Largest El Cap rescue in a decade.

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Link

Trad climber

Yosemite, CA

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 24, 2004 - 09:29pm PT

As most people following this site (or watching the news) know, there was a serious storm in Yosemite last week. It started late on the night of Saturday October 16th and continued through Wednesday afternoon. The snow level dropped below four thousand feet at its lowest, and climbers stranded on routes in the Valley experienced gale force winds, rain, hail, snow, and freezing temperatures. This was definitely the worst fall storm Yosemite Valley has seen in a good while, both in its intensity and duration.

Two Japanese climbers died from exposure near the top of the Nose on El Cap before we (Yosemite’s rescue team) were able to reach them. Luckily, we were able to rescue three other teams: Tom and Eric off Never Never Land, Dave off Tempest, and Marisol and Tom off the Salathe head wall.

The last week has been an intense, awful, wonderful, exhausting, inspiring, and freezing experience. Almost a hundred people from the Yosemite community came together to help in the rescue effort: rangers, sar siters, locals, friends of locals, friends of friends of friends of locals, and dozens of other people willing to offer their help in some of the worst conditions I’ve seen on the Captain. Though in the end we were unable to rescue two of the seven people stranded on the wall, it was truly amazing to see such a large group come together to help those we could.

I’ll post more details soon and answer what questions I can. This tragedy, like other climbing accidents, raises many questions that climbers will debate long after our rain gear has dried. With all respect to those who lost friends last week, those who almost lost friends, and those who did their best to help when they could, we need to learn what we can from what happened and do our best to prevent it from happening again.

Though Yosemite Valley saw a tragedy play out this week, it also saw an inspsiring effort from a wonderful community.

Climb safe and stay dry,
-Link

nature

climber

Flagstaff, AZ

Oct 25, 2004 - 03:34pm PT

I'm sure you have heard it 100 times - one more won't hurt.

Thank you.

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 03:36pm PT

Well, in an effort to take away a few lessons from the tragedy...

How many, if any teams were high on ElCap when the storm hit and continued on to the summit with out a rescue after the weather cleared? In your opinion, what was the primary factor(equipment, location, strategy, etc.) that allowed them to avoid a rescue?

Southern Man

climber

Oct 25, 2004 - 03:50pm PT

Link:
I didn't hear of any rescues on Half Dome. I know that HD isn't as tall as El Cap and the routes go pretty quick, but since the Reg. NW Face sees so much traffic, I would be supprised if there were no climbers on that wall when the storm hit. What's the stroy there? Also, what type of rain/snow gear did the couple from Japan have, if any? Lastly, what a great job you and the rest of the rescuers did last week!! I'm sure there are countless stories of bravery, heroism, and courage shown on the Captain that most of us will never hear of. You guys humble me.

Good Morning!

climber

Prescott, AZ

Oct 25, 2004 - 03:52pm PT

David,

Although circumstances vary slightly, if you haven't read John Dill's "Staying Alive" piece in the guidebook, it is a good place to start.

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 04:28pm PT

Thanks for the reference GoodMorning. I've read it and feel confident that I know how to survive bad weather. Most of us on this site probably think the same thing. I'm stil curious as to whether or not those basic tips would have made a difference in this particular situation. Were there teams that climbed through this storm with out major incident or did everyone retreat to the ground or resort to a rescue?

Lambone

Ice climber

Ashland, Or

Oct 25, 2004 - 04:37pm PT

David, there were five parties close to the summit on Saturday night. Never Never Land, Tempest, Salathe, Nose, and Mescalito.

The Mescalito Party was the only party to top out before the rain came.

There was another party on the 4th pitch of the Trip. They fixed the 5th pitch during the storm then bailed. Bags still up there. There might have been another party low on the Nose that bailed also.

Link,
Thanks for the discussion and answering questions at free coffe on Sunday morning. It was good to meet you. I was the guy asking you some questions in the red coat. Nice to meet you, thanks for the hard work and free coffee!

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 04:42pm PT

Thanks Lambone.

btw. The J.Dill article will appear again in the next edition but if there are any new lessons learned this would be the time to incorporate them.

Swain

Trad climber

San Francisco

Oct 25, 2004 - 04:47pm PT

Hey Link,

It might be an idea to have a more up to date weather report (say every day) posted at the ranger office in camp 4 so that folk have a better sense of the upcoming weather. This recent storm seem to have caught a lot of people by suprise.

Thanks for all the hard work and courage last week.

A

Lambone

Ice climber

Ashland, Or

Oct 25, 2004 - 04:59pm PT

David,

I think the biggest lesson learned is to let someone know which route you are on and your game plan and have them check on you if the storm comes. Bring some form of communication.

Keith, the head of YOSAR, was searcching the Nose on Monday afternoon for climbers, but we didn't see them at Camp 6.

YOSAR didn't find out about them until Tuesday, and didn't make contact with them (via screaming) until Tuesday afternoon. By then it was too late because they froze that night.

Once they heard YOSAR was coming, they tried to climb in the storm, probably during the worst of it. Perhaps they didn't want to be rescued.... that was their other Japanesse friends theory anyway.

The melting snow on the summit prevented anyone else climbing off after the storm cleared.

can't say

Social climber

Pasadena CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 05:38pm PT

I talked to one of the guys who got pulled off of Octopussy (collectively both have done probably close to 60 routes on the Captain) and he said he will never go up there again without a two-way radio to communicate with YOSAR folks.

David

Trad climber

San Rafael, CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 05:46pm PT

Correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think YOSAR monitored a specific channel. Do they? How would you contact YOSAR? A cell phone is probably your best bet if you insist on being wired to the rest of the world no?

Lambone

Ice climber

Ashland, Or

Oct 25, 2004 - 06:10pm PT

They scan the famly band (Motoroala Walkies) radios. They were talking to Dave with one.

Demented

climber

Oct 25, 2004 - 06:25pm PT

pat, what else did this "guy who got pulled off of Octopussy" have to say? did their ledges sit in the middle of a waterfall? or did they stay somewhat dry? wind whip them all around? thats the stuff i am curious about

can't say

Social climber

Pasadena CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 06:35pm PT

Demented, I'll leave it to them to tell their story. Tommy said he wrote out a TR last night, about the time when the forum went dead and he lost it when submitting it. He said when he gets a minute or two he'll re-write it.

But he did say that it was the worst storm either of them had ever seen. He also said they bailed on their Sea of Dreams plans due to a change in the weather pattern. Probably just a little bit fortuitous me thinks.

Lambone

Ice climber

Ashland, Or

Oct 25, 2004 - 06:50pm PT

Talked with Tom on the Salathe. He said they were soaked and cold. He wanted to avoid a rescue, but in the end decided to call for the rope. They had two in a single ledge.

Dave hadn't seam sealed his fly and said it was leaking on his bag, and he got hit by a bunch of falling ice.

Looked pretty nasty up there.

Brock

Trad climber

RENO, NV

Oct 25, 2004 - 06:55pm PT

I think posting a weather report for the week at least every other day at the Camp 4 kiosk would be invaluable to climbers. Weather.com has a very good report and would be a quick print out to post. I have used that website several times to get the jump on a wall. However, it is important to note that Sierras can create their own little rain storm very quickly, but none the magnitude of what hit these recent climbers.

Link. How prepared were the Japanese climbers for exposure? Clothing?

ricardo

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Oct 25, 2004 - 07:01pm PT

Definately having someone on the ground with a radio helps while on a wall ..

I was fortunate enough to have my sister giving me weather updates, crowd updates (she kept me up-to-date on the parties below me), and other interesting tidbits ..

I dont think YOSAR monitors the family band radios, but once they need to talk to you, they will get on them to make contact.

I wonder if dave talked to yosar on his regular channel (4.20)

ricardo