My wife (Kelly Perkins, 59) and I (Craig Perkins, 60) have rock climbed for 20 years. After a long hiatus, I took time to refresh my skills, including anchor building, knots, and gear placement. Our climb, Miss Pacman (5.9, sport), was fun and ini...
On May 31, Vik Waghray (24) fell to his death while traversing from Temple Crag to Mt. Gayley. He and Michael Layton (45) were attempting the long and arduous Temple- Gayley-Sill-Thunderbolt traverse. The pair had summited Temple Crag and were on...
On August 13, BJ Cook and I responded to an accident while climbing on the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak, a five-pitch, 5.6 traditional climb in Tuolumne Meadows. BJ and I are experienced climbers and have many moderate multi-pitch trad cli...
Nathan Hadley on pitch two of Rubbernecker (600’, IV 5.14-). Photo by Jeremiah Watt Shortly after moving to Washington in 2015, I was scouring the guidebooks for aid lines to free. In 2016, I found Midnight Ride (600’, 5.9 A4) in Fred Beck...
On June 16, Matthew “Mash” Alexander (50) was struck by rockfall in the face and head as he slept. He and his climbing partner, Sean McGinness (48), were bivying in hammocks midway up El Cap, near the Nose route. The team had spent seven nights o...
On April 11, Josh Ourada (31) fell while free soloing Nutcracker (5 pitches, 5.8) on the Manure Pile Buttress. Ourada has been climbing for over ten years and was no stranger to free soloing. He had climbed Nutcracker before, both with and without...
On April 13, Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) responded to a roped soloist who had fallen and injured himself while climbing the second pitch of After Six (5 pitches, 5.7) on Manure Pile Buttress. It was reported that the rope-soloist had come t...
In the evening of October 17, two climbers, Kate (28) and Nick (26), started up the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (23 pitches, 5.9 C2) after completing the Nose on El Capitan (31 pitches, 5.9 C2) earlier in the same day. Nick and Kate were b...
On March 4, two climbers, “Jeff” and “Erin,” climbed Munginella (3 pitches, 5.6) to the base of Selaginella (4 pitches, 5.8) in the Five Open Books area near Yosemite Falls. The pair were both experienced, and these routes were within their abilit...
I (Bobby Hutton, 31) wanted to show my friend Adam a new area that my friends and I were developing. In early April, we decided to drop lines down a cliff to work on new routes. To access the top of the cliff, we crossed a steep granite gully and...
On July 17 my girlfriend, Hannah (29), and I (30) went out for a day in an obscure climbing area, just southeast of Lake Tahoe, called Cloudburst Canyon. On my third climb I fell at the crux, ripped three pieces of protection, and fell to the grou...
On May 27, while climbing at Rainbow, west of Donner Pass, I (Carl Alsup, 39) rappelled off the end of my rope. I had just led Malcolm’s Route (5.9) to the top of the formation. My wife was going to follow but decided she was going to save her str...
On June 19, a family of seven from Utah attempted to climb the Hotlum/Bolam Ridge route. By midmorning they had begun the steeper section of the route at 12,300 feet. They were all roped together—with no intermediate protection nor belay anchors—w...
In the afternoon of April 9, a solo climber took a glancing blow to the thigh by a quoted “500-pound rock” while climbing Avalanche Gulch. The climber was near the Heart, which is the steepest part of the route, with slopes reaching 35°. Another s...
The east side of Mt. Shasta in September 2012 (left) and September 2021 (right). Exceptionally dry conditions in 2021 contributed to a number of accidents on the mountain. Photo by Phil Rhodes On June 23, a lone male (31) was climbing the Cle...
On the afternoon of January 31, Tim Parker (35) suffered a ground fall from the anchors of Naked Prey (5.12a) in Cochise Stronghold. Parker is a climber with over 15 years of experience. His partner, Darcy Mullen (32), is a climber of over 10 year...
On November 11, Joshua Brown (23) and a partner (22) were climbing in an undeveloped area that required 3rd- and 4th-class scrambling up a loose slope to access the base of the crag. The pair finished a ground-up, trad first ascent and began packi...
On May 29, a 25-year-old male climber was assisted to the NPS medical tent at 14,200-foot camp by his climbing partners. The team reported they had flown to 7,200-foot camp and immediately moved to 11,200-foot camp. They then spent two nights at t...
In the early morning hours of May 29, Denali mountaineering rangers were notified of an SOS activation at 11,200-foot camp. Ranger teams on the mountain at the 7,200-, 7,800-, and 14,200-foot camps were notified and involved in the information gat...
On the afternoon of May 22, two male climbers left 14,200-foot camp for 17,200-foot camp. The 57-year-old male and 56-year-old male embarked on their climb in spite of weather warnings from rangers and during winds gusting to 40 mph in camp. After...