California: (2) Devil's Slide, near San Francisco. On 24 September 1950 Harry E. Bates, 46, of Oakland, fell 75 feet to his death while trying to climb down the sheer face of this sea cliff. He had climbed about 20 feet down the side when he suddenly lost his footing and fell to the rocks below.

Source of information. newspaper report and Mountaineering Committee of the Sierra Club.

Analysis. Apparently a result of inexperience; but certainly also a result of the fact that he was alone and unroped. At least one or two persons a year are killed at this point, which is only 15 miles south of San Francisco. The county authorities would probably build a fence around it if they could afford the cost. They have threatened from time to time to prohibit anyone going there, but probably that would be quite futile.