Fatal Fall from cables on Half Dome

[Buck Forester]

Gracias for the condolences. Between losing my two dogs and my mom to cancer this year, it's been rough. I am so thankful to God for making this all just temporary grieving.

Regarding the crowds on Half Dome... I always avoid them by going against conventional wisdom... I start mid-day instead of first light and it is evening by the time I get to the top. I just make sure there's no threat of afternoon storms. I have spent plenty of time solo, or with just my hiking partners, on the summit of Half Dome on a summer weekend. The hike back down on a cool evening is wonderful too. I've seen Nevada and Vernal Falls by full moonlight and it is something to behold. The masses pretty much start within an hour of each other in the early morning and you eat dust on the way up and wait in long lines at the base of the cables.

[SSSdave]

Some pictures and eyewitness reports:

http://www.bayareadragon.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=12553

I read one comment he had on a large pack and that most who climb leave larger packs as backpacks down at the cable base. I have a suspicion some people would not do so especially if the packs contained pricy camera or video gear.

As someone that carries an especially heavy pack offtrail over rather awkward and sometimes dangerous terrain, I have on occasion gotten into trouble after slipping downward and then having to cope with a pack weight shift that moved over my head. This person could have slipped and then not been able to cope with the pack weight in order to immediately grab the cable or pole.

Each winter I'm also an avid alpine skier. And of course advanced skiers in steep terrain have to learn to cope with all manner of falling scenarios. One thing one does in steep terrain is learn to self arrest with intense determination immediately in the first moments. Else the forces of momentum moving downward due to gravity become too great to stop. Ordinary people without such experiences are likely to react to falling in unprepared confused ways. Thus it would be wise for someone in that position to consider what one might do if a foot slips, one hand comes loose, or more likely, someone else starts falling down bowling ball style against those below.

In the above link one can see the circus of dense back to back people going up and down the cables that I would guess tends at times to lead to distracting party atmosphere socializing instead of intense concentration coping with the dangerous task at hand. ...David

[rightstar76]

Buck, maybe it's like Mt. Everest. People I think just keep going up because that's what they came for and they're not going to let anything stop them. The good news is that a lot of people got scared and wanted to get down after they saw him fall. So it's probably not too many people who kept going like nothing happened. Most people were human and turned around.

[Rosabella]

I wouldn't have wanted to go on after witnessing a fall like that. It's not that I would be scared to.... more the case of knowing that the trip was done at that point. The energy would have totally changed, and there would be no joy in getting to the top.

I guess I can understand people continuing on while climbing Everest... they've trained for months, invested a huge amount of money, and traveled half way around the world - it's most likely a once-in-a-lifetime chance.... but Half Dome or Mt. Shasta will always be there, and it's basically in our back yard.

I've been up Half Dome 6 times and I've NEVER seen lines like that, Alpenbro!! Wow!! But we've always timed our trips to go up mid-week. I don't think I'd want to get caught in that mess!

[sierranomad]

I saw lines like that a couple of years ago. I decided to just enjoy the views from the shoulder. Being in a line like that would just take all the fun out of it.