Hao Yan, 23, had come to Idaho from the East Coast to fight forest fires, and in June he decided to attempt 12,662-foot Borah Peak. Climbing solo, he started before dawn but got lost on the approach, and by the time he reached the main difficultie...
On November 10, in very cold temperatures, Sam Warren (20) and his partner were rock climbing at Main Cliff on Ragged Mountain. Sam, a 5.10 sport climber and beginner trad climber, was attempting to lead Tower Crack (5.7), an offwidth crack in an ...
On October 20, Alex Kissinger (28) and I (27) started up the Yellow Spur (six pitches, 5.9+). At around 4 p.m. we reached the top of the fourth pitch, where the belay stance is a small, exposed ledge no bigger than a small nightstand table. There ...
IT'S EARLY SEASON on El Cap. A climber looks up to see his partner peel off the rock and fly past him. When the climber rappels down, his fallen partner is barely responsive. Yosemite Search and Rescue arrives soon and evacuates the fallen climber...
On both August 18 and October 3, the Alpine Rescue Team responded to the east end of the Creekside wall to assist stranded climbers. The climbers had started up the neighboring multi-pitch sport routes Playin’ Hooky (5.8) and Black Gold (5.7), and...
On April 28, three buddies and I set out to climb Playin’ Hooky, a three- or four-pitch bolted 5.8. By the time we made it to the crag, there were two other parties waiting to get on the same route. We checked the book and decided to get on the ro...
I try to climb a first ascent on my birthday, October 20, every year, and this time my friends Vitaliy and Adam and I had selected the south face of Windy Cliff. It lies on the north side of the South Fork of the Kings River, just outside of Kings...
On October 20, at approximately 2 p.m., an experienced climber (male, 36) took a long, tumbling ground fall on Vanadium Miner’s Daughter (5.9) at the Gateway Slabs, outside of Pratt’s Crack Canyon. This single-pitch climb on a low-angle slab was t...
At approximately 4:30 p.m. on August 26, two climbers were descending loose 4th-class terrain in the North Couloir of Thunderbolt Peak when a male climber (31) took a tumbling fall of approximately 300 feet, suffering major trauma. This climber ha...
On July 29, after climbing North Peak, Kimberly Luba and I descended to the basin below Mt. Conness. While resting by a small alpine lake, we heard cries for help. We headed up the talus field under the north ridge of Conness, following the scream...
On the morning of June 10, Inyo County Search and Rescue was notified of an accident involving three climbers above Trail Camp on Mt. Whitney. At approximately 7 a.m., climber 1 (female, age unknown) slipped while ascending “The Chute,” a snowfiel...
On June 30, a climber fell from the Kor Roof (fourth pitch) on the South Face Route (V 5.8 C1) of Washington Column. The reporting party stated that the climber was now on Dinner Ledge and had an altered mental state after sustaining head injuries...
Around 6 a.m. on the morning of June 2, Tim Klein, Kevin Prince, and Jason Wells started up El Capitan with the objective of climbing the Salathé Wall (VI 5.9 C2) in a day. All three were very familiar with the terrain. Klein had climbed El Capita...
On two days in a row in early June, YOSAR responded to climbers stranded after failing to make their way down the East Ledges descent from the top of El Capitan, which requires a mix of rappelling and scrambling.The first party had climbed the Eas...
On May 7 two climbers headed to the route Lunatic Fringe (single-pitch 5.10c). The leader was fairly experienced (four to five years), and the belayer had about 1.5 years of experience. The two had climbed together the day before in the Valley. Lu...
On May 3, Hans Florine and a climbing partner started a climb of the Nose of El Capitan at approximately 7 a.m. Both are highly experienced. Florine has made over 100 ascents of the Nose and has held the speed record on the route; his partner had ...
In 2018 there were eight climbing-related accidents on Mt. Shasta. Four were due to falls on ice or snow, two were due to rockfall, and one was the result of glissading with crampons; little information is available about the eighth incident. In a...
On November 28, a male climber, DS (21), was leading Succubus, a 5.10 trad finger crack. The crux of the climb is approximately 25 feet up, where you move right under a roof to reach a finger crack. DS placed what he felt was a solid 0.5 Black Dia...
On November 10, person 1 (female, 34) fell 40 to 60 feet from the top of the Oak Creek Vista overlook to the rocky trail below, suffering numerous serious injuries. An unaffiliated witness stated that he observed her climb to the top of the wall a...
On March 5, in early afternoon, Ryan Johnson and Marc-André Leclerc reached the summit of the Main Tower (6,910’) in the Mendenhall Towers massif, after completing the first ascent of the north face. The pair started down the east ridge and then...