El Cap Rockfall

I just got word from a buddy that there may have been a significant rockfall at El Cap. Anyone know anything?

http://www.kcra.com/article/people-injured-in-rockfall-at-el-capitan-in-yosemite/12487427

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/3014875/Massive-rockfall-Waterfall-route

Thanks for the link Rich. That is a massive sheet of rock. Lets hope everyone is ok.

Nooo my friend is on that route. I hope all is ok. Ok updates on supertopo. Glad to hear people were safe on route but there is a fatality:/ my heart goes out to all. 

anthony. wrote:

Unfortunately, the latest news is reporting 1 dead and 1 injured: fresnobee.com/news/local/ar…

:/

Oh no...

the death was a hiker being struck by flying debris from what I can tell?

It says they are working with a consulate, that suggests the deceased was not American?

Daniel Affsprung wrote:

It says they are working with a consulate, that suggests the deceased was not American?

From the UK. 

Wow that is huge!!  Pretty lucky with only one fatality imo. Thought this was strange, two articles I read said similar things but this quote was from NPS, "It has been 18 years since the last rockfall-related fatality in Yosemite National Park."  Just a few weeks ago I was reading about a climber's death due to rock fall on cathedral, does that not count? Maybe because that one was most likely human caused? 

Mike Mellenthin wrote:

Perhaps they were confused about Valley vs. Park?

But also that's not even true. There were two unrelated fatalities caused by rockfall on the Muir Wall and East Buttress in 2013. So yeah, maybe human caused vs. not?

In any case, condolences to those that knew the victims.

How would they even know if a rockfall is human caused or not, unless someone steps up and claims it? I think they just made a mistake.

Mike Mellenthin wrote:

If memory servers, in the EB case the leader stepped on a block that hit his belayer and in the Muir Wall case the leader bounced on a cam that blew a block that cut his rope.

I didn't mean to blame the victims or anything like that. Just to point out that the rockfall wasn't random in the sense that it wouldn't have happened at that time were the climbers not there and that maybe that was the source of the news' confusion.

The event they are referring to 18 years ago was someone dying on (near?) Mr. Natural due to random rock fall. I can't think of an truly random event after that until yesterday, although I very well could be wrong.

There have been many, many deaths to random rockfall in the Valley over the years. Falls trail comes to mind but you can find the details if you search.

This link is all the documented rock falls, but you'll have to look elsewhere for info on when people were hurt I think.

https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/rockfall.htm

Geological time-wise, its frickin' raining boulders there....but people are generally out of the way, but not always.

MORE rock just fell!!! This one may have been bigger....

BigB wrote:

MORE rock just fell!!! This one may have been bigger....

[citation needed]    Seriously, what's the scoop? 

More massive rockfall this afternoon. Hope rescuers weren't in the area. 

More rockfall as of an hour ago. Everything I've read/heard has said bigger. The road is closed. http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=3014875&tn=100

Speaks for itself...

Photo from Pete Hoang's Instagram

Edit: Appears much bigger than the first!  Two close friends shared epic photos and video from higher cathedral but I'll let them post.