New York, Shaivangunks. On the morning of June 6 Werner Bischof (40) and Peter Geisser (24), accompanied by Bob Croco and Don Wallace, set off to climb High Corner. Their plan was to break into ropes of two with Bischof and Geisser as the first party. Bischof was an experienced climber and familiar with the Shawangunks; Geisser, a Swiss citizen in America on business, had done some technical climbing in Switzerland but had been to the Shawangunks only twice previously. When the four reached the beginning of High Corner, Bischof tied in and started to climb. Geisser was slow in preparing to belay him. Wallace told him to tie in and belay Bischof, and Croco assumed the belay until Geisser was ready. Geisser tied in hurriedly with a knot with two loops around his waist, and took over the belay.

It is believed that the knot Geisser tried to tie was the bowline-on-a- coil. He was not accustomed to using it, and had been introduced to it two weeks previously at a beginners’ training session run by the New York Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club. At that time Geisser had had trouble learning the knot and tying it correctly. He was accustomed to tying in with the Spyrenstich, which he had learned and used in Switzerland. However, the day before the accident Bischof had climbed with Geisser and had checked his tie-in knot (the Spyrenstich at that time), noting that it was tied correctly.

High Corner is a four-pitch climb on a seventy degree, two hundred twenty foot face. The last pitch ascends an inside corner, partially by means of chimney technique, and finishes with a ten-foot traverse out the left wall of this comer. Bischof led all four pitches. The climb was without incident until Geisser was coming across the ten-foot traverse which finishes the climb. The rope to him was running through a carabiner on a runner placed over a projection of rock. To the right of this projection the traverse includes an off-balance move where one must use out- sloping handholds. From where Bischof was standing to belay tied in to a tree, he could see Geisser climbing. Geisser gave no indication of being in trouble, and was joking with his partner about the heat of the day; by this time he was sweating freely. Bischof saw him fall backwards as though his hands had come off a hold, and drop from view below the level of the traverse. Simultaneously the rope gave a sharp pull and then went slack. Bischof heard a thud from below. He untied himself from the tree, removed the runner from the projection, and immediately started down the trail which leads to the base of the cliff, trailing the rope behind him. On examination later, the only knot on the rope was an overhand loop about ten feet from Geisser’s end.

Croco and Wallace had angled off left to another route, Shockley’s Ceiling, and were now a pitch below the top and fifty feet left of the line of Geisser’s fall. They were alerted by a noise which sounded to them like a falling rock and turned to see Geisser falling out into space in an arc. Evidently he had just hit the ledge which forms the third belay spot of High Corner. Concerned for Bischof’s welfare, they called for help and completed their climb.

A third party was just about to start on Shockley’s Ceiling, the base of which is around a corner from the base of High Corner. They heard what sounded like a rock fall but for a moment thought nothing of it. Wallace’s shouts alerted them and they went around the corner to find Geisser lying on the ground. A member of the party told one of the others to do what he could for Geisser, and ran to the Uberfall for help. Within minutes Joe Donohue, the representative at the cliffs of the owners of the property, arrived with several climbers and first aid equpiment. Several people worked at giving Geisser mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for almost an hour and packing a gaping hip wound. However, it was observed by all present that Geisser showed no signs of life from the moment he was first found. He had fallen over two hundred feet and probably died instantly. Dr. Hans Kraus was on the scene within ten minutes after the accident and examined the body, which was later taken to the highway to be picked up. The local police were notified and Dr. Kraus pronounced Geisser dead.

Source: David B. Ingalls.

Analysis: (Ingalls) It is probable that either Geisser tied a false knot in attempting to tie the bowline-on-a-coil, or else tied it correctly but loosely and without securing the end with an overhand knot, in which case it might have worked loose in the chimney on the fourth pitch. Climbers should be aware that it is often very difficult to observe whether a bowline- on-a-coil has been tied correctly unless one has tied it himself or seen it being tied.

While the individuals involved in this accident were not negligent toward each other in any regard, it is generally best for the leader to see that things are in order with the other members of the party and with his belay before starting to climb.