Death at Elephants Perch
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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. |
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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. |
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Tragic. My fiancee and I were at the perch last weekend; it's possible we met her. |
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Was there this weekend as well but caught the boat at noon, that's rough news. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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) |
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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. |
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Plenty of pro on the traverse. Certainly not x rated. Condolences. |
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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! |
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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 |
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Condolences, RIP |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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This is my own photo of the traverse in question, taken from the belay. |
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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. |
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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. |
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For the sake of completion R&I article. |