California, Sierra Nevada, Middle Fork Lone Pine Creek (Whitney Portal). On 11 January Frederick C. Scheberies (27) arrived at the climbing area at approximately 9:30 a.m. with other climbers. He strapped on crampons and carried an ice axe, but was not wearing a hard hat. He proceeded up gently sloping ice (10°) to the staging and practice area directly below the first cascades. While more experienced climbers chopped steps and climbed the first 15-foot pitch with upper belays supplied from trees along the bank (snowfree), he observed the climbers and practiced step-cutting and crampon use on the gentle ice below. After 1½ hours he joined a party to practice belayed ice axe arrests on the ice, and proceeded to the smoothest area of the cascades, a relatively gentle slope of 15° located about 200 feet above the first 15-foot practice pitch. The party included Mr. Scheberies and three other persons, all of whom climbed up the Class 2 bank on the right side of the stream.

At 11:30 a.m., after reaching the area which was located directly below the second steep pitch of the cascades, other members of the party set up the belays to be used in the ice axe practice, while Mr. Scheberies crossed the stream and delivered a rope to be carried farther up the left bank by another person. He returned, pausing before reaching the right bank, and attempted a steeper portion of the slope. After taking a long step, he lost his balance and fell forward, with his hands on the ice. His crampons slipped out and he fell, accelerating slowly, but making no attempt to arrest with his ice axe. After reaching a steeper portion, he lost the ice axe, and continued down the slope for 300 feet, somersaulting over the first practice pitch.

Those reaching the victim found him unconscious, bleeding from the mouth and ears, and not breathing. A doctor was sent for, mouth-to- mouth resuscitation and first aid for shock were administered, until the victim was pronounced dead (of a skull fracture) 40 minutes later. His crampons were found to be still tightly strapped and correctly positioned on his boots.

Source: James R. Nichols and George G. Barnes.

Analysis: The location of the victim’s fall was on ice whose gradual slope led the other members of the group (who had practiced at this area on several previous years) to believe that a slip there would be improbable, although it was recognized that the consequences of such a slip without a belay would be severe. The judgment of the situation by the trip leaders was further influenced by the capable use of crampons demonstrated by the victim prior to his fall. It must be recognized that gently-sloping ice can appear to be deceptively easy, and that beginners especially must be belayed if a fall could result in injury, however low the probability of a slip might seem.

The victim was not wearing a hard hat and, in the opinion of the group, the commonly seen industrial hard hats with elastic chin straps would very probably not have stayed on in a fall of that severity. The complete head coverage and double nylon and leather chin straps of such helmets as the Bell 500-TX might well have been a distinct aid.