On April 6, a climber (age 22) was leading the sport route Axis Bold as Butta (5.11a) at Hidden Valley, a crag near Abingdon. She had led the route several times previously. The first bolt, 11 feet off the ground, was stick-clipped. There is a goo...
On November 14, my brother David (32) and I (29) set out to climb Jah Man (5 pitches, 5.10c) on Sister Superior. In the days leading up to the climb, we had read route descriptions and the most recent trip reports. As we racked up, I picked out fe...
Salt Lake County Search and Rescue (SLCOSAR) was called out October 12 around 9:15 p.m. to assist three experienced out-of-town climbers who were unfamiliar with the area (one male and two females). The trio had climbed a long traditional route kn...
Two 26-year-old males were involved in a rock climbing accident on the morning of July 12, while attempting a variation to the right of the second lead on Pentapitch. According to the belayer (climber A), he had led the first pitch of Pentapitch a...
On June 9, Salt Lake County Search and Rescue (SLCOSAR) assisted an injured climber who had fallen while descending Mt. Olympus. A team of three climbers, including the 27-year-old female, had descended from the West Slabs route, a long, moderate ...
A group of three moderately experienced climbers—two males and one female (Sam, 23; Jared, 18; and Rylee, 27)— headed to the School Room early on August 15. Rylee and Sam had just finished their Single Pitch Instructor (SPI) courses a day earlier....
On October 12, I (age 25) was in a team of five guides setting top-rope anchors for a base-managed site. Three guides left to hike in with our clients while another guide and I finished setting anchors and dropping ropes. We then needed to rappel ...
On May 26, I was climbing with a less experienced partner at Reimer’s Ranch, an area unfamiliar to both of us. After comfortably completing a 5.10 route, I gave my partner (male, 33) the option of leading or top-roping the adjacent route Monkey Bo...
On October 3, Rachel Zoeller (35) and her climbing partner were at Lilly Bluff in the Obed. Rachel had been climbing intermittently since 2007 , but it had been over a year since she climbed outside, so she and her partner reviewed the process for...
On August 24, at approximately 9:40 a.m., Chaitanya Sathe (35), a well-known and admired member of the Mazamas, suffered a fatal fall of approximately 100 feet while descending 3rd- or 4th-class terrain into the Lower Gorge. A number of accidents ...
While descending from the summit on December 30, a 16-year-old unroped climber slipped at the Pearly Gates and fell approximately 500 feet into the Devil’s Kitchen area. The slide resulted in a femur fracture and a cracked helmet. The injured clim...
On May 5, an inexperienced 39-year-old solo climber slipped while traversing a summit route, falling several hundred feet into a fumarole in the Hot Rocks area. With the assistance of another climber who witnessed the fall, he extracted himself, b...
On October 5, an organized college group divided into two parties to expedite climbing the Daddy (500 feet, 5.6). The first group (A) summited and then hiked out to the parking area. Prior to starting, the groups had agreed that if the second grou...
On June 30, Austin Howell (31) met climber/photographer Ben Wu at the Shortoff Mountain trailhead. Their plan was for Howell to free solo a few routes on Shortoff and have Wu photograph him. Reaching the climbing area, Ben photographed Austin on T...
During the afternoon of May 6, ranger J. Anderson received a call reporting a fallen climber. When Anderson found the patient, Matthew Starkey, he was walking out, holding a shirt on the right side of his head and covered in blood. However, he was...
On March 28, Noah Cleveland (20), Ben Rader (19), Carson Yates (19), and I (22) went to Rumbling Bald to boulder. Ben and I were familiar with the area, and our plan was to introduce Noah and Carson to bouldering outdoors, so we focused on moderat...
Jed (42) and I (28) climbed frequently at Looking Glass Rock, specifically the South Side area. On February 2, a sunny, bluebird day, we had planned to get on a different route and carried only one 60-meter rope with us. However, when we passed Di...
An avalanche thunders down the clasic Polar Circus ice route in the Canadian Rockies. Photo by Max Durrah Every winter, ice climbers are caught and sometimes killed by avalanches. Even small avalanches can be deadly when they get funneled int...
“Der be somtin’ in me boot, man,” shouted Troy Henry in Caribbean-English creole—his primary tongue as a native Guyanan. “It gone bit me!” Troy had just arrived on Tarantula Terrace, a vegetated ledge the size of a dinner table, three rope length...
In 2019 there were 22 reported climbing-related accidents on the Mohonk Preserve. Injuries sustained during these accidents included: three head injuries, one fractured jaw, one spinal fracture, one pelvis fracture, two long bone fractures, and a ...