The Spear (a.k.a. Satan’s Spear)—the left of the two pillars—is a new, farmed ice route in the popular Rigid Designator Amphitheater. This climb was the site of a serious leader fall in December 2024. Photo: Phil Wortmann On December 14, I wa...
Nathan Chaszeyka in the depths of a chimney on Bird Brain Boulevard. Higher on the route, Chaszeyka’s belay/rappel device became detached from his harness. This set a chain of events in motion, culminating in a near-fatal fall while on the desce...
Less frequented than other areas, the routes in Escalante Canyon still hold loose rock. The yellow dashed outline indicates where a huge block was located before being dislodged by a climber. A climber’s foot in the margin of the photo (blue arr...
A ground fall occurred on May 18, when two cams pulled. Both are over 30 years old. The Metolius TCU is an old version with all cams an equal width. Later, the single middle cam was widened to provide more opposing surface area. The U-stem Black...
In November 2023,* D and M (female, early 30s) were on day three of a visit to Joshua Tree National Park from the U.K. It was D’s third trip to the park and M’s first time visiting. M had been climbing for ten years, primarily sport climbing (up t...
Ian Fried (33) and I (Tobias Tillemans, 46) had set up camp at Iceberg Lake (12,600 feet) at the base of Mt. Whitney. It was 3 p.m. when Ian heard a clattering noise coming from the mountain. A climber informed us that he had just seen a solo clim...
In June, a lowering climber fell 80 feet when his anchor knot came undone. This photo was taken after the accident. The two dangling ends had been integrated in the original “knot.” When the climber clipped the resulting loops and began lowering...
On May 17, at 3:30 p.m., a 32-year-old male fell roughly 30 feet while off route on the fourth pitch of Selaginella (5.8). The climber sustained an ankle injury with visible deformity but no obvious bleeding or loss of circulation, sensation, or m...
On August 8, at 3:45 p.m., Yosemite dispatch received a 911 call from a distressed individual who stated that one of their climbing partners had fallen off a cliff while descending from Sunnyside Bench. His friends had traversed to the base of the...
Royal Arches takes a remarkably moderate line up the buttress to the left of the massive arch, pictured above. On Memorial Day, crowding on the rappel descent prompted one team to take a shortcut. This instigated rockfall that nearly killed or s...
On October 14, at approximately 5:30 p.m., a climber on the East Buttress of Lower Cathedral (IV 5.10+) was struck on the head by a football-sized rock dislodged by their partner. The climber was bleeding but remained responsive to verbal stimuli....
This photo of Tenaya Peak shows a section of the descent (red line). The end of the red line marks where an unroped climber slipped and fell. The yellow arrowed X shows where the 70-foot fall ended. Photo: Russell Bengert On June 13, my longt...
This ram’s horn anchor on a route called Two for One in Mt. Diablo State Park was involved in a near-fatal accident in October. It is possible the climber did not set the rope in the lowest and most secure position in the horns before she attemp...
My name is Mac (13), and on June 4 I was involved in a rescue at Pie Shop. The people on the spot were Steve (71), Angela, my dad, and Dr. Michael. Steve was going to teach Angela about climbing outside. We got to our climbing spot, and my dad wa...
On June 2, an early-to-mid-20s climber descending Avalanche Gulch returned to Helen Lake (10,400 feet) with symptoms of mild hypothermia. Climbing rangers Eric Falconer and Hayden MacArthur were notified of the individual’s condition by his two cl...
Mt. Shasta is a breathtaking and often crowded experience, with a fair share of avalanches and rockfall. Photo: Jack Dolan On May 26, over the Memorial Day weekend, shortly before 9:15 a.m., a solo male climber (51) descending Avalanche Gulch...
On May 3 at approximately 10:30 a.m., a solo climber ascending Casaval Ridge ventured off route, traversing onto a south-southeast slope approximately 1,000 vertical feet above Olberman’s upper moraine in Avalanche Gulch. The climber triggered a w...
Aerial view of Mt. Shasta (14,179 feet). The Shasta tribe called this symmetric peak: Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki; the Karuk tribe: Úytaahkoo. Photo: Ewen Denney — Wikipedia The 2024 climbing season began strong in mid-April, with excellent snow cov...
On January 30, Claire Amiel (34) fell while cleaning an anchor on a sport route at the popular Pond area in Queen Creek. The fall from the anchor, resulted in her death. According to a source that wishes to remain anonymous, Amiel was the less ex...
I had traveled from out of state to visit a friend, and on February 14 I figured I’d check out the bouldering at a local gym. About an hour into my session, I slid off a slab problem about six to eight feet off the mats. When I landed, my right fo...