Soloist Death at El Cajon Mountain

Thanks for all of that, James.

One part that wasn't highlighted here or in media: The sheriff paramedic was on the ground 45 minutes after the fall. Very impressive. 

-------

Also, there are many ridiculous comments on this video

https://youtu.be/8xZwCvgy_Ck

RIP. 

James, it's great to know you are out there in our arena. Wishing you a speedy recovery. 

More about the incident

Link 

This is just sad.  I suspect a good number of us are still here because we survived our earlier bad judgments.  My sincere condolences to his family and friends.  

Tradiban wrote:

In climbing a bad judgement survived is a good judgement!

Levitt pointed out in the Climbing article that the area gets a lot of sun, making it greasy but he also calls it “world class multi-pitch”.

Regardless not a great solo.

How much have you soloed and drunk too? Apologies if wrong but thought I heard that?

Happy to delete if wrong.

James Faerber wrote:

I was there and on the ground having just climbed/rappelled off of the route Triton Tower. He was free soloing but did have a rope in his pack, he was wearing a harness and had his PAS on his harness. Presumably to rappel after he completed the route, I haven't done Leonids or Meteor but when I saw him he appeared to climb the first pitch of Leonids but moved over to the 2nd pitch of Meteor. He was nearish the anchors at the top of the 2nd pitch. He did fall very very close to another group of climbers including one on lead. I am a WFR and was the first to reach him. I called 911 and we did CPR for nearly 45 minutes until the helicopter lowered a paramedic with a cardiac monitor, he found no signs of heart activity and told us it was fine to stop CPR. We waited for well over an hour to hear what the plan was after that, then marked the area with white climbing tape and an X with climbing tape on the nearby boulders to aid in located the body the next day. The incident was absolutely terrible but I can't stress enough to get some medical training (WFR), have a first aid kit, have a way to get help (we had a Spot brand PLB but also had cell service) and be safe (get educated and use good systems). I have free soloed before but cannot decide how I feel about it anymore. It was an awful incident to witness and be part of.

Sorry your day turned out that way James, I've been in a similar situation (about 10 years ago) and my thoughts to this day are still jumbled and messed up. The one take I always come back to is I'm just happy the two children in our group didn't get hit because the dude hit less than 6' from where they were hanging out. I also get a bit angry thinking about it.

Idea time- the Access Fund should sponsor WFA/WFR around the states, either free or low cost

John Tuttle wrote:

How much have you soloed and drunk too? Apologies if wrong but thought I heard that?

Happy to delete if wrong.

OMG i heard some people smoke reefer on the rock too! OUTRAGE!!!

Condolences to friends and family as well as those who were thrust into this situation.

I know people want to soapbox and judge these incidents, I would only say we all need to accept the possibility our sport can snatch all it has given us at any time. None of us is death proof. RIP Nathaniel.

James Faerber wrote:

I was there and on the ground having just climbed/rappelled off of the route Triton Tower. He was free soloing but did have a rope in his pack, he was wearing a harness and had his PAS on his harness. Presumably to rappel after he completed the route, I haven't done Leonids or Meteor but when I saw him he appeared to climb the first pitch of Leonids but moved over to the 2nd pitch of Meteor. He was nearish the anchors at the top of the 2nd pitch. He did fall very very close to another group of climbers including one on lead. I am a WFR and was the first to reach him. I called 911 and we did CPR for nearly 45 minutes until the helicopter lowered a paramedic with a cardiac monitor, he found no signs of heart activity and told us it was fine to stop CPR. We waited for well over an hour to hear what the plan was after that, then marked the area with white climbing tape and an X with climbing tape on the nearby boulders to aid in located the body the next day. The incident was absolutely terrible but I can't stress enough to get some medical training (WFR), have a first aid kit, have a way to get help (we had a Spot brand PLB but also had cell service) and be safe (get educated and use good systems). I have free soloed before but cannot decide how I feel about it anymore. It was an awful incident to witness and be part of.

James, I'm so sorry you had to experience this.  The entire incident is a tragedy.  If you ever want/need to chat about it without fear of judgement or asshole keyboard jockeys getting on their soap boxes, feel free to get in touch.  

RIP to the deceased and condolences to his friends, family, and whomever else has been directly affected.

Tradiban wrote:

Yes, but definitely more likely to snatch you while soloing.

Likelihood was not really my point. In all fairness, I don’t know what your point ever is, it usually seems mean-spirited.

Colonel Mustard wrote:

Likelihood was not really my point. In all fairness, I don’t know what your point ever is, it usually seems mean-spirited.

No just very very very realistic. Many consider constant sarcasm the same way.

Tradiban wrote:

The point, in this case, is that in climbing a “bad judgement” that a person survives is considered “epic” and “cool” and a bad judgment someone does not survive is a tragedy.

Rock climbing is not particularly dangerous unless the participants make it so. People don’t have to die doing this, and we don’t roll the dice every time we start scaling a wall.

In all seriousness, if anyone out there is considering your first free solo, call the hotline first, so I could talk you out of it, or at least point you in the best direction.

One mistake BIG pancake.  Thoughts and prayers.  He died doing what he loved.  Live fast, die young.  yada yada yada.

Tradiban wrote:

A lot, what’s your point?

That when it comes to good judgement and soloing your as full of shit as usual. Just sayin' brah. 

This death at El Cajon is affecting me in a way that other climbing deaths of people I didn’t know have not. Maybe it’s because his beautiful partner is on the web sharing her grief, and because so many climbers saw it happen, some up close and personal. This whole thing breaks my heart. And I wasn’t there. Those of you who were need to keep an eye on yourselves. I did a body recovery at Tahquitz years ago and it messed me up until I got professional help. Do not try to tough it out. Most likely there are already parts of this that you are repressing. It’s such an awful thing. 

Heartfelt condolences and best wishes to all of you who knew him, loved him, and tried to save him in the end. 

Kristian Solem wrote:

This death at El Cajon is affecting me in a way that other climbing deaths of people I didn’t know have not. Maybe it’s because his beautiful partner is on the web sharing her grief, and because so many climbers saw it happen, some up close and personal. This whole thing breaks my heart. And I wasn’t there. Those of you who were need to keep an eye on yourselves. I did a body recovery at Tahquitz years ago and it messed me up until I got professional help. Do not try to tough it out. Most likely there are already parts of this that you are repressing. It’s such an awful thing. 

Heartfelt condolences and best wishes to all of you who knew him, loved him, and tried to save him in the end. 

You hit the nail on the head, grief is complicated. Nate invited me to come with him on the climb the two days prior. I climbed in Woodson that day and considered myself ready to take it easy the rest of the weekend. The night before the accident, he was still determined to free solo, so I picked out something to rope solo myself that wouldn’t require such a long approach because I still wanted to be at the mountain to head out to eat afterwards with him. I waited until 5pm at my vehicle, unaware he had already fallen long before then. There were helicopters around earlier in the day which I thought was strange. I sent him a text asking if he was alright, no response, I just thought he threw his phone in his pack and was too busy climbing. It wasn’t until I called the ranger station the next morning that I found out it was him.

The “what if I came with him” question has taken occupancy in my mind the past few days. Would it have been a double fatality? Would I have said something about the conditions and we choose to not solo? I know I can’t change how the situation played out. I know he was set on soloing. I know he was a thoughtful individual as he’s even told me before in a message when I considered free soloing some no name wall East of SD, “don’t go for it unless you’re 100% feeling it.” We never told each other to free solo, it was always something that came up in conversation and piqued our interest. The goal of sick walls and soloing was what brought us together, very unfortunate that that is what took him away.

Mindset is everything in climbing, from the moment you hop on a wall to the times you watch others hop on a wall. Amidst this depressing time, I’m grateful for the fact that I get to remember how amazing of a friend he was while writing his obituary for the Climbing Magazine. I too thank those who came to his aid at his last moments of life. 

Tradiban wrote:

It’s ok, I’m from Wisconsin and I pass out beers while doing it (karma).

If I die feel free to blame bad judgement, until then it feels more like good judgment, and that’s my point. 

The false Bravado from an addict is as expected. The question is who you might take with you with your troll "advice"?

Tradiban wrote:

The point, in this case, is that in climbing a “bad judgement” that a person survives is considered “epic” and “cool” and a bad judgment someone does not survive is a tragedy.

Rock climbing is not particularly dangerous unless the participants make it so. People don’t have to die doing this, and we don’t roll the dice every time we start scaling a wall.

In all seriousness, if anyone out there is considering your first free solo, call the hotline first, so I could talk you out of it, or at least point you in the best direction.

I have hardly a quibble with anything you say right here except, yes, we roll the dice every day and there is a 100% mortality rate on this rig. But I’m in the mitigate risk camp, wincing every time we see these applauded cutting edge solos without mention of what it takes to get there and what the risks really are.

Ultimately, it’s the users discretion, unless you want to tie people down to a bed. We’re all gonna make a bad judgment (likely thousands upon thousands) somewhere that is going to catch up with us. Could be alcohol induced cardiomyopathy, could be eating the cheesy puffs, could be not backing up a key rappel…. Choose your own adventure. Super tragic in this instance, I wish, like so many others, the soloist had chosen other wise and were here now to learn and give more.

Your in-all-seriousness offer would possibly be taken up more if you didn’t have a dicky, insincere tone most of the time. But, hey, I’m calling the kettle black, so continue doing whatever it is you’re doing if it gives you joy.

A V wrote:

I really missed that short period of time where Tradiban seemed to been gone from MP. He really knows how to throw gunpowder on a sensitive thread in the most disrespectful and flippant way possible. 

I've been on climbing websites for 20 years.  There's always several assholes in the group no matter where you go.  If everyone could bring themselves to ignore 'em they'll go away - they feed off of direct interactions or references to them.  Unfortunately too many people take the bait!  :)

bryans wrote:

I posted "an unpopular take on The Alpinist" after my 10 year old had asked me, sincerely, why Marc wasn't climbing with a rope. Simple question, a million possible replies. I don't solo (at least on purpose, but almost all trad leaders end up in the R/X zone at times unless they are incredibly risk averse) but know there are probably as many reasons as soloists. All kinds of psychology involved. Proving something to self or others, wanting to feel "free" or "bold" or "mystic," or "just have a good time when 100% feeling it," you name it. 

If any of my friends ever died soloing I would feel white hot anger and it would take a long time for me to forgive their choice to value their life so little, to risk so much for so little., to value their loved ones so little, but as long as people keep soloing and dying, their loved ones will keep being hurt and experiencing a loss that will never go away. In all seriousness, I hope the joy the dead soloists received during and in the brief afterglow of soloing, before dying, outweighed the sorrow they dumped on others when they chose to prioritize their joy over their relationship to others. But I doubt it. I'm sure this is an unpopular take. 

My dad chose to ride a motorcycle for a while, and you know what they say about that, its not 'if' its 'when'.  He told me about a couple close calls he had with other drivers not paying attention, and of course it was hard for me hear.  But what am I going to do, tell him to stop doing this thing he loves in case an accident happens and it makes ME really sad? Who is the selfish one in that scenario?  

TONS of people solo and survive all the time, and unfortunately every now and then someone doesn't.  But if someone likes to solo because it brings them joy or WHATEVER their reason is its their own personal decision and they shouldn't be condemned and decried as selfish on the internet by strangers.

bryans wrote:

If any of my friends ever died soloing I would feel white hot anger and it would take a long time for me to forgive their choice to value their life so little, to risk so much for so little., to value their loved ones so little, but as long as people keep soloing and dying, their loved ones will keep being hurt and experiencing a loss that will never go away. In all seriousness, I hope the joy the dead soloists received during and in the brief afterglow of soloing, before dying, outweighed the sorrow they dumped on others when they chose to prioritize their joy over their relationship to others. But I doubt it. I'm sure this is an unpopular take. 

Why be bitter against a dead person? Of course soloists take on the risk of the worst case scenario, as much as everyone else may not be okay with that decision of theirs, they’re going to do their own thing anyway and the rest of us can’t physically/literally hold them hostage. My mentality has been the same for years: in regards to judging how people live their own life, it is selfish to put your feelings in before them - it is not selfish for anyone to do their own thing. Now yes actions have inevitable consequences, the whole intention vs reality convo is too philosophical for here and now, but my point still stands. I personally find it selfish to call someone selfish when they’re living their own life when it comes to the “think about other people’s feelings” card. Everyone has their own idea on what it means to live a fulfilling life, therefore we are all inevitably going to hurt other people’s feelings throughout life while making our own decisions. It hurts a lot. I’m not going to downplay it or lie, I’ve cried every day since, I feel lost without my best friend, but I could never blame him or be mad at him.

I do believe in the “at least he died doing what he loved” cliché. We’ve had our deep conversations, that’s how he wanted to go out. Hell, it’s how I want to go out too. Perspective is subjective and it’s okay that it is, it’s up to everyone else to accept that that just how it is.