On October 30, 49-year-old Andrew Caplan fell from the north side of the Second Flatiron near the top of a climb. Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks rangers arrived on scene just after 9:20 a.m. and began resuscitation efforts, but the patient did not survive.

ANALYSIS

GPS tracking from Strava suggests that Caplan hiked from the Chautauqua trailhead to the base of the Second Flatiron to climb Freeway (5.0), though his exact climbing route isn’t known. This is a popular route for scrambling (free soloing) and is a route that Caplan was reported to have climbed “hundreds of times.’’ The location where his body was discovered on a nearby trail suggests he fell during an exposed, low fifth-class section near the end of the route and then slid some distance. The area had received about a foot of snow in an early-season storm four days earlier. It was not clear if lingering snow or wet conditions contributed to Caplan’s fall. (Source: The Editors.)