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Lumpy Ridge Fatal Accident

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The Good Life Denver · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 5
twitter.com/JeremyHubbard/s…

Sorry to pass this along--a CSU student died on Lumpy Ridge yesterday as a result of a 30 ft. fall. Rest in peace, and be safe out there everyone.
Kenan · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2010 · Points: 1,237

Yeah we saw the helicopter extracting the body today while climbing Loose Ends on The Book. My utmost condolonces to the family and everyone involved.

:-(

It's been a terrible week for accidents.

Rodney Ley · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2003 · Points: 40

Corey Stewart was a student of mine at Colo State University. He was a great young man with a real passion for climbing. This is really sad news.

My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

thedenverchannel.com/news/l…

LNwoods · · Mansfield-Storrs, CT · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 0

Corey was the baby on our high school mock trial team, or what we all thought of as a second family. The entire team knew his brilliance was beyond his years, but it was his charisma and energy that were truly unparalleled. There was just never a dull moment with Corey around; I think we busted on each other so hard that we more often than not called the other n00b or twat. Going our separate ways, we lost contact (outside of Facebook) over time, but it was never for lack of loving that kid. Maybe some smaller memories may have faded away, but I will never forget that n00b's laugh.

His passion for rock climbing was insurmountable, and it seemed like he was living his dream by doing just so in CO. Not so long ago he had survived an accident in the Gunks, but it far from kept from him from persevering. (He had posted an article a friend of his wrote about his recovery- watershedpost.com/2013/afte… ).

I can't imagine that Corey's personality was any less magnetic than when we were in school together. I'm sure as a result he has made many good friends over the years and in all the places he has lived, and all of whom he has left truly broken-hearted. My sincere condolences to them and his family. Rest in peace, Corey.

tigerclaw · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2011 · Points: 0

Will there be more info forthcoming as to the nature of the accident? Was it ground fall or a run out route, did pro pull, was he wearing a helmet? These details help other climbers keep the essentials foremost in their minds and may prevent future tragedies.

goingUp · · over here · Joined Apr 2013 · Points: 30

tigerclaw,
i dont think thats important, especially on this site, there is no need to nitpick and find blame, or even a reason to understand the loss and tragedy., climbing is dangerous, we all know and understand the risks. The fact that this as well as many other accidents that have hapened (especially recently )should help us to be more aware of our surroundings, redundancy and need to check our safety gear, placement and judgement... without passing the latter onto the survivors of lost loved ones.
Im am sorry for this loss.,
-Marc

Ryan Arment · · Boulder, CO · Joined May 2010 · Points: 71

goingup,
with all respect to any family or friends of Corey. It is extremely that our community discuss and examine accidents in detail so that we may potentially prevent such an accident from occurring again.
I am also very curious about this case and would appreciate any details about the event.

LNwoods · · Mansfield-Storrs, CT · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 0

Regardless of mixed opinions on the matter, I do not have any details to forward.

Chris DeWitt · · Sacramento, CA · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 155

This is sad news.

I read an article that said he was on Batman Pinnacle. What route was he on, does anyone know? Looks like there is a 5.10 X on there...

RIP

ChefMattThaner · · Lakewood, co · Joined May 2013 · Points: 246

GoingUp,

As sad and terrible as this news is this site is here for exactly that reason. Examining details of accidents has a great deal of knowledge and wisdom to offer. Climbing is dangerous and we all know that but none of us know everything there is to know about climbing or the freak accidents that can happen to us.

Abram Herman · · Grand Junction, CO · Joined May 2009 · Points: 20

I was just thinking about this last night, how the climbing community latches onto accident reports. It seems a bit morbid, but it actually serves a very practical purpose.

Unfortunately, climbing doesn't give you a lot of opportunities to learn from your mistakes, since a mistake can often mean death. For that reason, we need to learn from the mistakes of others. It might seem voyeuristic, but it really is necessary.

Good thoughts to the friends and family of the climber, stay safe out there!

FrankPS · · Atascadero, CA · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 276
Abram Herman wrote:I was just thinking about this last night, how the climbing community latches onto accident reports. It seems a bit morbid, but it actually serves a very practical purpose. Unfortunately, climbing doesn't give you a lot of opportunities to learn from your mistakes, since a mistake can often mean death. For that reason, we need to learn from the mistakes of others. It might seem voyeuristic, but it really is necessary. Good thoughts to the friends and family of the climber, stay safe out there!
I respectfully disagree. Whatever caused the accident has happened dozens of times before. And we don't need to hear what happened to "prove it." Pick up a copy of ANAM if you want to know different ways people get hurt or die on a climb.

RIP, Corey.
Gail Blauer · · Gardiner, NY · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 1,051

Making this even sadder...Corey had a very bad accident at the Gunks in March of 2012. He hit is head very hard and at the time of the accident, it was unclear if he was going to survive. Incredibly, he recovered fully and resumed climbing.

My sincerest condolences to his loved ones.

Guy Keesee · · Moorpark, CA · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 349

I wish to offer my sincere condolences to Cory’s family and many friends.

I would like to know what went down, in due time, and now is not the time or the place.

Much like test pilots, we climbers do learn from the experiences of others, fatal and non-fatal.

But I think that is just what the Injury and accident form is for.

Guy Keesee

Abram Herman · · Grand Junction, CO · Joined May 2009 · Points: 20
Guy Keesee wrote:I would like to know what went down, in due time, and now is not the time or the place.
Agreed, I didn't intend to imply that mp.com was the place for it. That's why we have ANAM,as FrankPS said.
Tim Stich · · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 1,520

For one, we do start memorial threads that are specific to that need. This isn't really what that started out as. However, it's common to add condolences to the accident thread. So it's understandable that the accident analysis threads get mixed together with well wishes for the families.

I see no reason to go around shaming each other for asking pertinent questions about the accident. In many cases it is actually what the families would like to know as well. The best we can do is limit our own speculation and let eyewitnesses speak.

In any case, very sorry to hear this news.

Dave Meyers · · Evergreen, CO · Joined May 2006 · Points: 512

I bootied gear close to the ground on Batman Pinnacle Saturday morning. After reading about this incident, it may have belonged to Corey. If it is in fact Corey's gear and his family wants it back please PM me through this site and I’ll send it to you.
Regardless I offer my condolences to his family, friends, and climbing partners.

Patrick Vernon · · Grand Junction, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 965

Examining accidents on the forums is great in theory. I have learned a lot from past threads that looked at the root cause of accidents. A wise climber is one who realizes he/she is not infallible and accepts a certain level of risk while still striving to be safe.

The problem with these threads is that when an account of the accident comes out some ass always comes on and starts talking about Darwin and being disrespectful. Because of this I don't blame people for wanting to avoid discussing details.

ElizabethW · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2010 · Points: 0

The best way to avoid future accidents is to talk about/analyze/digest situations. This requires a safe and non judging atmosphere. Where do we go if we cant go here, to a site dedicated to climbers??

Merlin · · Grand Junction · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 10

Discussing this stuff merely serves to inflame passions. Learning on your own and from mentors is the way to go.

The best way to avoid accidents is to 1: be lucky and 2: survive the experience gaining process. Talking about other people's ill luck doesn't do much.

Case in point, the goofy flame thread over the guys that died in the Loveland Pass avalanche that went dark when Lou Dawson wrote an analysis confirming what people were getting flamed over pointing out.

If you do stuff long enough you'll know people that have died doing the same. It happens.

Condolences to the friends and family of the deceased.

Tony B · · Around Boulder, CO · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 24,705

Another important aspect that one should consider with respect to discussing this is where people discussing it are at with it themselves. I think much of what causes people to ask is not so much rubber necking, nor patting ones self on the superior back. I think much of it is soul searching. As a husband and father, I don't intend to leave my family without me.
That doesn't mean I am trying to learn from the accident things like "do I need to wear a helmet?" or "how much gear is enough?"
Perhaps it means when someone passes while climbing there is an ache in the back of my head: "Could that have been me?" Or "Is it that objectively hazardous?" and I find myself wondering about what happened. In this particular case, I caught myself reading out the victim's first near-life-ending accident. It sounds morbid and I asked myself why I was reading it. I was subconsciously looking for a pattern - for a subjective mistake. for something to tell me that it either could have been me, or likely would not have been me. Perhaps not so much to avoid it, but to ask myself if that statistic included me, or not. I suppose for some people, that might come out the wrong way if they find themselves relieved to not be in the grasp of the particular accident or probability thereof, themselves, and they might react by a little back-patting. Not exactly graceful, but I'm not damning anyone over how they deal with death when it is personal.

John Bachar signed my old Yosemite guide book: "Always use ropes."
he died a few months later. It is a reminder, not that I must always rope up, but that there are consequences to accidents. Danno left behind a child after his tightline jumping accident. I think about that at times.

I've cleaned my own friends brains off of a wall in Eldo, and found out only later that they were his... it had been a stranger to me prior, as I was washing things off. (An article the mags published about this was called: "Nobody I knew.")

Do I try to be respectful? Yes? Do I acknowledge that it is a tragedy? Yes- as a father, I can't imagine loosing my own kid that way. And that was someone's lover/friend/brother/son/neighbor as well. As it has been said: 'The bell tolls for us all.'

And I conclude:
"Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me..."
-Dunne, Meditation XVII
online-literature.com/donne…

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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