A climber left Calgary on the morning of August 4, telling his wife that he was going to Castle Mountain. He did not return home that evening. Banff Dispatch was contacted the following morning by a friend of the missing climber. The friend rep...
On October 26 a man (45) with significant rock climbing and paramedic rescue experience fell from a height of about 30 feet, sustaining serious injuries. “I can’t tell you how embarrassing it is to have had such an accident,” the man reported. ...
We dedicated the summer of 2012 to designing and installing a solid-waste dehydrating system for the Snowbird Hut outhouse. Several passive systems were integrated into the outhouse design, including urine separation, passive solar, and contin...
On June 16 a man (48) started to climb a sport route called I Banged my ***** Knee. When he got about eight feet off the ground and was attempting to clip the first bolt, he fell and impacted the ground. His fractured his right tibia and fibula...
During the early afternoon of January 2, Bill McAfee (40) fell off Good Samaritans (5.9+), located on the Cereal Buttress. He had placed a solid-looking No. 3 Camalot about 10 to 12 feet into the climb. He climbed another 10 feet or so, and was...
On August 2 two climbers who were relatively inexperienced started late in the day on a route that they thought was Ballista. Ballista is a bolted sport climb on the southeast face of Tunnel Mountain. They were climbing very slowly, and at one ...
Fifteen reports from the Gunks were submitted for 2012, not including the previous incident. There was only one fatality, on April 29, when the anchor system at the top of Easy Keyhole (5.2) failed as Stephanie Prezant (22) was about to be low...
On March 31, Art Webb (51) was climbing the Piton Crack (5.7) on Skyline Wall when he took a short pendulum fall (under 10 feet) on a traversing tight hand and finger crack. The fall caused him to strike a chunk of rock on a small, jutting arêt...
On July 31 two climbers were descending the standard route on Mt. Lefroy around 6 p.m. When they were approximately halfway down the route, one of the climber’s crampons fell off. His climbing partner was 15 meters below and started to ascend...
Late in the afternoon on June 19, a man (44) was climbing a sport route named Earth Surfer (5.11d) in Muir Valley. While on lead about 50 feet up and being belayed by his 15-year-old son, he groaned and went limp as though he had passed out. ...
On July 27 a group of three climbers was descending the normal route on Mt. Lefroy after making a successful summit. One member of the party was making a short traverse over some icy rocks and slipped. He was not wearing crampons. He proceeded ...
On October, 26 Lyle Dale Hurd III (49) died after taking a fall while climbing the Northeast Buttress, a popular route on Angels Landing. Hurd was in a party of four individuals, traveling in pairs; Hurd and his partner were following the other...
On Saturday, July 21, two climbers set off to climb a route on Bumpers Buttress west of Banff. They selected the route Short Jerky Movements, which was located above the Spasm Chasm (local name). The two climbers were quite experienced. While c...
On May 26 I was attempting to climb Birdland, which ascends the right side of a beautiful open book corner. As you traverse out right, you can clip a couple of older, large, angle pitons that are commonly found in the Gunks. These are much more...
A group of six spent the day of March 21 climbing at the Gallery before heading over to the Playground. Once at the Playground, the climbers set up on two climbs, a 5.10b and a 5.10a. The climber on Jungle Gym (5.10b) was unable to move past th...
On the morning of July 20, a stranded climber called Banff Dispatch for a rescue. The climber had spent the night on a small ledge immediately below the summit of Mt. Whyte. After numerous attempts to downclimb to the Whyte-Niblock Col, the cli...
On July 10, while climbing the Northeast Ridge of Mt. Bell near the Lake Louise area, a party of two contacted Parks Canada and requested a rescue. Although they’d started early in the morning, they were only halfway up the route by 5 p.m. ...
On September 18, Yoshio Hosobuchi (74), a retired neurosurgeon, was found dead after spending a night hanging upside down on his climbing ropes. He had been making a rappel in the Subway, a popular and demanding canyoneering route. Hosobuch...
On December 15 the weather in the northern Adirondack Mountains was bluebird clear but cold. I had spent the day with a fellow New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) forest ranger patrolling on foot to the 2,000-foot summ...
On February 7, at 1:50 p.m., Banff Dispatch received a call from an injured skier who had just tumbled down the Aemmer Couloir on Mt. Temple. The subject stated that he had “tomahawked” down the 600-meter couloir, after falling on his second tu...