On May 15, two male climbers (ages 37 and 21), after having climbed Super Slab (5.6) on the Red Wall, attempted a shortcut to the base of the West Face Variation (5.8) on the west side of the Monkey Face to avoid hiking down the Misery Ridge Tra...
On April 10, Alex Reed (20) was working on a new route on the Picnic Lunch Wall. He had hiked up Misery Ridge alone to access the top of the route, where the terrain is very exposed and requires some 4th- or 5th-class downclimbing. For unknown rea...
Late on March 27, three male climbers (ages 24, 24, and 34) completed the popular five-pitch sport climb Wherever I May Roam (5.9). With darkness approaching and being unfamiliar with the established rappel route, the party mistakenly rappelled fr...
On February 17, a male climber (30) fell while free soloing an “easy chimney” between the Lower Gorge and Northern Point. He was attempting a shortcut back to the parking lot after a day of climbing in the Marsupials, rather than taking the longer...
On January 13, a female climber (34) was leading Karate Wall (5.12c R), a mostly bolted route with old-school runouts at the Dihedrals. The climber was above the next-to-last bolt, a few feet to the right of the bolt line, when she fell. She flipp...
In the midafternoon of July 20, Sam Lowry (age 60) and I (Jon Sprecher, age 64) climbed the Jefferson Park Glacier route and were descending the North Milk Creek snowfield to loop back to our camp via the Russell and Jefferson Park glaciers. This ...
On May 28 a roped party of three climbers was descending the Pearly Gates at approximately 8:30 a.m. when one climber fell, pulling the others into an uncontrolled fall. No anchors or running protection were being used at the time of the fall.The ...
At approximately 10 a.m. on May 26, an experienced skier (male, 35), attempted a ski descent of the Mazama Chute on the upper south slopes of Mt. Hood after reaching the summit. Following many days of warm conditions, the night of May 25 had been ...
On Saturday, October 27, a trio of climbers (James, Markus, and Jason), all from the Atlanta area, arrived at the base of the Daddy (5.6), located in the Amphitheater. Jason (46) was a relatively new trad climber being mentored by James, who was t...
On Saturday, October 27, a trio of climbers (James, Markus, and Jason), all from the Atlanta area, arrived at the base of the Daddy (5.6), located in the Amphitheater. Jason (46) was a relatively new trad climber being mentored by James, who was t...
Late in the afternoon on October 13, JLC (22) fell approximately 30 feet while leading the traditional route Breaking Rocks Is Hard to Do (5.9). JLC stated that he had been climbing for several years and had led the route before. He was 15 feet ab...
Andrew Gatlin (24) and I, Peter Magnin (24), hiked in to climb at the North Side of Looking Glass Rock during the morning of September 21. We decided to attempt Invisible Airwaves. I started leading and was a majority of the way up the 80-foot fir...
On November 1 at approximately 2 p.m., my partner and I were climbing in the Little Amphitheater when two climbers came around the trail in a hurry and obvious state of distress. Climber 1 (male, early 20s) was shirtless with his hands on his head...
Late in the afternoon on May 9, Dylan Pappas (21) fell to the ground while climbing Chicken Bone (5.8), a ten-bolt sport route. A member of his climbing party had led the climb before him and left the draws in place. The third bolt was clipped wit...
In 2018 there were 23 reported climbing-related accidents. Injuries included five traumatic head injuries, one spinal fracture, several long-bone fractures, three open fractures of the lower legs, and minor ankle, wrist, shoulder, and hand injurie...
On October 10, three climbers finished the second (last) pitch of Baby (5.6). The leader (male, 31) was using a half-rope system, with each follower tied to an end of each half rope. The leader arrived at the bolted rappel station, clove-hitched h...
On December 27, at approximately 9 a.m., my brother Don Heinz (51) and I (46) were climbing Arm and Hammer (WI3+) with two friends. It was a cold day (10° F), but there had been a recent stretch of warm weather and rain. We’d talked about cancelin...
Rappelling the second pitch of the route King Slut (5.11) in the Organ Mountains is an absolute nightmare. In November, I (male, 34) was rappelling on a single 70-meter, 7.8mm half rope with a second rope on my back. Before I began navigating down...
On April 7, seven avalanches occurred in Tuckerman Ravine. All were human triggered. At least five people were caught in one of the avalanches.In the week leading up to April 7, there were two rain events. The first was March 29–30, delivering 0.7...
On February 25, after climbing two-thirds of the way up Hillman’s Highway and not finding a ton of good snow, our group transitioned for an icy ski descent. There was a small ribbon of wind slab on the skiers’ right side of the slide. My two partn...