Ice climber dies near Colorado Springs

"To me, the fixed anchors at the top of the gully are not really necessary (they have only been recently added), and if they are leading folks to rappel in instead of walking down to the base, then perhaps they could be removed. This is a narrow gully, and is not comparable to approaching a climb in Box Canyon. Does anyone else have any thoughts about the way this climb should be approached and whether or not the bolted anchors should be there?"

Hey Julian,

I was the one who put the new anchors on top of the first and second pitches. I did this after consulting with a few other local climbers.

My thought process was the following:

1. Almost all people approach this from the top -- many because they are more comfortable top roping this. Some because they don't want to have to deal with crossing private property -- although maybe there is a way around this?

2. The anchor that people had been using (the flimsy tree and pin on the bench just below the new anchor) is a bit questionable at best.

3. I was hoping that having bolts at the top of the climb would make it safer for people setting up top ropes (I don't think adding the bolts in any way increases the number of people who access this climb from the top. I was just hoping to make it safer for the people who do)

Regardless, this accident is a tragedy. My heart felt condolences to his family, friends, and students.

Tony, I have mixed feelings about media coverage; I think they just don't understand, and maybe don't care about, what responsible coverage is. They shove cameras into the scene as quickly as possible and spew out bs that one source gives them. That the one source is qualified, I have no problem; but what happens is the context gets edited & changed to present a more dramatic story.

On the other hand, the use of their facilities & media outlet during a search is a viable asset.

I think we'd like to see more educated and responsible coverage of a given incident. Not: "Oh! get a shot of that carnage, we need shock-value!"

Why is it that there is no coverage of a skiier injured or killed in an incident at a ski resort until after that person is well off the mountain, but any backcountry technical SAR mission and it's a f'n media blitzkrieg?

Maybe people moving near mountain areas in this country just don't have enough respect for these areas.

I think this goes back to society trying to insulate itself from risk & having media promote fear so that responsibility is pointed at someone else.

Climbers have every right to freely express themselves as much as anyone else out enjoying the outdoors; and we have every right to assess risk and to use or to not use gear we see fit to work on technical terrain.

Its a sad situation for sure, but how many of us have been all too eager to get on the ice. As for the gully, it has been a while since I have been there but I do not recall any bolts at the top. We walked, slid, screed down to the base from the right hand side and used a tree in pitch 2 as our top anchor. Its a great gem but sorry to be reminded of it in a sad situation.

Tony Bubb wrote:...is anyone willing to sign a letter to this effect that I intend to send to the various media outlets?

I'll sign it Tony ~ I'm always relieved and appreciative if a newstation admits to pulling footage because of content. I trust their opinion on that (only). Gory pics don't add (imo) to a well written personal story of tragedy. I can connect the visual dots.

Thanks to the person that shielded Reid with the blanket. ~RIP~ May anyones last horrific breath not have to be filmed on the evening news.

Hopefully you gave the newslady something to think about - cheers - k

I also disagree with Tony. Our media is so sanitized that we are completely out of touch with the reality of death. So it is not the pictures that bother me, but the sensationalism of things that bothers me.

The media is doing their job, they just don't usually do it very well.

Another climber asking a person who just lost a friend "what the hell were you thinking?" is being an ass. How many of us have walked around the top of a cliff untethered? And regardless, what are you trying to do? Rub it in? Damn. You know what they were thinking, you don't need to ask. You don't need to judge. Someone's friend died. Leave him alone, or give him condolences, it wasn't his fault. It is an accident for a reason.

I will sign it as well. I am not a violent person. However if I was witnessing a scene were any news agency was filming there camera would be road kill and the game would be on. Hey, what would make a news reporter run from a scene faster than chernobyl disaster. ME! The last thing the climbing community needs is sensationalism. Ten million people can get killed the freeway and they don't close the road. A few senationalized climbing accidents and before you know it the area is closed. It is easy for political pundants to fight small minority groups like climbers. We are not golfers.

Hey, Kirra, what about your plans after the crowd fest at SF? Is the bunk house opened again. I want to go ice climbing! Front Range ice is not as nice. Love the SF.

I'll buy you roses, I'll buy you beer. I lead the climbs, I'll place the gear. (Well roses might be far fetched, but it rhymes. Beer is much more important anyways)Anyone have a heated RV for rent?

Sincere condolences to the Mr Hunt's family, friends, and partners. This sort of thing makes me want to cry, even when I don't know the guy.

I'll sign your petition Tony. I hate the horrible insensitivity of most accident reporting - climbing, vehicle, or otherwise. Freedom of the press would be a nicer thing if they had any compassion or restraint. As things stand, so many reporters are abhorrent vultures waiting for something awful to happen.

The only thing worse is the ghoulishness of insensitive climbers who weren't at the scene criticizing the victims, and then proclaiming their nobility in trying to learn from accidents.

Charlie Perry wrote:I'll buy you roses, I'll buy you beer. I lead the climbs, I'll place the gear.

Hi Charlie -- Please send the roses to the climber deceased and refer these coments to the other forum. Saw your post and will respond - thanks so much. - kirra

Hey Brett,

Thanks for your reply. I understand your point of view. My point of view is that there must be a long list of better places to top rope than the Hully Gully. There are two good reasons that I can think of. The first is due to the amount of traffic that the area can experience. The weekend before last I counted 6 vehicles parked on the road above the climb. That left me puzzled about where everyone could fit down there. Suppose there were 2 people to each vehicle; where on earth would 12 climbers fit in the Hully Gully? My thoughts are that with so many people congested in such a tight area that an accident is bound to happen, although I would have thought that the biggest accident threat would be someone getting hit from falling ice, etc.
This leads to the second reason why the Hully Gully is not the best place to top rope. It is not a destination like Vail is for example, where you can top rope on a climb and there are other options available for other parties to climb. Often when I go to Vail, there is a top rope camped on the Rigid Designator. That is sort of OK because there are usually other climbs that can be done. At the Huly Gully, there is only one climb to do. So, a top rope is needlessly going to choke the entire works.
I can also understand the sense of community service that goes into the mindset of creating safer anchors for the good of everyone (or the environment when saving the vegetation is paramount). America is a great place in that we all get to have an opinion and the climbing community is a good example of where group consensus is used to work through these issues. The several times that I have climbed the Hully Gully, I didn’t miss the anchors before they were added. However, I don’t have such a big problem with them being there now, except where (in my opinion) it might increase the wrong kind of traffic. I think that it’s interesting how only a stones throw away; anchors are commonly chopped in Cheyenne Canyon where they would really serve some good. Think of the top of Crack Parallel for example. To contrast this mindset, think of Turkey Rock, where convenience anchors are chopped almost as a policy in order to keep things the way they were.
Personally, I came from an area with a very strong traditional ethic, Moores Wall, in NC. There was an established practice of chopping any protection that altered the climb from its original state. On the one occasion that I have replaced an anchor and fixed gear, I felt worse afterwards, thinking that I was dictating the terms upon which others were going to experience the climb from now on, and there were going to be a whole lot more of other people experiencing the climb as compared to how many times I was likely to climb it again. Take care.

All since I think this is not the forum to discuss the topic and debate anchors I'm going to post a new topic where this can be discussed and not jumble a topic that is better served by those who wish to express their voices about Mr Reid.

Mark Nelson wrote: Why is it that there is no coverage of a skiier injured or killed in an incident at a ski resort until after that person is well off the mountain, but any backcountry technical SAR mission and it's a f'n media blitzkrieg?

Probably the main factor is time. On the mountain we (ski patrol) are at the scene in a matter of minutes. I think it takes us about 2 minutes to get a checker down to the wreck from the time we are called, anywhere on the mountain. If the wreck is bad (tree strike, cardiac, etc) then we can have a helicopter there in about 16 minutes from the time it's called. Backcountry rescues happen on a scale of hours or days, plenty of time for the media to hear of it and get somebody on scene.

The other reason is that we keep the media (and anybody else) the hell away from our scene. We do not talk about accidents with guests, even minor ones. We designate one person to talk to the press so that we are sure we give them what we want and there are no mix ups. If you think about all the liability that a ski resort has, all this makes sense.

I think one of the biggest enemies during rescues like this regarding the media is ourselves. People naturally want to tell the press everything they know (or think they know) about an incident. There are many independant teams working together, not one unifed group (in many cases), so protocals and procedures regarding media coverage are not well ironed out (if a all).

Ian, hey, good to hear from you. I finally busted a pick last weekend on ice, can you believe that?

Hey, there's some similarities in a given Sheriff's procedure that you guys also have. I think it's been a long time since the independence of teams was a problem; with backcountry, the Sheriff is the main figure head & from that will then goto MRA accredited teams who have their own information officers (PIO's), military, & other civilian specialized teams; depending on what the asset needs are.

(A side note, some technical rescues are getting response from non-MRA accredited teams -- this I see will be a problem & it will affect recreational access. In the case of Dvr Mtn Parks areas, we have seen it, in part, from an incident @ Red Rocks Amphitheater; hopefully, the two planning teams working with the AF can get things resolved with Denver. Jeffco will be another area of concern, but the implementation of oversight climbing guidelines within each OS park mgt plan and an understanding with an MRA accredited team does give me hope.)

Lets talk about Mt Hood & media coverage there.

One thing I liked about the recent Mt Hood mission was the effectiveness of this system which I think dealt with about 5-6 teams between the civilian & military branches. All teams were able to work together to effect a search and conclude without further incident.

The bad things from the perspective of information was the editing & changing the context of information being relayed from the main point of contact by the media. Which resulted in mis-information to allow public comment from complete idiots to weigh in on subject matter that they had no experience. A far worse item was the press contacting family members during the night, late night, that was bs. Another small thing that happened was having the Sheriff's press officer make up stuff about an anchor that he didn't know anything about -- it was subtle, but it lent to credibility of the Sheriff whom I thought was right on target with his plan.

Overall though, you just don't see such a response in the media with the cameras in any incident like something backcountry but close proximity to a large city population base. Does anyone up in Jackson see cameras shoved up the Grand everytime the Jenny Lake Rangers do a heli short-haul? I have to admit, that is the most intense evac I have ever seen. But cameras certainly don't need to be plugged at the scene or the landing area -- freedom of the press can still work with a reporter taking notes in a press room. Cameras shoved in everyone's face isn't anything more than main-stream journalism acting like paparazzi.

It is truly an unfortunate incident and I wish to send my condolences to the family of Mr. Reid my prayers are with the family and the partner. This has got to be a rough time on them all. I do hope however that this brings to surface in all climbers that we all bear the responsibility of those around us, to correct or comment on anything we find that is just plain unsafe or careless. I know I should do this a little more. I was walking around in an unsafe area not long ago and someone brought it to my attention that I didn’t have my helmet on, I didn’t argue, I put on my helmet. Recently someone commented to me that my harness was old and just “straight garbage” (thanks Brett), I got a new one immediately. In the past ten years it seems to me a small population of the climbing community has gone soft on each other. This little comment is not meant to “beat anyone up” or to “kick up dust” I just think we could all do a little better at encouraging safe climbing discipline, its our responsibility to each other. Thanks.