On February 7, a female climber with two years of climbing experience executed a slow but clean lead of Left Handed Jew, a 5.7 trad route. I was top-rope belaying a climber 20 feet to the left of their route. During the climb, several observers no...
On August 22 a female climber (age 39) was injured while being lowered from the anchor after top-roping a trad climb. She was in a climbing party of five exploring a granite crag near the Crags Trailhead. Just below the anchor, it was necessary to...
Two experienced climbers, ages 31 and 28, were attempting the Naked Edge (5.11b) in August. The leader of the 5.11a first pitch belayed at a two-bolt anchor and set up to belay the second directly off the anchor with an ATC-Guide device in autoblo...
On the morning of July 13, a party was climbing the first pitch of the Bastille Crack (5.7+), which was well within the leader’s climbing ability. The leader placed his first piece in a crack/flake about nine feet off the deck, then climbed up a c...
My climbing partner and I (ages 33 and 30) arrived at Eldo early on March 29, intending to climb Swanson’s Arête, a multi-pitch 5.5. We got to the base around 10 a.m. There was a very inexperienced party starting the first pitch of an adjacent ro...
On March 6 a solo climber attempted Call the Copps, an ephemeral ice climb (WI3 M3) on the east face of the Second Flatiron. When he found the route deteriorating in warm weather and threatened by falling ice, he instead climbed mixed terrain near...
On August 16, 2014, a guide (uncertified) took four clients (two males and two females in their 20s) to a top-rope climbing area in Boulder Canyon. None of the clients had climbed before. The clients first did two routes that had anchor bolts with...
On March 16, in the early evening, I was climbing at the Boulderado. As a moderately experienced climber, but new trad leader, I attempted to lead Jam It (5.8- ). This single-pitch route passes a small roof with a great hand-size crack. After plac...
On March 31 we began the direct start of Deep Freeze, a rock chimney (M5-6) that finishes on a low-angle snow slope in a broad gully. This leads to a shelf before rambling ice and a final ice pillar (WI5-6). My partner started up the chimney and f...
Torre Traverse in a Day: Alex Honnold and I had only one sure goal for the season: the Torre Traverse in less than 24 hours. We had nearly succeeded on this awesome objective the year before, retreating two pitches below the top of Cerro Torre—the...
On September 19, at approximately 5:30 p.m., YOSAR was notified about a climber who had taken a 15-meter fall on Lurking Fear. The climber suffered serious injuries, including possible head trauma. The reporting party was another climbing team on ...
On June 17, Yosemite Search and Rescue responded to a 6 a.m. request for help from a solo climber on pitch 15 of Tangerine Trip (VI 5.7 A3/C3). He reported that he had lost partial use of both hands and that completing the climb was no longer viab...
On October 30, at approximately 8:45 p.m., Yosemite Dispatch received a report that a climber, Ethan Gillett, had fallen 100 to 200 feet from the South Face Route (V 5.8 C1) on Washington Column and landed on Dinner Ledge. Another climber, a Wilde...
On May 27, five climbers had gathered near Camp VI on the Nose—a team of two and a team of three had been climbing alongside each other over the previous days. A member of the team of three was leading midway up the Changing Corners pitch, above C...
On May 9, at approximately 9:30 a.m., YOSAR dispatch received a call about an injured climber who had taken a 20-foot leader fall on the first pitch of the Nose. As YOSAR mobilized to El Cap Meadow, a ranger at the base of Pine Line (a 5.7 crack j...
At approximately 10 a.m. on October 10, rangers Forrest Coots and Matt Dooley received a radio transmission reporting a climber (male, mid-20s) with a broken ankle on the Hotlum-Bolam Route. The climber reportedly fell above 12,000 feet on an ice ...
On June 16 a female climber was descending the Avalanche Gulch Route with crampons on her boots. While glissading just below the Red Banks, at about 12,000 feet, both of her crampons caught in the snow, breaking her ankles and taking her for a goo...
Michael Murphy, in his mid-50s, was climbing the Avalanche Gulch Route with partners early the morning of June 11. They reached the Red Banks and decided to turn around. They had begun descending when, at about 12,400 feet, Murphy caught his cramp...
On April 10 a male climber in his 20s attempted a solo ski ascent via Avalanche Gulch and Casaval Ridge. The weather was clear and the conditions ideal for such a trip. He started climbing at 4 a.m. and did not summit until 7 p.m. While descending...
On June 18, Chris Moore, Cooper Varney, Will Wacker, and I completed the first ascent of the Central Tower of Rapa Nui (7,015’). This formation is the centerpiece of a collection of granite towers two miles east of Klukwah Mountain (7,000’), to th...