Yosemite climber dies after stranded by turn in weather
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 6:58 pm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 1TB0TV.DTL
Oakland climber in Yosemite dies after weather turns bad
Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, November 12, 2007
(11-12) 14:56 PST YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK -- An Oakland man died of what appeared to be weather-related causes in Yosemite National Park Sunday morning after bad weather trapped him and his climbing partner on Cathedral Peak overnight.
Peter Charles Noble, 44, was unresponsive when rescue crews found him Sunday morning, park officials said.
Noble and his climbing partner, whose name was not released, set out on the climb Saturday morning and had expected to return after dark, but sleet and snow set in and stalled their descent down the peak, said Yosemite park ranger Adrienne Freeman.
The climbers finally made it down early Sunday morning, she said, and were about a mile-and-a-half from Tioga Pass Road on a hiking trail when Noble was unable to continue.
"(The other man) walked out and encountered a ranger at 7:30 a.m. Sunday and told him the situation," Freeman said. "He dispatched a rescue crew. They did get up there and found the other climber deceased about one-and-a-half miles off the road."
Freeman said it was not entirely clear what killed Noble, but she believed he was unconscious when his friend left him.
"The initial reports indicate there was not a traumatic fall involved; they do seem to indicate that the fatality was at least in part weather-related, maybe exposure or hypothermia," she said, adding that in cases like this there are often multiple factors that contribute to a climber's death.
The climbing partners, both men in their 40s believed to be experience climbers, set out to climb Cathedral Peak on Saturday and told a park ranger that they expected to return after dark, said Freeman. The summit is located just south of Tioga Pass Road, also known as Highway 120, and is near Tuolumne Meadows.
"It's a fairly commonly used climbing area - it's very rugged, at a very high altitude and it's a difficult climbing area," she said. "The route apparently took more time than they anticipated and they were rappelling late into Saturday night."
Freeman said the weather changed as the climbers were on their descent down the peak, first becoming windy and cold then turning to sleet and snow. National Weather Service officials confirmed that the area received about one-tenth of an inch of precipitation overnight at high altitudes.
The National Park Service is conducting an investigation and will cooperate with the Tuolumne County Medical Examiner, the agency that will determine the cause of death.
E-mail Marisa Lagos at mlagos@sfchronicle.com.