My climbing partner and I were involved in a rescue on July 23 when a climber in his early 20s fell while descending Child’s Play (5.5) at Cathedral Ledge. We had just come down from Recluse at the North End and were packing up around 2:30 p.m. A ...
Mark, Pete, and I (Jesse Morenz) headed up to the Whites early Saturday morning, March 16, to train for our upcoming Liberty Ridge climb. We arrived at the Frankenstein parking lot at 12:30 p.m. and planned on getting in two climbs before our larg...
On March 1, James “Jimmy” Watts died as a result of injuries sustained in an avalanche in Pinnacle Gully. Jimmy left the Harvard Mountaineering Club cabin near the base of Huntington Ravine, intending to climb multiple gullies. Based on earlier co...
My climbing partner, Marty Goss (50) and I, Paul Spence (52), met at Red Rock for a week of climbing. On March 14 we had planned to climb Cat in the Hat, a six-pitch 5.6 trad route in Pine Creek Canyon. We were the only ones on the route and could...
On September 21 a climber named Michael Parker fell 30 to 40 feet from Practice Rock. Officials said Parker had failed to secure his anchor. It took more than 35 rescuers about an hour and a half to get him off the side of the mountain, due to rou...
On September 2, John “Amos” Ridenour (35), a Gallatin County sheriff’s deputy, died after falling while rock climbing in Hyalite Canyon, 10 miles south of Bozeman. He had gone to Practice Rock with his son and neighbor early on Labor Day morning t...
A party of approximately 15 volunteers was cleaning routes for the ice climbing season at the Sandstone ice cliff. Volunteers’ levels of experience ranged from great to little. The victim volunteered to go on rappel to clean the face of a new rout...
On July 17, Andrea Campanella (47), a guide with a local climbing company, was guiding two older teenagers on the South Wall of Champlain Mountain when he fell to the ground due to a lowering error. The exact sequence of events is not clear, due t...
On April 28, Will Raymond (age 21) was leading Old Town, a popular 5.7 corner climb. Nearing the top of the first corner, which is typically climbed as a lieback, he slipped and fell. The camming unit that he had placed for protection failed, and ...
On October 6 a male climber (35) took a long lead fall while reaching high for a bolt. His fall caused him to impact a tree. He suffered broken ribs, a punctured/ collapsed lung, and broken scapula, requiring surgical repair. (Source: Rick Weber, ...
Late in the afternoon on October 6, a male climber (22), after cleaning the anchors on Rat Stew (5.10a), a 75-foot climb, fell approximately 60 feet after rappelling off the end of one of his rope strands. He suffered internal injuries, including ...
On September 28 a male climber named Roro fell while climbing Way of the Peaceful Warrior (5.10a). He fell off the bouldery first section of the route, and his first placement (a No. 8 nut) behind a thin flake pulled. This section of the route is ...
On April 20, a male lead climber (23) was put on belay by his partner (male, 19) with a brand-new Grigri. The belayer had never used a Grigri before. As the climber moved up the belayer squeezed the Grigri shut with his left hand while pulling out...
On May 13, I (Matt Queen, 32) was gearing up at the base of Father and Son (5.7) when a member of my party, climbing above me, dislodged a block weighing approximately 10 pounds while traversing between the anchors of Father and Son and the adjace...
On March 29 a climber on Mercy the Huff (5.12b) fell at the eighth bolt. This bolt is located at the lip of a little black “rooflet.” After clipping the bolt, the climber made a long move to a crimp, attempted to make another move, and fell. The b...
On March 7 a male climber, about 20 years old, fell on lead while attempting to clip the first bolt and sustained a fractured ankle when he impacted the ground.Analysis Muir Valley provides loaner stick clips at no charge to its visitors. This cli...
During the weekend of June 29-30, my son and I climbed the North Buttress Route (Class 3) on El Diente Peak (14,165 feet) and subsequently made the traverse to Mt. Wilson (14,252 feet). We had four experienced people in our party and were careful ...
On July 10 the body of Andrew M. Barnes (27) was found at the base of the Painted Wall below Serpent Point. Based on evidence found at the scene, and also from talking to his friends and climbing partners, investigators believe he was attempting t...
On July 19 at 7 p.m., the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office received the report of an overdue climber on Capitol Peak (14,130 feet). Climbing partners stated that after reaching the summit via the northeast ridge (which requires crossing the exposed,...
On June 23, Steve Gladbach (52), a highly experienced mountaineer, was reported missing by two companions who had summited Thunder Pyramid (13,932 feet) with him. Gladbach was downclimbing and was ahead of his partners when they realized he had no...