![]() He then pulled Beth’s end of the rope back up and made two rappels to reach her, using a single bolt in the middle of the pitch for the second rappel. He was confident that she would stay seated. The ledge is 6' x 6' and has 30 feet of third class terrain below. Once she was sitting, he instructed her to untie. Next he lowered her to the large ledge and instructed her to sit down. He pulled the lead line down from pitch two through the protection that Beth had left on the pitch and tied her back into the rope. She was alert enough that she was following his instructions. The first pitch is approximately 140 feet long and Degan had only one 200-foot rope, so he decided to lower Beth to the large ledge at the bottom of the first pitch. Worried that she could deteriorate quickly, he began a self-evacuation knowing that an NPS rescue team was mobilized and would arrive at the base soon. and reported the accident and Beth’s condition. Degan called the park service about 6:00 a.m. She was not oriented to her location or what happened before the fall, but she seemed capable of following instructions and was sufficiently coordinated to assist in her own evacuation.ĭegan could see a major avulsion injury of her right arm with some bone exposed, which she was guarding, and lacerations on her face including a laceration on her nose down to the bone, but the obvious concussion and her disorientation most concerned him. He then tensioned back to the anchor with her, which provided some slack in her end of the lead line and allowed her to stand on the belay ledge (supported by Degan) without weighting the rope.Īfter securing Beth into the belay anchor, Degan, who is a Medic, assessed her injuries. He righted her, and she started to regain consciousness. Using this line, he was able to swing out to the right and reach Beth on the slab. He fixed himself to the anchor using his end of the rope with about ten feet of slack. Degan continued ascending to the belay stance. He called to her but she did not respond. Beth and Degan believe she sustained most of her injuries from the impact with this corner.ĭegan could not see Beth fall and was not aware of the accident until he had almost arrived at the belay ledge and saw her hanging from the rope, upside down. Based on her injuries, it appears that after initially falling on the slab above the belay anchor, she may have become caught in her rope, causing her to pendulum into the corner of the second pitch. She stopped approximately even with the top of pitch one, but on the slab to the right of the belay ledge. A Camalot placed a few feet before she started aid climbing stopped her fall. As she fully weighted the piece, she heard it pop and she began falling down the slab.īecause of the slack in her system, Beth fell approximately 30 feet. ![]() She hand-tested the piece, then clipped in one of her aiders and stood up in it. She was about 35 feet over the ledge when she placed her first piece on aid, a small offset Alien into a flared pin scar. She free climbed the first 30 feet, a 5.7 left-facing corner that trended right, and then switched to aid climbing when the free climbing became 5.10. Instead of rigging a self-belay, Beth proceeded to lead the second pitch tied only to her end of the rope with a 60-foot loop of slack stacked on the ledge. When Degan reached the anchor he would start belaying her with the full rope. When she arrived, she pulled up all the slack rope, approximately 60 feet, and anchored the rope 60 feet from her end so that she could begin leading the next pitch with the slack while Degan cleaned the first pitch, thus saving time. The first pitch ends at a ledge and a two-bolt belay station. They approached the Nose via the Pine Line and started climbing the first pitch at 5:15 a.m. They had both climbed the Nose before and had extensive experience on Yosemite’s big walls. On June 26, Degan (38) and Beth (32) were attempting a one-day climb of the Nose of El Capitan (Grade VI 5.9 C2). FALL ON ROCK – SHORT FIXING WITHOUT A SELF-BELAY, INADEQUATE PROTECTION – FAILURE TO TEST AID PLACEMENT ![]()
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