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billcoe_
Aug 14, 2002, 5:22 AM
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A friend of mine was saying that J-tree sees several free soloing deaths every year that make the local papers and that it typically doesn't get reported further out. It's evidently fairly common. (I had not heard this before and it startled me)
I understand that when you have a Derek Hershey peeling from high up the Sentianal in Yosemite, it's big news. He was a kick ass free-soloist, fairly well known in England for his high standard climbing. Well known in many countries, he was routinely free-soloing 5.11 onsight.
In fact, my friend says, the J-tree falls are often not classified as climbing accidents at all. Sometimes it is just "climber dies" or some other incorrect or partial story.
What do you all think? Is this true, that the amount of free-soloing falls are dramatically under reported? If so, how common is it?
Regards:
Bill
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jt512
Aug 15, 2002, 12:44 AM
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As a SoCal local and semi-regular J Tree climber, I think I would have heard about this if it were true. I also think that if there were that many fatalities climbing at J Tree - solo or otherwise - their would be some sort of repercussions from Park Service. Sounds like hooey, in other words.
-Jay
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billcoe_
Aug 15, 2002, 4:16 AM
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Pustule: could be: I still remember my first 15 min at J tree in @1980 or 81. Got out of the car - standing there looking at the rock, within a min or 2 a couple of guys (Marine looking dudes from 29 palms?) started arguing about 30 feet away.
About a min after that I hear one of the fellas screaming: "go ahead and shoot asshole". I look over- 1 guy has a gun and the other guy is walking towards him screaming repeatedly "go ahead and shoot" and/or variations of that line thereof.
Memorable.
I hadn't heard of routine deaths down there from climbing, and it surprised me that I hadn't - so I layed it down here to see if anybody could confirm or deny it.
-Bill
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beyond_gravity
Aug 15, 2002, 4:32 AM
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Lets face it,
No one cares about climbing.
I could go onsite realization barefoot and wouldnt get in a newspaper.
I've heard of rumores of sevral climbing deaths. And i've only read about two:
One was "experienced" climbers that rapped off a single bolt and it came out.
The other one was an Ice climber who used an old V-thread with no backup. (a big NO NO!)
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snapier
Aug 15, 2002, 4:46 AM
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There's a plaque at some place in New England where I once climbed. It's for the memory of a climber who had done a lot of the FAs on that crag. What spooked me is the last line of the plaque:
"Died in a fall at Yosemite"
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roughster
Aug 15, 2002, 4:58 AM
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There is also a Plaque at Auburn Limestone that indicates a fellow climber lost their life there.
It is a reminder to me everytime I go out there that climbing is a risky activity. Sure many of the risks can be minimized, but total risk cannot be eliminated.
And thats not just directed at soloing.
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fishypete
Aug 15, 2002, 8:19 AM
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I agree with Ooze, I think the inexperienced scramblers would account for quite a percentage of these accidents.
After all they are soloing...technically speaking.
Accurate numbers I have seen for other areas (such as Yosemite) clearly show that deaths of dedicated soloers (i.e. intential unroped climbing, not just scrambling/tall bouldering) are infrequent.
Cheers
Fishy.
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