On September 21 a climber named Michael Parker fell 30 to 40 feet from Practice Rock. Officials said Parker had failed to secure his anchor. It took more than 35 rescuers about an hour and a half to get him off the side of the mountain, due to rough terrain. Parker had suffered a broken ankle, broken lumbar vertebrae, and a head injury. He was transported to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital and then airlifted to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Billings. (Source: KBZK News.)

(Editor’s note: It seems likely that both Mr. Ridenour (See Fall on Rock, Inadequate Protection) and Mr. Parker were in the process of setting up anchor systems in order to establish top-rope belays. The lesson from these two incidents is that we need to always secure ourselves in an exposed situation before setting up the belay system.)