In late October, I completed a number of routes at Yosemite Falls with some friends. I decided to lead Guiding Light (5.10b trad), a dihedral about 80 feet long with a thinning crack and stemming on slick feet. The line culminates with a thin layb...
In mid-June, Rylan Knuttgen and John Shields started up the Salathé Wall. Both were experienced climbers with four decades of trad climbing between them, including multiple big walls. They had been prepping for the Salathé Wall specifically for th...
On June 8, Chad and Ben started up Royal Arches (III 5.7 A0). Both were experienced climbers, with two years of trad experience around the 5.7/5.8 level. The team started climbing around 9 a.m., and they reached the final anchors at 8:45 p.m. They...
John and Chris (30-year-old males) were on their first climbing trip to Yosemite, and Cathedral was their first objective. They had climbed together frequently in the past, and had completed a three-day course in multi-pitch trad climbing in 2017....
On August 3, I (female, 20) was leading Scheister, a three-pitch 5.7 trad route at Sugarloaf. On the third pitch, I climbed about 25 feet above the belay before realizing I had gone the wrong way. I had only placed one nut, clipped to the rope wit...
On the morning of September 9, Dan (28) and Jon (30) started up the Red Dihedral route (12 pitches, 5.10) with a party of three climbers close behind. The leader of the first party, Dan, had nearly finished the second pitch when he slipped and fel...
On May 5, a boulderer (male, 32), fell while topping out an unnamed V4 near the south shore of Lake Tahoe. He fell about ten feet, landing awkwardly onto his pad. He was climbing with friends but had no spotter at the time. Upon landing, he sustai...
Late on July 12, two male climbers were attempting to complete the second pitch of Cannibal Gully, a 5.7 trad climb on the left portion of the Black Wall. This climb is popular for new leaders due to the grade, but the rock quality is considered l...
In 2019 there were 16 climbing-related incidents on Mt. Shasta. Twelve accidents were due to falls on ice or snow, and four climbers attempting the summit became lost. This is the second year of above-average rescues on Mt. Shasta, and one acciden...
At approximately 10:30 a.m. on April 12, my brother-in-law, Stephen Whittingham, and I (Chris, 30) were at the top of the Standard Route (5.7) on Chimney Rock, preparing to descend. The rappel anchor was on the far east end of the summit, out of r...
On October 28, Zachary Dreher (23) had just passed the last bolt on Bluto Tastes an Olive (5.10a sport) when he fell. His belayer (female, 22) lost control of the belay, and Zachary took a 38-foot ground fall. The belayer was using an ATC-style de...
On May 5, a climber (24) took a 20-foot ground fall after attempting a fixed-line rappel to the base of a cliff at Paradise Forks. While it is not known what knot or block was being used at the anchor, rescuers report the climber attached her rapp...
Southeast buttress of Main Tower in the Mendenhall Towers. (1) Location of rappel anchor that failed. (2) Ledge where rappeller landed after anchor failure and eventually was rescued by helicopter. A party of three experienced climbers (male,...
Late in the evening on June 22, a team of five climbers began calling for help over the radio. This team had ascended to the Football Field at 19,500 feet on the West Buttress when one of their teammates became ill. The sick climber, a 67-year-old...
In mid-June, a team made up of a 30-year-old male and a 37-year-old male attempted to climb Denali’s West Buttress from Anchorage; they planned to run and hike to the mountain and then start climbing. Near the Hidden Glacier, south of the head of ...
On June 17, a guided 26-year-old female climber injured her right knee after slipping and falling on icy snow in the group’s kitchen tent. This climber had injured this knee previously, and an assessment by NPS medical providers confirmed her knee...
On June 14, a 51-year-old male climber and his two climbing partners left late in the afternoon for a summit attempt from 17,200-foot camp. When one of the climbers began to exhibit signs of severe altitude sickness, the group decided to separate,...
On June 10, a 28-year-old female climber suffering from high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) was evacuated by air from 14,200-foot camp. NPS rangers assessed and treated this patient until the helicopter was able to transport her to definitive car...
On May 29, a 64-year-old male climber left high camp on the West Buttress for Denali’s summit, climbing solo and carrying no food, water, or shelter. During his descent, he was rescued by a guided party and NPS personnel after falling repeatedly o...
On May 28, a 30-year-old male skier fell 700 meters after triggering an avalanche on Kahiltna Queen (a.k.a. Humble Peak). The patient and two companions (all very experienced ski mountaineers) had summited the 12,380-foot peak around noon by the w...