During the early evening on March 19, a woman (22) was leading the sport route Tanduay Time (5.10d) at the Boneyard Wall and fell while trying to clip the anchors. She fell approximately 20 feet, hitting the prominent ledge about halfway down. She impacted on her lower back and was lowered to the ground by her belayer. She complained of significant back pain. One of her party called Muir Valley Rescue on a nearby emergency-station radio. Rescuers arrived about four minutes later and treated and packaged the patient for litter transport to the Muir Emergency Road, where an ambulance awaited.

Analysis

The general consensus was that there was too much slack in the rope between the belayer and climber. In a re-enactment the next day, a “normal” lead fall from this point on the wall resulted in a modest fall that terminated several feet above the point where the victim impacted the ledge. (Source: Rick Weber, Muir Valley.)