Around midday on October 5, a male climber fell approximately 25 feet while leading Stoned Oven, a multi-pitch 5.11+ climb on North Chasm View Wall. The climber fell on easier terrain after completing an airy traverse on the sixth pitch of the asc...
I was climbing with three friends in Cascade Canyon on Fourth of July weekend. Luke and Ben had climbed in the area before, but Will and I (female, 20) had not. Will and I chose a route called Funky Crack (5.8 trad) that was well within both of ou...
On Friday, June 21, two climbers from Kansas (ages 23 and 30) drove up to the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Range. Their goal was the Ellingwood Ledges (a.k.a. Ellingwood Arête) on the east side of Crestone Needle. The 2,000-foot route ends at...
On February 23, I (male, 31) went climbing with a small group of friends at the Invisible Wall in Santa Barbara. We are new climbers (less than two years), but I had taken several classes and regularly practiced rope skills at home. Midway through...
On July 28, a male climber (25) was leading the route Fingertrip (5.7) and fell when he was about 45 feet up the first pitch. Nearby climbers, many with medical and rescue training, heard the fall and quickly arrived on scene. They noted that thre...
Late on August 24, a 27-year-old female was descending the Mountaineer’s Route on Mt. Whitney after summiting the peak. At about 13,900 feet, near the top of the big gully that characterizes much of this route, the climber dislodged a three-foot- ...
Two 23-year-old males were descending the L-shaped snow eld below Mt. Sill’s North Couloir in the late afternoon of October 20. Both were wearing helmets and crampons and using ice axes to descend extremely firm, sun-cupped, late-season snow. One ...
On August 23, a party of four was attempting Mt. Sill in the Palisade Range via an unknown route (possibly the North Couloir). The climbers got off-route on the upper section and descended a short distance to reassess. At this point, a large block...
On July 1, I (43) was climbing with three partners near the midpoint of the Evolution Ridge Traverse (VI 5.9). It was our third day on this long, multi-peak traverse. During a scrambling section that afternoon, I caught up with my partners as they...
In the late afternoon of September 15, hikers on the Piute Pass Trail reported that they heard calls for help and saw people waving their arms on the rugged southeast face of Mt. Emerson (13,204 feet). Two Inyo County Search and Rescue members wer...
On October 26, experienced climbers Jennifer Shedden (34) and Michelle Xue (22) approached Red Slate Mountain (13,156 feet), planning to climb its North Couloir. The route is a moderate snow couloir, approximately 1,500 feet high, that usually req...
In the evening of October 18, Yosemite National Park dispatchers received a report of a fallen climber on the 13th pitch of the Steck-Salathé Route on Sentinel Rock, a prominent Yosemite Valley feature infamous for its demanding wide cracks and ar...
In late October, I completed a number of routes at Yosemite Falls with some friends. I decided to lead Guiding Light (5.10b trad), a dihedral about 80 feet long with a thinning crack and stemming on slick feet. The line culminates with a thin layb...
In mid-June, Rylan Knuttgen and John Shields started up the Salathé Wall. Both were experienced climbers with four decades of trad climbing between them, including multiple big walls. They had been prepping for the Salathé Wall specifically for th...
On June 8, Chad and Ben started up Royal Arches (III 5.7 A0). Both were experienced climbers, with two years of trad experience around the 5.7/5.8 level. The team started climbing around 9 a.m., and they reached the final anchors at 8:45 p.m. They...
John and Chris (30-year-old males) were on their first climbing trip to Yosemite, and Cathedral was their first objective. They had climbed together frequently in the past, and had completed a three-day course in multi-pitch trad climbing in 2017....
On August 3, I (female, 20) was leading Scheister, a three-pitch 5.7 trad route at Sugarloaf. On the third pitch, I climbed about 25 feet above the belay before realizing I had gone the wrong way. I had only placed one nut, clipped to the rope wit...
On the morning of September 9, Dan (28) and Jon (30) started up the Red Dihedral route (12 pitches, 5.10) with a party of three climbers close behind. The leader of the first party, Dan, had nearly finished the second pitch when he slipped and fel...
On May 5, a boulderer (male, 32), fell while topping out an unnamed V4 near the south shore of Lake Tahoe. He fell about ten feet, landing awkwardly onto his pad. He was climbing with friends but had no spotter at the time. Upon landing, he sustai...
Late on July 12, two male climbers were attempting to complete the second pitch of Cannibal Gully, a 5.7 trad climb on the left portion of the Black Wall. This climb is popular for new leaders due to the grade, but the rock quality is considered l...