Great Roof pitch on jumars. He was on the final traverse when
he fell when one of his jumars was off the rope. He was tied
in to the end of the rope, but he hit his head on the rock
after going 150' and died.
2 - Robert Dietmar Kuhn, 1988 (ANAM 1989). Was leading Pancake
Flake, when he pulled off a 3' loose block. It cut his
rope and he fell to the ground.
11. ZM soloist, five years ago.
Rope cut on a flake during a leader fall.
>More?
12. Jeff Hall, Nose, 1977 (ANAM 1978). Retreating from the Dolt Hole
back towards Sickle Ledge. Their rope was jammed in the crack
below Dolt Hole, he was working to free it, but his locking
biner came off the rope, and he fell to the ground.
13. David Kays, Nose, April 1980 (ANAM 1981). Was soloing the route,
got to 250' from the top when a storm hit. He died of hypothermia.
14. Dragan Rogic, 1988 (ANAM 1989). Was rappelling down fixed lines
on Aquarian Wall, when he fell off while passing a knot.
15. Ik Tae Choi, 1995 (ANAM 1996). Was rappelling down the East Ledges
descent after having climbed the Nose. He became detached from
his rappel device while trying to free a stuck haul bag that was
being lowered.
[at this point, my collection of ANAMs ends...]
------------
2 pure rappellers that I know of:
1. Jim Madsen, ~1968, rappelling down the Dihedral Wall to
check on friends. He rappelled off the end of the rope (even
though it had a knot).
2. Robert Moore, 1992 (ANAM 1993) on a 2000' (150 pound) single rope
on the Dawn Wall. Insufficient friction in rappel device,
got out of control and hit the wall hard.
Bigwallbob
I really appreciate the detailed answers. Sounds like you have every back
volume of ANAM.
In comparing the dangers of Big Wall vs. Big Wave, next my challenge becomes to
find the number of climber days on El Cap. Rough guess? I would stick my neck
out and say that over the last ten years, El Cap has seen 1000 climber days per
year (300 climbers averaging three plus days). Anyone feel this number is
grossly off?
Also, it sounds like El Cap has had two soloist deaths. I'd say solo-climber
days are more like 50 per year.
In article <9t2ok8$iab$1...@usenet.Stanford.EDU>, cl...@Stanford.EDU says...
Travis C. Brooks
> Thanks Clint!
>
> I really appreciate the detailed answers. Sounds like you have every back
> volume of ANAM.
>
> In comparing the dangers of Big Wall vs. Big Wave, next my challenge becomes to
> find the number of climber days on El Cap. Rough guess? I would stick my neck
> out and say that over the last ten years, El Cap has seen 1000 climber days per
> year (300 climbers averaging three plus days). Anyone feel this number is
> grossly off?
>
> Also, it sounds like El Cap has had two soloist deaths. I'd say solo-climber
> days are more like 50 per year.
>
If all you are going to do is guess at the climber days on big walls, your
risk assessment is going to be pretty iffy. Of course, since there is no
registration process for El Cap, that is the best you can do, but your
result is going to be close to meaningless, unless your big wave surfer
risks are orders of magnitude different from the big wallers.
I might suggest you look into some previous work on this issue (perhaps
you already have) there are some good articles, albeit older, that attempt
to quantify climbing risk. Not exactly big walls, but you might learn
something from their methods, or lack of same. One that seemed really
good to me was set in Grand Teton NP where all climbers must register (at
least when the study was done (20 yrs ago?)) and real risk numbers could
be computed. (I could probably dig out this reference if you really want,
but you should be able to find it.)
Even this study has a lot of play in it, so I would advise you not to take
any numbers you might end up with too seriously.
Later
Travis
Clint Cummins
>... Sounds like you have every back volume of ANAM.
Actually, I am missing several, such as:
1961-65, 1967-70, 1973, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1997-2001.
If anyone has them and would like to check 'em for more
El Cap fatalities, that would be helpful.
>In comparing the dangers of Big Wall vs. Big Wave, next my challenge
>becomes to find the number of climber days on El Cap. Rough guess?
>I would stick my neck out and say that over the last ten years, El Cap
>has seen 1000 climber days per year (300 climbers averaging three plus
>days). Anyone feel this number is grossly off?
>
>Also, it sounds like El Cap has had two soloist deaths. I'd say
>solo-climber days are more like 50 per year.
I have no idea of ballpark numbers for these climber days.
John Dill might have some idea. For the entire Valley, he estimates
25,000 to 50,000 climber days per year. And he cites 51 deaths
(not just on El Cap) for 1970-1990. This is in the 1994 edition
of Yosemite Climbs: Free Climbs, by Don Reid.
Sincerely,
Clint
Kyri Freeman
Anyone with a more exact answer?
Yes. Ask YOSAR to see their records -- or wait a year until we (I'm
involved in the project) have them all on computer and you can search
by keyword/location.
Offhand, I remember one you don't have there unless it's part of your
#1: a woman fell off Tangerine Trip; following, jugging a traverse,
the jumars twisted off the rope.
Melissa
Clint Cummins wrote:
Did any of these include the careening body that Bev Johnson saw (thinking it
was a haul bag) where she said nonchalantly to her partner, "Well, you don't
see that every day."
Melissa
>
>
Lincoln
Dill would be the guy to ask about fatailities. I'll be in the Park
tomorrow and will try to pick his brain about such stuff. As for
climber "use days," even us ranger types don't have good numbers to
offer. Mark Fincher and others tried to put together some ball-park
guesses quite a few years ago, but again, these numbers are pretty
useless for any actual statisitcal use.
Will get back to you if I can find out some more useful info.
-Link
Bigwallbob
Bigwallbob
Thanks Clint,
I know the numbers are dissapointingly lacking.
matt
Bigwallbob
kfre...@mysimon.com says...
Thanks Kyri!
Been going to the gym?
Matt
Bigwallbob
chris mcnamara
story of this in my big wall book
http://www.supertopo.com/bigwalls.html The story was researched
entirely on SAR documents that were written right after the event.
There is a write-up for all the deaths that are kept at SAR and if you
are extra nice I bet the SAR folks would let you read them.
Cheers
Chris McNamara
http://www.supertopo.com/
Bigwallbob
says...
Thanks Chris,
BTW, your SuperTopo book is top-notch. I just got down from an EPIC solo on
Zodiac (out of shape, rain, not enough water.) It was my first wall in quite
some time and it ended up being seven days of depression, soul searching, and
the question "WHY?" I will save that story for another time, but I did want to
tell you that I only had one book with me--yours. This was not by design, in
fact I had planned for a three day ascent so I wasn't planning on having any
time for anything except the four wall realities (FWR)--climbing, sleeping,
eating, going potty.
Anywho, I ended up reading your book A LOT. I have already read it cover to
cover, but this was pretty much getting down to fine details.
Some Observations:
1. SuperTopos was obviously written by an El Cap insider. Many formerly feared
routes are presented as no big deal. If one is coming off a summer of doing
nothing but walls, there is a tendency to get an almost cavalier attitude about
climbing the big stone. Thus, part of me relates to the general tone of the
book.
However, coming off the couch, Zodiac and any other route on El Cap is a
terrifying ass-kicker. You mentioned something to this effect in your Nose
write-up--"The Nose, like all El Cap routes is huge, exposed, and terrifying." I
thought that was a great comment because, like I said, El Cap is absolutely
horrific to the vast majority (I think)and especially off the couch. Is El cap
getting to be pretty much a walk in the park these days? Maybe I am just out of
touch. "How hard is it to climb El Cap?" That would be an interesting article
to write, comparing it to other achievements in various adventure sports
(kayaking class iv-v, surfing large waves, etc.)
2. I loved your historical additions to the route topos. These are the types
of things people have been talking about in the Mt. Room Bar for years, I am
sure. "Defying Gravity" is also great for this.
3. You left out many routes. This brings about an interesting situation. As
your book becomes the standard, the routes that are only available in the Reid
will have a higher adventure factor, for example Bad Seed and routes like that.
Many Reid-only routes will become 'obscure', because many climbers just do one
or three walls as the pinnacle of their climbing career, and SuperTopos sets
such a high standard for beta. Interesting.
Matt
Howard
> I just got down from an EPIC solo on
> Zodiac (out of shape, rain, not enough water.) It was my first wall in
quite
> some time and it ended up being seven days of depression, soul searching,
and
Out of shape? Hey we saw you kicking ass down there in that overhanging
circle place.
Howard
Karl Baba
Saw you up there a few times. Congrats!
Karl
In article <9t9na...@drn.newsguy.com>, Bigwallbob
<Bigwallb...@newsguy.com> wrote:
> I just got down from an EPIC solo on
> Zodiac (out of shape, rain, not enough water.)
--
Guide Guy
http://member.newsguy.com/~climbing/
Lincoln
I'll try to remember. Matt- so that was you pulling off the
waterless-craziness up there two weeks ago? I felt your pain, and
didn't even know you were going on only power shots! Well done... er,
well, yeah, well done! :) I was over in the chauce (choss?) to the
left of East Butt and saw you suffering above zoro. Good show old
chap! Glad to hear you got some water from that other party.
-Link
Karl Baba
predict a trend of choss pile climbing sometime in the future of
Yosemite. All that crap between glacier point and the cathedrals will
have pile route on it someday
Peace
karl
In article <356d4e8f.01112...@posting.google.com>, Lincoln
Matt
linco...@hotmail.com says...
Thanks Link. I'm pretty much done with wall soloing for this lifetime.
Matt
Kent Raygor
It is a bit dated now, but you can find some interesting climber-day
statistics and an analysis of injuries in Yosemite as a whole in W.
Bowie, T. Hunt, H. Allen, "Rock-Climbing Injuries in Yosemite National
park", THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, vol. 149, pp. 172-77 (August
1988). Some of its more interesting findings: Of 220 injured
climbers over three and one-half years, 13 resulted in fatalities.
"No area of Yosemite was represented disproportionately, except for
the Cathedral Rocks area, where severe injuries were more frequent."
"The average clinic medical expense for climbers was $233, while
rescued climbers averaged clinic expenses of $360. Nearly all (89%)
climbers paid their clinic bills in full."