2 climbers die on the Grand Teton / Enclosure

A sad day in the Tetons...

From the Jackson Hole News and Guide....

"Grand Teton National Park officials Tuesday recovered the bodies of Alan Rooney, 38, and Jonathan Morrow, 28, from the base of the Grand Teton after the two valley residents were killed in a climbing accident that likely happened Sunday.

Rescue rangers flew three helicopter trips Tuesday afternoon to retrieve the bodies from below the 13,770-foot-high peak, park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said Tuesday evening. She said the two climbers were found in Valhalla Canyon, a drainage below the West Face of the Grand and beneath the Black Ice and Enclosure couloirs.

Rooney and Morrow were tied together by a climbing rope, Skaggs reported. While an avalanche might be suspected in the deaths, given the season and location of the climbers, rangers told Skaggs the two were not covered with avalanche debris, she said."

Article continued at.....
jhnews.com/article.php?art_…

From tetonat.com, a photo of the area where they fell. Blue is the Enclosure Couloir, Red is the Black Ice Couloir.

Updated story. Looks like some form of protection failure... but it hasn't been made public(if known) whether they were simul climbing and their pro failed, or were belaying and had a catastrophic anchor failure.

localnews8.com/Global/story…

Reprinted.....

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - Two experienced climbers found dead on Grand Teton earlier this week had tumbled about 15-hundred feet down a steep snowy slope after one of their anchors gave way.

Park officials don't know why the anchor gave way and may never know.

The anchor could have popped loose or a rock could have fallen from above and knocked the anchor loose.

The two climbers were identified as 38-year-old Alan Rooney and 28-year-old Jonathan Morrow both of nearby Kelly. They were experienced climbers.

The two were believed to have fallen sometime Sunday, and their bodies were recovered Tuesday still roped together.

Friends of the two climbers planned two memorial ceremonies on Saturday in their honor.

I am not the most experienced trad climber in the world let alone my state, I have been doing it for about 6 years now and I prefer trad to any other form of climbing by a mile. In those six years I have been leading for about 4 and I have never had even one piece of pro come out of one of my anchors. If these two climbers were experienced I would have to assume that something really obscure happened to their anchor, such as the comment above "The anchor could have popped loose or a rock could have fallen from above and knocked the anchor loose." I just have a hard time believing that an anchor set up by experienced climber would come out.

Jim, yes, but the terrain is really sketchy there & anchors are questionable. I've hit some of those approaches and prayed holds would just stay because I knew I would buy the farm if they popped or if rockfall were to occur. It's just an unfortunate circumstance within an accepted risk in alpine climbing; I'm sure they did what they could.

I have climbed in the Wind River Range a handful of times but never in The Tetons, I guess I just figured that the rock would at the least be decent. What is it like Rainier up there?

Another update from the Jackson Hole News and Guide... definitely belay anchor failure, though the nature of the anchor and failure is unknown. Tragic.

(Reprinted from jhnews.com )

Climbers were clipped to same webbing loop
By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.
May 4, 2007

A Grand Teton National Park ranger said Thursday two climbers who died in a fall Sunday were connected to the same loop of climbing webbing, which he believes was used as part of an anchor that failed.

Jenny Lake Sub District Ranger Renny Jackson said the investigation into the deaths of Alan Rooney and Jonathan Morrow continues but that the exact circumstances that led to their deaths might never be known. The two failed to return from a climb on the northwest side of the 13,770-foot Grand Teton on Sunday and rangers discovered their bodies below the Enclosure Couloir on Tuesday.

Jackson said the climbers both were attached with locking carabiners to a single loop of climbing webbing believed to be the team’s anchor. Such slings are typically about three feet long, and the arrangement suggests the two were at the same place when they fell, he said.

They also were tied to each other with two climbing ropes, most of which are about 200 feet long.

Whether the loop of webbing was placed over a horn of rock, slung over a buried ice axe or used in some other fashion as an anchor remains a mystery, Jackson said.

“The nature of the anchor and what may have caused its failure, these are big question marks,” Jackson said.

Family and friends of the two climbers will gather for a potluck memorial at 4 p.m. in the yurt community in Kelly, where the two lived. A circle ceremony will be at 7:30 p.m. Children, dogs, musical instruments, memories, photographs and slides are encouraged. Beer will be provided.