Almost inevitable ... over Vernal Falls ... again.

Why don't people respect the signs?

'Cause nobody believes anything the government says, even when it is true.

I was sunning myself on a granite slab in the Wasatch with a double-e waterfall over my back. For some unknown reason I sat up suddenly, just in time to be smacked in the back with a basketball sized chunk of granite. Better the kidney than the head I suppose. I scrambled for my life as I slid toward the 20' cliff that led to the base of the falls.

When I started breathing again I looked around, trying to piece together WTF just happened. Then came another rock! I ran up the hill to find a bunch of boy scouts rolling rocks down the hill. I gave those little fukers a vocabulary list they couldn't believe. The scout master had the NERVE to tell me to watch my language. HOLY FUK, that is the closest I have ever come to completely losing it on someone.

Falls are scary.

The couple on the rock hugged each other tightly as they disappeared over
the edge.

These 3 idiots could just as easily have died 50 feet to the left or right while acting like rock climbers. It would be equally idiotic.

Dragging Todd Skinner's name into this thread and drawing a comparison has got to be the single most f*#k-tarded thing I have ever read on Supertopo.

having elected (elected freely or compelled by their moral goodness) to help in an effort to rescue a distressed second party - died in the rescue

It's sad and sick to see some of you call the deceased idiots. Sickening.

Hormiz David, Ramina Badal, Ninos Yacoub

the nightmare on a construction site or heavy manufacturing floor is a group of visiting engineers or managers.

They will blissfully wander into dangerous situations that are obvious to even the janitor.

They aren't stupid. Just in an unfamiliar environment.

Our lives are streams
Flowing into the same river
Towards whatever eternity
Lies beyond the mists and falls.

Piton Ron

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah

Jul 20, 2011 - 02:20pm PT
The real problem is a legal system that, as a result of liability considerations, precludes the NPS from posting in absolutely NO subtle terms just how FUKKING DANGEROUS the location is, and exactly up to now how many people who have ignored the warnings have paid for their foolishness with a horrible death.

If they did it would only bite them in the ass in the next civil case.

So the sign says the bare minimum and foolish people who arrogantly ignore it pay the real price for a bloated legal system that rewards lawyers quick to sue the park service for doing just what most tourists want; enabling them to contact nature.

PR: The real problem is a legal system that, as a result of liability considerations, precludes the NPS from posting in absolutely NO subtle terms just how FUKKING DANGEROUS the location is, and exactly up to now how many people who have ignored the warnings have paid for their foolishness with a horrible death.

If they did it would only bite them in the ass in the next civil case.

So the sign says the bare minimum and foolish people who arrogantly ignore it pay the real price for a bloated legal system that rewards lawyers quick to sue the park service for doing just what most tourists want; enabling them to contact nature.

The guardrail has also sprouted additional rails, closer together

I can recall two law suits filed against Yosemite N.P..

"He's got a 6- or 7-year-old daughter in his left arm on the edge of the waterfall while his other daughter, about 14 years old, is taking his picture," said Jake Bibee, 28, of Costa Mesa (Orange County), who was hiking with a friend on the Mist Trail that day. "He's on the corner, hanging over the falls. This little girl is screaming bloody murder, and he's laughing, thinking it's a big old joke."

The spectacle infuriated Bibee and several other hikers, some of whom yelled at the man and urged him to climb back over the railing. Meanwhile, apparently inspired by their friend, Badal, Yacoub and David climbed over or went around the railing and waded into the water 25 feet upstream from the fall, trying to reach a rock outcropping partially covered in vegetation about 15 feet from shore.

Gediman said the three waded up to their knees in the rushing waters, were taking photographs and goofing around. He said several witnesses also urged them to get out of the water.

"They basically ignored their warnings," Gediman said. "They did not comply with people telling them it was dangerous".

As one who worked in Yosemite for nearly 10 years, has hiked every trail leading out of the Yosemite Valley and countless miles in the back country, and has heard several accounts of waterfall deaths:

At Vernal Fall, the victims don't usually fall from the Mist Trail but from the pool at the top of the trail, top of the cliff, behind the falls. Everything is safe enough until you go over the rail, too far into the pool, too close to the falls. The surface of the pool can at times be glassy, looking very calm. The appearance is deceptive. That water is moving very rapidly, although smoothly, toward the cliff. The rock floor of the pool is mossy and slippery.Once your feet are swept out from under you, you're headed for the fall. There's nothing to grab to save yourself. There's no stopping. Say Goodbye. You're done.

At the base of Vernal Falls is a deep and turbulent pool. Bodies are sometimes trapped under or against rocks and don't resurface for months, if ever. Search crews must wait until the seasonal flow reduces enough for them to enter the pool. Other times the bodies are circulated violently, like in a washing machine, beaten by the falling water until they are pulverized and the parts wash downstream, and there's nothing left to find. Right now the crews are probably not looking for a body, but for a torso, some limbs snagged on a log or rock at the water's edge, or a skull tumbling downstream.

Several of my friends were on the trail maintenance crews and the Search & Rescue teams and I've heard their stories. The closure of the trail is standard procedure. They say its for the public's safety, and to some degree it is. The most likely reason is that they don't want to have to work around gawkers who will invariably bunch up on the trail to watch, get in the way, and ask questions all day.

At least 17 people have died by accidentally plunging over Vernal Fall since park officials started keeping records, more than any other waterfall in Yosemite. Here are details and circumstances about the first 14:
Who: Lucille Duling, 16, Hollywood
Date: Aug. 22, 1924
What happened: Stumbled and fell as she tried to rock-hop across the river for photos.
Who: Forest Case, 12, Burlingame
Witness describes watching 3 plunge off Vernal Fall
Date: June 29, 1929
What happened: Lost his footing as he waded 20 feet into the river
Who: Keen Freeman, 12, and Orville Loos, 21, Washington, D.C.
Date: July 9, 1946
What happened: Freeman slipped as he tried to retrieve his canteen; Navy veteran Loos tried to rescue him
Who: William Hansch, 40, Sacramento
Date: June 3, 1947
What happened: Mysteriously vanished off the trail to Nevada Fall
Who: Daniel Duda, 12, Baillant, Ohio
Date: Aug. 8, 1965
What happened: Unknown reasons
Who: Roberta Hurd, 7, Jackson
Date: June 21, 1968
What happened: Playing solo in river near lip of fall; slipped unseen
Who: Christine Fuentes, 9, and Yolanda Fuentes, 30, La Puente
Date: June 18, 1970
What happened: Mother and daughter scrambled off trail and went into river to pose for photos
Who: William Ramirez, 22, Gardena
Date: July 11, 1971
What happened: Went swimming 175 feet upstream of fall and got caught in current
Who: Randy Friedman, 16, Hartsdale, N.Y.
Date: July 20, 1971
What happened: Climbed over guardrail to fill canteen and slipped
Who: Leah Good, 49, Yosemite
Date: April 30, 1973
What happened: Cancer-stricken wife of park assistant superintendent never returned from Mist Trail solo hike; body found in pool 50 yards below fall
Who: David Chu, 21, Fresno
Date: Aug. 18, 1977
What happened: Climbed over guardrail and slipped while trying to take a photo looking down over lip
Who: Chintan Chokshi, 24, Ahmedabad, India
Date: July 30, 2005
What happened: Climbed over guardrail and slipped while trying to wash his face
Source: "Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite," by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Charles R. Farabee, Jr., 2007

Vernal Falls just does not sound scary. Renaming it Death Falls would be a public service.

Yosemite National Park officials say they have no plans to add new warning signs or other protections to the area where three young people were swept over a 317-foot waterfall this week.
{SNIP}
Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said Thursday the railing and single sign are adequate. Gediman says it's the visitor's responsibility to exercise judgment and caution when near any cliff.

it's the visitor's responsibility to exercise judgment and caution when near any cliff.

plummet to zero.

Probably after seeing that, these 3 thought it was really no biggy to be over the rail, after all, some d*(*&*(&head just held his 6 year old out there. Wow.

Signs and rails obviously hold no impact

and the Christians still don't believe in Natural Selection.

shortcut between Grizzly and Broderick?

I respectfully disagree, Karl.

As climbers, we have FULL knowledge of the dangers inherent in this natural world, and that knowledge gives us FULL right to 'preach' or share what we know with others in the environment.

As climbers, we do everything we can to mitigate the danger, with gear, harnesses, rope, etc. These things are the equivalant of that fence at the top of the falls; in place to avoid the hazards.

I liken climbing over that railing to climbers walking past Jesse's signs in the Valley at the site of active rock fall areas, and willfully roping up.


WBraun

climber

Jul 20, 2011 - 09:22am PT
I'm in the rescue business.

I have every right to preach when you're out of line doing something stupid .....

If this was thread about Bachar decking

Some of you just can't seem to swallow the word stupid...

Some of you just can't seem to swallow the word stupid ......

It's not a thread about Bachar decking.

It's about being totally stupid.

Go up there Karl and really look at what happened and how many people warned them NOT to try to go where they wanted all while disregarding the dangers.

We do stupid things in our lives at times.

Some of you just can't seem to swallow the word stupid ......

It makes me shudder, that inevitable pull towards the brink, clinging together in that final embrace. Outcome unstoppable.

because we were lucky enough to survive our indiscretions.

It's not a thread about Bachar decking.

It's about being totally stupid.

Go up there Karl and really look at what happened and how many people warned them NOT to try to go where they wanted all while disregarding the dangers.

We do stupid things in our lives at times.

Some of you just can't seem to swallow the word stupid ......

Have some respect dudes, You think you're taking calculated risks but as somebody who just broke his damn arm and had the rope cut 2/3rds of the way though in a situation where I really can't think of anything any of you could have done to do it differently and still climb the trade route, I think we do dangerous stuff and if any of us gets chopped, the world at large would be equally valid in calling us stupid.

and we do it all the time, not just ignorantly of vacation.

There's always the dichotomy between political correctness and direct talk.

(Stupid defines as lack of intelligence or common sense).

It's hard to make a case that common sense was in play here despite how one feels about the tragic consequences of the deaths. In the bigger picture, it's important to identify the reason(s) for the deaths. As has been said repeatedly, there's several warning signs, everyone is on the safe side of the railing looking on in awe and wonder, and further people yelled at them to cease and desist. Furthermore, the victims had to be in awe of the swift moving current as they waded out ... it's improbable to be wading in water with that sort of flow and velocity without some alarms sounding in the head and especially with the precipice in sight close by.

I think of the numerous people clustered on the safe side of the railing. It reminds me the analogous situation of visiting a zoo and looking at the lions...from behind the fence. Any adult parent that decides to disregard the warnings, disregard the fence, disregard the urgent shouts from other spectators, and insists on climbing into the lion's cage despite all those forces of opposition simply lacks common sense. There's no other explanation. It's a deficiency of common sense no matter how you slice it. It fits the dictionary definition of stupid. It's an accurate assessment.

Authorities may use a euphemism for the word 'stupid' in their official statements, but it all boils down to the same thing.

Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman says the site's railing and single sign are adequate and it's the visitor's responsibility to exercise judgment and caution when near any cliff.

Meanwhile, friends described the three hikers as church role models who normally did not take risks.

Sounds like the Good Lord called them home.

... drowned while roped up.

Putris (treasurer of the Ceres, Calif. church the 3 went to) couldn't understand how they could have taken such a risk until he and a dozen other church members went to Yosemite on Wednesday to search for the victims. None in the party had been to the national park before, though they've lived for years in an area considered a gateway to Yosemite.

"When you are an immigrant, usually you move first to a big city. You are going to school, working two or three jobs. A national park is a luxury you know nothing about," Putris said.

On their climb up Mist Trail, cut into the sheer face of a mountain, one searcher put his hand on the side to steady himself and was surprised to find the wet algae was slicker than soap.

When they got to the top and Putris saw how calm the pools above the fall looked, he was stunned.

"If I was Ramina or David, I would have thought 'It's just water. If you slip, big deal, you get wet,'" he said.

Even in a normal season, the Merced River has a dangerous undercurrent moving powerfully to the fall. This year, a massive Sierra Nevada snowpack, almost twice the average, has turned the water into a jaw-dropping force not seen in decades.

In October, the Assyrians will mark the 100th anniversary of their arriving in the Central Valley....