Accident + rescue on Cathedral Peak, Yosemite. Any updates on the victim?

I was at the base of Cathedral on Aug 26, 2017 about an hour after a young girl was hit on the head by rockfall. She was helicoptered out by YOSAR eventually, but it did not look good. Does anyone know about her situation? I really hope she is going to pull through.

A post on supertopo.com indicates that she didn't make it...

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/3005701/Injury-or-Fatality-on-Cathedral-Peak-Yesterday

As someone who has been on that climb, I'm curious to know what happened.  Do you wish to elaborate or is it a bad time?

According to someone on Supertopo a leader in a party above dislodged a block that hit this woman on the first pitch.  Very sad.  My condolences to her friends and family.

What part of the face though? Pitch 2 or 3? Did they take the left side or right side of it?

A buddy of mine was there when it happened. This is from his FB page:

"A lady was following the first pitch up the SW buttress of Cathedral the other day when a microwave size block fell from above and struck her head. YOSAR is taking her out in this image. It was a busy day on the peak with many parties on the route. Her condition was unresponsive."

"[...] It destroyed her helmet. There was a great deal of blood. She was initially responsive but faded and then was unresponsive. They (other climbers) performed CPR on her for a while, probably in excess of 30min. I was only there for about an hour."

"I don't know how appropriate my words are on the internet but I seriously doubt she made it. "

Damn, a young life cut short by our little game. 

Getting up super early to be first on the route minimizes this risk. But if you're not first, what then?

So sorry to hear about this.

FrankPS wrote:

Damn, a young life cut short by our little game. 

Getting up super early to be first on the route minimizes this risk. But if you're not first, what then?

So sorry to hear about this.

That route has become a early morning, during the week route.

hi. she was on the first pitch of route C. the rock I understand fell from the second pitch, we do not know if someone dislodged it, or if it was a natural occurrence. the route was extremely crowded. There were people at every pitch of seemingly every possible variation. Before I started on the fourth pitch of Route A, I scanned the ground and saw at least 10 people also waiting at the ground to start. My partner belaying me witnessed the rock fall. The large rock, which I understand was the size of an old microwave, hit the young female climber, on the back of her helmet, shattering her helmet. The force also knocked her head forward into the mountain. She had ducked her head when everyone around started yelling "rock". She immediately lost consciousness. By the time we were able to safely get to the ground, close to an hour later, CPR was being administered for 15 minutes already. I understand they were able to get her heart going again with the shock paddles once SAR arrived. Everyone at the crag really pulled together to help. There were two doctors on sight that day climbing at Cathedral peak, that helped the patient. I really hope to hear she survived. She was a new climber, and I understand this was her first multi-pitch.

My partner and I arrived were here just a little after the accident. Such a sad situation. My heart goes out to everyone involved.

It may not be much comfort at the moment, but from my perspective everyone present did everything they could have done to help. Anyone in that situation would be lucky to have such a great group of people around. I just want to offer my support to anyone that needs it, in any way that I can.

Again, Be Safe Out There.

Climb On!

John

Thanks for the updates everyone! This is really sad  

I grew up with the young lady in question. Unfortunately she did not make it. Thank you all for the updates and accounts from the accident. RIP

Hi all.  I posted this the other day on SuperTopo, but also wanted to share the following here on Mountain Project:

Greetings. My name is Jenny and I was the doctor who was at the scene. For the sake of privacy, I won't go into too many details but did want to put my voice out there and also invite anyone who was there during the event to contact me if you want to talk.

After swinging leads up West Crack, we headed over to Cathedral. It was crowded, but we found an opening on a part of the wall that wouldn't funnel us towards the eventual bottleneck at the chimney. Our plan was to simul it in two long pitches.

I racked up and was about 15ft off the deck when we heard someone on the far right side shout "rock". Just as I was about to place my first piece, I heard a crack and explosion. My partner, who witnessed the rock fall, yelled at me, "Go. They need you now". Neither he nor I recall me down climbing, or us untying, but I do remember yelling that I was a doctor and running to the base below the injured climber while my husband sprinted to the visitor center thanks in part to a random driver he flagged down on the road after realizing our keys were still in our packs.

After a group of us safely got the injured climber down, I worked hard with a team of other climbers including an ex-EMT. During medical school and residency, I sought extra training in Emergency Medicine and Sports Medicine and I have helped and run trauma codes and medical codes. I can honestly say I have never worked with such an inspiring, courageous, and diligent team. We did everything we could to do right by the injured climber - from managing the airway the best that I could to making sure we had lip balm for the climber, setting up a sun shade for the team, and doing heart rate and respiratory rate checks every 15 min and having a note taker and time keeper, it was an epic effort. SARS was wonderful and generous and did an exceptional job.

Again, if you were there and want to touch base, please reach out and message me.

Thanks to everyone who was there. The whole thing was tragic and my heart still aches, but I'm proud of our community and am overwhelmed by the love and tenderness I saw on the mountain that day.

-Jenny

(jennykcohen at gmail)

I was there watching you and everyone else near the climber do a spectacular job! Thank you for your efforts Jenny.

I cant speak to the specifics of this incident, but my experiences on Cathedral recently range from ridiculous to downright dangerous. Was at the tail end of the tuol triple late on a saturday a couple weeks ago and witnessed total gridlock/absurdity/dangerously incompetent new climbers all over the route.

Much respect to all involved in helping this poor young woman - Jenny one can only hope someone like you happens to be around in the backcountry should the unthinkable ever occur.

With the explosion of the sport it might be time to consider some sort of a lottery system for these overtrafficked routes in yosemite and tuolumne. 

Jenny, thanks for both your efforts at the scene and for your thoughtful post above.

NateGfunk wrote:

I cant speak to the specifics of this incident, but my experiences on Cathedral recently range from ridiculous to downright dangerous. Was at the tail end of the tuol triple late on a saturday a couple weeks ago and witnessed total gridlock/absurdity/dangerously incompetent new climbers all over the route.

Much respect to all involved in helping this poor young woman - Jenny one can only hope someone like you happens to be around in the backcountry should the unthinkable ever occur.

With the explosion of the sport it might be time to consider some sort of a lottery system for these overtrafficked routes in yosemite and tuolumne. 

NateGfunk wrote:

I cant speak to the specifics of this incident, but my experiences on Cathedral recently range from ridiculous to downright dangerous. Was at the tail end of the tuol triple late on a saturday a couple weeks ago and witnessed total gridlock/absurdity/dangerously incompetent new climbers all over the route.

Much respect to all involved in helping this poor young woman - Jenny one can only hope someone like you happens to be around in the backcountry should the unthinkable ever occur.

With the explosion of the sport it might be time to consider some sort of a lottery system for these overtrafficked routes in yosemite and tuolumne. 

I personally would just avoid spots like what you described. Climbing underneath other parties is a risk, always has been. 

RIP

http://www.modbee.com/news/article170615527.html

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article170848267.html