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Death at Elephants Perch

Original Post
Mikey Seaman · · Boise, ID · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 5

I heard from a reliable source that a woman fell on the mountaineer's route, sustained a head injury and has died. I believe it was on Sunday. Anyone have more info? Thoughts and love to her friends and family.

Dr. Long Arm · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 15

What I've heard was a fall around the third pitch. That could mean different things depending on where you start, but that would be either the pitch leading up to the bolted belay or the pitch after.

Apparently the party spent the night on the wall and the victim didn't make it through the night. The body was recovered via helicopter.

Mike Marmar · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 67

Tragic. My fiancee and I were at the perch last weekend; it's possible we met her.

Arthur · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined Feb 2008 · Points: 136

Was there this weekend as well but caught the boat at noon, that's rough news.

ISAR · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 0

The fall happened on Tuesday afternoon, the rescuers helicoptered out to the site but the woman was dead before before they arrived. Because of the conditions and time, the recovered happened the next day with the rescuers spending the night on the mountain.

The rescue team was from Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit, out of Boise.

imsaru.org/

Jayson Nissen · · Monterey, CA · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 469

I was there but did not witness the accident. My fiancee and I were the second party on the scene but did not climb up the route.

From discussing it with the first responders and from climbing the route the day before it sounds like she was linking the third and fourth pitches together and skipped the bolted belay before the roof then fell on the 5.7 traverse around the roof. This resulted in a 50 foot pendulum into the wall on the right of the route.

This was a tragic accident that could have happened to anyone.

Due to this traverse lacking pro and swinging into a wall this route definitely deserves an X rating.

christopher adams · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 0
Jayson Nissen wrote:I was there but did not witness the accident. My fiancee and I were the second party on the scene but did not climb up the route. From discussing it with the first responders and from climbing the route the day before it sounds like she was linking the third and fourth pitches together and skipped the bolted belay before the roof then fell on the 5.7 traverse around the roof. This resulted in a 50 foot pendulum into the wall on the right of the route. This was a tragic accident that could have happened to anyone. Due to this traverse lacking pro and swinging into a wall this route definitely deserves an X rating.
I agree- this is a tragic accident.

I'm not familiar with the climb- so I was wondering.. What would the fall have been like if she had not skipped the bolted belay?
Andrew Mayer · · Driggs, ID · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 131

Tragic. condolences to her family and friends.

Jayson Nissen wrote:This was a tragic accident that could have happened to anyone. Due to this traverse lacking pro and swinging into a wall this route definitely deserves an X rating.
I am not trying to play arm-chair quarterback, rather learn from the incident, but there is plenty of opportunity for pro on that traverse under the roof. Do you know if she had placed any gear in the traverse?

my initial thought is that due to rope drag consideration, she was waiting til the latter portion of the traverse before placing gear but fell before placing? (again not trying to criticize her actions, just trying to learn from the incident)
Arthur · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined Feb 2008 · Points: 136

Agree with Andrew. I linked those pitches as well and put a super long runner on the bolted belay, super long runner midway through the roof and then placed at the end, didn't have any drag and felt well protected throughout. Back cleaning would have been my other thought but the climbing felt in hand so went with the option described above.

Hindsight I suppose. Condolences all around, and thanks to the SAR response, your efforts are much appreciated.

Dave Bingham · · Hailey, ID · Joined Feb 2007 · Points: 72

Plenty of pro on the traverse. Certainly not x rated. Condolences.

Jeffrey Gagliano · · Pennsburg, PA · Joined May 2009 · Points: 260

An acquaintance of mine, Drew D. was supposed to be on MR on Tuesday. I have not heard from him. Does anyone have names of the parties involved? What a tragedy!

Shane Collins · · Washington · Joined Mar 2014 · Points: 196
Jeffrey Gagliano wrote:An acquaintance of mine, Drew D. was supposed to be on MR on Tuesday. I have not heard from him. Does anyone have names of the parties involved? What a tragedy!
Drew D was not involved
beensandbagged · · smallest state · Joined Oct 2013 · Points: 0

Condolences, RIP

PJK · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2015 · Points: 0

She was a friend of mine named Anna Dvorak, 28-years old and from Northridge, CA. She had recently been living in Spokane, WA and was a professor at Eastern Washington University. Here's a link to the story, which was just released.

ktvb.com/story/news/local/i…

I had hadn't heard anything about the technical details of her accident, which brought me here. I've spent the last couple of days trying to come to terms with the situation as a friend and now trying to understand it as a climber.

Nick Sweeney · · Spokane, WA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 969

I climbed with Anna a few times. Very sad story that could happen to any of us. I've really been thinking about the risks that alpine climbing forces me to accept lately, and this accident has me even more troubled. You never know when it could be the last time you tie in, fill a water bottle or put on crampons. Very sad.

Jayson Nissen · · Monterey, CA · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 469

Here is what I did and why when I climbed the Mountaineers route the day before the accident. Based on Anna's injuries to the right side of her body as reported by the first responders I assume she did the same thing for the same reasons.

On the top of pitch three I clipped the anchors with a runner (Anna did not do this and I don't think it would have made a difference) and then traversed left along ledges at the top of the vertical crack. This only provided marginal protection while I started the traverse because of the potential to pendulum into the wall to the right. I then climbed up face holds just below the left side of the roof. I placed pro when I got to the far left corner of the roof.

I climbed it this way because on the topo there is a dashed line below the roof that I took to mean a face traverse. Thus I only gave the roof crack a cursory look. I was comfortable on the face traverse, but while climbing it I was fully aware that a fall would have resulted in a large pendulum into the right wall and was very conscientious about being able to down climb anything I went up.

If I do the route again I would definitely climb up to the roof and place gear on long runners and back clean as I go, which seems to be how many other people have climbed this route.

Hopefully this information can prevent something like this from happening again. It would be useful to update the topo and/or route description.

I understand that Anna was wearing a helmet. I don't know what type, but most climbing helmets provide minimal protection in a pendulum fall into a wall. And I doubt that equipment played any role in this accident.

I cannot rule out the possibility that Anna did climb via the roof and her gear pulled out when she fell. She was lowered off of a red Camalot in the vertical crack and the first responders didn't remember any pulled gear hanging on the rope, but that was not their focus.

I hope that this information can prevent this from happening again and provide some closure for those who knew her. My condolences to her friends, family and climbing partner.

-Jayson Nissen

ddriver · · SLC · Joined Jul 2007 · Points: 2,084

This is my own photo of the traverse in question, taken from the belay.

Elephant's Perch - Mountaineer's Rt

drewford · · Wasatch Back, UT · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 426

I repeated Mountaineers last weekend and tried to analyze what happened in the accident. There's a faint line of holds that leads diagonally up and left off the two-bolt belay (top of pitch three). If the leader takes this shortcut, aiming for the left side of the tiered roof, there is no pro until you reach the roof. I have gone this way; it's pretty hard 5.8-5.9 slab with no gear. When linking pitches, there's always the urge to "straighten" the line and cut down on rope drag, but a fall would have you swinging violently to the right and slam you into the dihedral.

The easier and safer option is to climb straight up from the two-bolt belay to the roof. Gear is plentiful here (long runners mandatory) and the climbing that leads left is only 5.7.

Topos are not meant to give detailed beta, but in light of the recent fatality, I think the topo for Mountaineers should be amended. See added detail: mountainproject.com/v/11082…

KayJ · · Bend, OR · Joined May 2012 · Points: 65
Russ Keane · · Salt Lake · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 392

Amazing how the amount of lateral distance from the protection fulcrum is SO exponentially dangerous. Seems like not-so-dicey situations get very scary when traversing occurs.

This poor woman.... may she rest in peace. And the people with her, my goodness my heart goes out to them.

Chris Owen · · Big Bear Lake · Joined Jan 2002 · Points: 11,612

For the sake of completion R&I article.

I've never been an advocate of stringing pitches together, this seems to be a recent phenomenon presumably based upon having longer ropes?

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Injuries and Accidents
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