I just want to interject to add some comments about this location for people who aren't familiar with it:
The climbing at horsethief butte is approached from the top of the cliff - so it's common to set TR anchors and then hike down to the base of the cliff to begin climbing. TR'ing is far more common than leading at this location.
There are no bolts allowed, so the TR anchors are built from gear.


I do think Majid & some people missed some relevant tidbits from the story: the two were in the process of building an anchor - they had put the first piece in & were connected to it. A slip or something occurred before they got themselves connected to the 2nd piece of the anchor & before they got in the 3rd piece.
The more experienced climber was instructing the newer climber on placing the gear. She was not a guide.

Majid's death zone comments would imply that they should have built a separate full anchor > 2 meters from the edge of the cliff and been anchored to that before going close to the cliff edge to build their TR anchor. This approach is definitely not common at this location.


as to the rest of all the bickering about what's relevant to post & not, feel free to continue blathering amongst yourselves.