Climbing Accident in Eldorado

Does anyone have any information on the climber who died in Eldo on Thursday night? It sounded like a rappelling accident from the brief info I heard on the news. It is always a tragedy when this type of thing happens and I think it is important to keep the climbing community in the loop. Any information would be appreciated.

There was an article in the Jan 28 Rocky Mtn News (pg 15A) that alluded to a "rope-handling error". Dave Booton, Boulder County Sheriff's Emergency Services Coordinator, said that as the leader was being lowered to the ground, the rope slipped through the belay device. This doesn't seem to add up since the first pitch is so short. Maybe the leader was being lowered from the top of the second pitch, in this case a 60m rope would barely make the small tree above the bolts atop the 5.8 crack. There wasn't a knot tied in the end of the rope according to Mr. Booton. Anyway it is a sad thing and we will be reminded every time we walk by this area.

Hello all. My name is Steve Mills and I was the belayer and good friend of of the late James Harr. Here is what happened: we reached the third belay and decided, after much deliberation and attempted route-finding, to forego the last pitch on account of the weather and rap down. We lowered down to the second belay, and then down to the anchors atop Thunderbolt, a short 11d to the right of Rincon. These anchors are about forty feet off the ground. We both reached these anchors and were very excited to be almost back to earth. It was very cold and windy and we were not adequately clothed. James tied a bight in the rope and hooked it to his harness so that both ends of the rope would not fall to the ground when he pulled it from the previous rappel. I took one end of the rope, fed it through the o-rings and tied in. he put me on belay and lowered me down. What happened at this point is still not entirely clear to me, but it certainly involved James tying into the bight on his harness, or to some middle point on the rope, instead of tying in to the OTHER END. Consequently, when I pulled through the slack and had him tight, we were only working with a very small portion of the rope. I saw a pile of rope to the left of me, and felt the tension in the line. I asked James two times if everything looked right to him and he said to go ahead and lower. I began lowering, and about halfway down to the ground the rope zipped through my hand and through the Grigri, leaving James twenty feet to fall. He landed on his back and head. If he had been tied into the other end of the rope there is no way that I could have had him taut AND have the rope run through the Grigri. James and I had a brief but wonderful climbing partnership. His last words were "Wow, we have amazing chemistry," which was entirely true. We are both experienced climbers - I trusted him and he trusted me and were were always very safe. But somewhere amidst the excitement of reaching the ground after an hour and a half descent and the discomfort of the cold and wind, we lost some of our circumspection; he made an error and I in turn made an error by not noticing it. And he lost his life because of it. May you rest in peace James: you will never be forgotten; you shall continue to inspire me and all others that knew you, as of course you always have.

Stephen, thanks for sharing your tragic experience with the mp.com community. Deepest sympathy and condolences to the Mills family and yourself. Time will heal.

Steve, thank you for posting this. I can only imagine how difficult it was -- not to mention how difficult the past week has been. I myself took a groundfall only three weeks ago -- from much higher than James fell, and I'm lucky to be alive. I'm now in a wheelchair, but it easily could have been much worse.

In reading your account of the accident, I had two questions. Please know that it's not my intent in any way to make things more difficult, I'm just trying to understand the circumstances better.

First, I was wondering why you guys chose to lower each other off the anchor atop Thunderbolts, instead of feeding enough rope through to touch the ground and then rapping? Did it just seem like that was the faster, more efficient way to get to the ground, or was there some other reason?

Second, you said:

Steve wrote:I began lowering, and about halfway down to the ground the rope zipped through my hand and through the Grigri, leaving James twenty feet to fall

I was wondering if you could explain what you mean by this?

Thanks, and I'm truly sorry that this happened to you, James, and his friends & family.

Josh, your question has been answered. He (as included in his description) unfortunately ran out of rope when lowering. As to why they chose to lower eachother as opposed to rappelling I think that is a decision that they would go back on in a heartbeat. I think it is very thoughtful of James' belayer to offer this description of the accident but to hound for further detail is not necessary. We all make decisions, for one reason or another, and sometimes, unfortunately, we wish we didn't.

For whatever reason a young man lost his life. I am so sorry for James, his family and his friends.

People make mistakes all the time...most times they don't pay for it by loss of life. If there is anything I can do for you Stephen or James's family please let me know.

I have lost two young people in the last three years. My nephew and my daughter's boyfriend. These were very young and very beautiful people. Reasons means little...they are gone and are dearly missed.

Josh...hope all is well and glad that you made it through your mishap.

I sincerely hope my post didn't come across as insensitive or hounding -- if it did, I apologize. I'd just like to reiterate that I'm very sorry for what happened.

All of our hearts go out to the Harr and Mills families.
A terrible mishap like this is always a reminder of how short and precious our lives are. As a long-time climber, whenever an accident such as this is reported by the media, I am approached by many who ask me if I knew who the climber was. In this case I did not. Old friends call to make sure that it was not me. Most climbers can relate to this. Then I alway do some research to find out who it was and why it happened. This is by no means a morbid curiosity. Just the opposite. We want to find out what circumstances led to the accident so that we can learn to avoid the same thing ourselves.

Our sport is, in my opinion, the most ridiculous, wonderful and beautiful activity that I can imagine.

Please be careful. Don't ever let the idyllic settings, experience, and fellowship lull you into complacency.

Josh, I hadn't heard that you had an accident.

I once took a 70-foot groundfall while soloing when my main anchor failed. I was climbing a route at a beach and I was very lucky to fall into an area where the sand had pilled up due to wind and it was a relatively soft landing. A few feet away were large boulders! I broke a fair bit of stuff and had some internal damage, and had to do a self rescue, but over time things came right. It was a really slow process for the bones to mend and the swelling and colour to go away.

I hope the recovery is going okay.

Cheers, John

Stephen, thanks for posting. I never would have imagined the scenario you described.

Condolences to you and friends/family of the fallen climber.

Good day all,

I am a pilot with the Canadian Air Force and also a CRM (Crew Resource Management) Instructor. I have to say that I have lost a few pilots friends across the years due to the same kind of error. I also had a few close calls myself.

We all make decisions that on a normal day would probably not be the best option. But in other situations, it may be the best/the only option.

COMMUNICATE!!! If you execute a non-standard procedure (something that your partner is not expecting), LET HIM/HER KNOW. This way, he/she can back you up.

My thoughts go to everyone who lost a friend and a family member.

"to err is human" But we can minimize errors.

Steve should be commended for his courage in surfacing to post his explanation. I can't imagine how this must feel. My condolences to him and to Jeff's family.

If it's not asking too much, I'm also interested in hearing an answer to Josh Janes' first question about the decision to lower as opposed to rappelling. Not to cast blame or question the ability of the climbers, as I'm sure there must have been a reason. As a climber I'm always looking to learn. Perhaps I or someone else reading this thread can avoid a similar problem in the future by understanding this accident better.

Again, thanks to Steve for his bravery. As a climbing community we should support this kind of honest disclosure so well represented by Steve's example.

I applaud the belayer, Steve, for coming forth with his recollection of this very unfortunate incident. Also, condolences to everyone who was touched by this tragedy.

As has also been stated in this thread, I think it is critical that we understand what went wrong so that we can understand the situation and further tragedies of this sort can be avoided in the future.

In reading, re-reading, and re-reading again, this accident looks like it had a very simple cause. The person lowering the climber did not have enough rope to safely lower the other climber all the way to the ground. This is a very common accident, especially with sport climbing (which this was not). IMHO, it is the responsibility of the belayer/lowerer to make sure that there is enough rope to lower the climber back to the ground. If the belayer/lowerer cannot determine if there is enough rope then is it a simple matter to tie a knot in the end of the rope.

As I stated at the beginning of this reply, condolences to everyone touched by this tragedy. However, mistakes made while lowering climbers are all too common these days. Climbers need to be ultra-careful to avoid similar incidents.

Bruce

My sincere and heartfelt condolences to all family members and friends involved in this and other tragic climbing accidents that have occurred recently. James has been described as a genuine, safe, and loving person by his co-workers. Any tragedy, especially one so close to home, makes the climbing community seem very small. We have all been there in one way or another. In the cold wind, on that last rap, so close back to earth, thinking about that hot cup of tea or crack of a 90 Shilling with our partner.

Stephen, thanks for your powerful recapping of this horrible event and may you climb on peacefully...

I imagine that the decision to lower and not to rap had a lot to do with the choice of belay devices (Grigri), but I am only speculating.
Josh did not mention that about 2 years ago, he and I had our own little 'in the cold' type of incident, (actually, in a furious storm) where we left a knot tied in the rope and could not pull it very easily and about ended up abandoning one of the ropes mid-cliff. Things like this can happen when we are challenged.

My sympathy goes to the friends and family members touched by this accident.

As Bruce mentions, the root cause of the accident was the belayer not ensuring there was enough rope to safely lower his partner, and then letting the end of the rope slip through the belay device.

A secondary factor was the climber not tying in to the end of the rope.

However, additional factors contributed to the accident:

The reports say the accident occurrred at 6:15 pm. Sunset was around 5:15 pm, so it was well after dark. I did not see any mention of headlamps being used. Darkness was likely a contributing factor to the errors made by both climbers.

Other contributing factors: starting a multi-pitch climb too late in the day, lack of time awareness, not bringing adequate clothing to deal with dropping temperatures, using Grigris on a multi-pitch trad climb, and not wearing a climbing helmet.

The lessons to learn are pretty clear.

Steve, thank you for the courage to post your tragic experience. My condolences go out to you and your late partner's relatives and friends. While many people want to try and understand how this accident occured, I think a better topic might be to address why. Speaking from personal experience I would say that the "cause" of this accident would most likely the initial stages of hypothermia. Often people make decisions when they are freezing that they would not otherwise make, such as lowering each other on a multi-pitch climb. Most people do not realize that hypothermia is setting in until too late, and critical thinking is usually the first thing to go. Colorado is brutal in regards to this, as often we climb in the sun in a tee shirt in the middle of winter, because the sun is so intense.

After being in many situations similar to this one though much less tragic, I have started carrying a small stuffsack with a windshirt, silk balaclava, windstopper glove liners, and most important a chemical hand warmer. I bring this little kit on all multi-pitch routes, and as it is smaller than a can of Redbull and weighs less than a locking carabiner I find it on my harness almost always, even while cragging. This system provides much more warmth than a fleece and is much less bulky. This system is only modified in the spring and summer when I replace the windshirt with a waterproof anorak (Marmot Precip), in a slightly larger stuffsack. I use this same system doing 3-pitch moderates on Turkey Rocks, or routes on the Diamond.

Once again Steve I am terribly sorry that this accident occured, and I only bring up the clothing issue because if there is anything readers should take from this post it is that climbing is dangerous, and proper preperation often keeps things safer.

To add to and reinforce the Kevin Stricker post above, I've been climbing for over 15 years and a member of Mountain Rescue for over 8 years, and I can't stress enough that bringing a few tiny lightweight items such as the ones Kevin mentioned can make the difference between an epic that you laugh about later over a few beers and a tragedy. In addition to a nano-weight jacket and hat, I ALWAYS bring a tiny headlamp, even when I have every intention of being down well before dark. Please, do us all in Mountain Rescue a favor and: a) bring these few items; b) wear a helmet; c) use good judgment and double check everything; and d) remember that c) is more important than anything else.

Have fun & play safe.

Josh, I noticed your post, and I thought I'd say hi! I'm one of the three Bozeman folks (the one that now lives in Ft. Collins) that were at the base of Tagger when you fell. Hope your recovery is going well! My sympathy to the friends and family of James.

Thanks for everything Erin. I'm sorry for ruining your day. I don't want to take away from this thread, but for anyone who might be interested I just wrote an account of what happened here