On September 29 a male fell while leading an unnamed route on Elk Creek Spires, on the north side of the park. His top piece of protection, a camming device, pulled out. He lost consciousness in the fall and suffered a fractured arm. Evacuation re...
On April 6 a male climber (62) was killed after falling from the top of Levada (5.8+), an 80-foot rock climb at the far west end of the Canal Zone crag. According to witnesses, he was off belay and standing on top of the route, and was beginning t...
On August 15 at 1 a.m., Rocky Mountain Rescue Group, Rocky Mountain Fire, an American Medical Response ambulance, and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office responded to Redgarden Wall due to a report of a stranded climber. Kyle Willis (27) and Ryan ...
On May 11 a man (32) was bouldering Germ Free Adolescence (V5+) when he intentionally let go rather than attempt to downclimb or continue up. He fell about 10 feet straight onto a crash pad. Despite a spotter assisting his landing, the fall badly ...
On March 17 at 11:15 a.m., Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Rocky Mountain Rescue, and Rocky Mountain Fire responded to Eldorado State Park on a report of a fallen climber. Rocky Mountain Fire and Rocky Mountain Rescue located the injured party, w...
About 6 p.m. on January 26, Tim Holm (22), Davis Gray (22), and Josh Jordan (21) became stranded on the fifth pitch of the Yellow Spur (5.10a) on Redgarden Wall. Rescuers received a call for assistance from another climber in the area, who reporte...
About 9:45 p.m. on June 28, the Boulder County Communications Center received a call from three climbers (two males, one female) stuck on the first pitch of Fandango (5.5) on the First Flatiron. Not long after that, an intense storm cell moved ove...
During the early evening of January 26, three climbers (two males, one female) became stranded while climbing the Standard Direct (5.2) on the East Face of the Third Flatiron. The group had decided to descend from partway up the route and was prep...
On August 31 a woman (20) was seriously injured when she fell approximately 30 to 40 feet after a piece of gear pulled while she was climbing on the Happy Hour Crag. According to her belayer, she was somewhat run-out when she placed her third cam ...
Late in the afternoon of August 22, two male climbers (both 24) fell approximately 70 feet while attempting the Spoils (5.12a/b) on Bell Buttress. The accident occurred after the leader rested on a piece of protection he had placed before the firs...
In July, Scott Jones (22) was dropped from the top of Iron Maiden (5.9) in Boulder Canyon by a belayer he had met through a climbing community web site. Scott describes the incident:“I should establish that this was not a typical rapping/lowering ...
About 3 p.m. on November 21, two climbers were ascending Enter the Dragon (AI4 M4 Steep Snow) on the southeast aspect of Dragon’s Tail Spire. The leader (Climber 1) was about 60 feet below a fixed anchor at the end of their third pitch when he tri...
On August 22, Corey Stewart (22) fell 30 feet while leading on Batman Pinnacle at Lumpy Ridge. CPR was begun minutes later by people at the scene, but they were unable to revive him. According to witnesses, Stewart fell off, some gear pulled out, ...
On August 16, Christian Mason (34) took a roped fall of about 50 feet and suffered numerous injuries after being hit by falling rock while simul-climbing in the North Chimney (5.5), below the Diamond face. Rockfall reportedly hit him while he was ...
David Laurienti (43) and Lisa Foster (45) were caught in an avalanche on the evening of March 17 while descending from Ypsilon Mountain (13,514 feet). The pair had departed from the Lawn Lakes trailhead at 3:15 a.m. on the morning of March 16 with...
On May 17, Lucas Dunn (21) fell 300 feet to his death while rappelling from the top of the Bat Crack (5.11a), the first of four pitches on the Vampire (5.11a). According to Dunn’s partner, Greg Davis, the fatal accident likely occurred due to rock...
On February 25, my daughter Helen (16) and I (47) attempted to find an area where I’d climbed the previous week, but we couldn’t find it so we decided to climb a little crag that looked like mostly class four or easy class five. My limited previou...
Four intermediate mountaineers ascended the South Fork of Big Pine Creek on August 30 to do some alpine climbing. They camped at Elinore Lake (about 11,000 feet), and on August 31 they headed up Scimitar Pass with the intention of climbing Mt. Sil...
On July 6, a female climber (42) was seriously injured while descending the southeast face of Mt. Emerson (5.4). Sometime around 1 p.m. she fell approximately 100 feet down a wide, 85° chimney while she was rappelling off the route. A single nut o...
Early in the morning of August 27, 2012, Sam (24) and I (Paige, 27) hiked from the Little Yosemite Valley campground to the southwest face of Half Dome, intent on climbing Snake Dike (5.7 R). We had chosen the route because of the easy grade; it a...