Accident Report: Rappelling, Middle Cathedral Rock

Central Pillar of Frenzy- Rappelling Error

SCENARIO

At approximately 8:40 pm on June 8th, 2019, Yosemite Dispatch received a report of a climber fall of at least 40 meters while rappelling from the top of Pitch 5 of Central Pillar of Frenzy on Middle Cathedral Rock. The reporting party stated that another climber could see the fallen party, who appeared unconscious.

BACKGROUND

Earlier that afternoon at 1:50 pm, a team of climbers (Patricia Stoop and Kevin) arrived at the base of Central Pillar of Frenzy where they encountered two other teams  at the base preparing to climb. The standard rappel route for Central Pillar requires two ropes, so they asked the group in front of them (Nathan and Joshua) if they wanted to share ropes to rappel from the fifth pitch. The group of four agreed to team up so that neither party needed to carry an extra rope. Patricia was concerned about completing the route before dark. Kevin and her set a goal to finish the climb by 9:00 pm and communicated a retreat plan to one another in case they moved slower than expected.

At approximately 3:50 pm, Patricia and Kevin began climbing. At the top of the first pitch, they passed Nathan and Joshua and continued on,  completing the fifth pitch by 8:30 pm. While waiting for Nathan and Joshua to join them, they began rigging for rappel. Due to limited space at the belay and the setting sun, they decided to fix their single 60 meter rope for a single line rappel in order to begin the descent.  Patricia would rappel first down to the next anchor. When Nathan and Joshua arrived at the top anchor, they would unfix her line, tie their two ropes together and descend via standard double rope rappels.

ACCIDENT

At the fifth pitch anchor bolts Kevin created an equalized anchor and attached the rope to the anchor using a locking carabiner and a knot on a bight. Kevin defines the knot he tied as a “hoop knot” (later he showed ranger/investigators an over hand on a bight) and left an approximately eight foot tail to allow the other team enough slack to thread the anchor and tie their ropes together while Patricia was still rappelling. 

Patricia wrapped and dressed her third-hand (Sterling Hollow Block) around the rope in an auto-block hitch and clipped it to her leg loop with a locking carabiner. She configured her rappel device onto the rope above the third-hand and clipped it to her belay loop with a separate locking carabiner. The other end of the rope was still tied to her harness from the ascent. Nathan had led that pitch and already joined them at the anchor, belaying Joshua from above. Patricia stacked the rope over her lap for minimal interference with Joshua who was following the final pitch below them. 

Before beginning to rappel, Kevin and Nathan visually double-checked Patricia’s set-up. Everything appeared properly rigged. She unclipped her personal anchor system, leaned back, settling her weight onto the rappel device, and made a quick equipment adjustment on her harness. Nathan could not identify what Patricia had adjusted, but believed she moved a quick draw from her leg loop onto her gear loop. Patricia continued to lean back–starting her rappel–and suddenly started falling backwards down the wall the full length of the 60 meter rope until she was caught by the end she was still tied into.  She fell out of sight and the other climbers felt the rope go taut as she stopped.

Still climbing up the final pitch, Joshua looked up to see Patricia tumbling downwards. He tucked himself into the wall and covered his head to escape injury. He then saw her hanging from the end of the rope and not moving. 

Once Joshua joined the others atop the fourth pitch, Nathan rappelled down to her location and observed her responsiveness was decreasing with shallow respirations. A few minutes later he reassessed and found her pulse-less and no longer breathing.

THE RESCUE

Immediately after the fall, Kevin called 911 to alert Yosemite National Park emergency services. YOSAR was notified and assembled, and a hasty team responded to the base of the route and rigged for rescue. Three team members ascended the route while the remaining team members waited at the base. The plan was for two to climb to the top of the fourth pitch and rig a rescue system that the third rescuer could connect to from the top of the third pitch, almost adjacent to Patricia, and swing over to assess. When the rescuer reached Patricia, she was unresponsive and pulseless. The rescuer connected her to his system, removed her from her system by cutting the rope above her tie-in point, and subsequently they were lowered to the ground.

TAKEAWAYS

Wear a helmet– Always wear a helmet when climbing outside. In this accident, the climber impacted her head significantly during the fall and she wasn’t wearing a helmet. With one, the outcome could have been different. 

When “saddle-bagging”a rope, clip it off to the side of your harness– Patricia had coiled the rope in her lap to avoid interference with the climber below. This technique is referred to as “saddle-bagging” your rope. Once your rope is neatly coiled, cradle it with an alpine sling and clip it to a gear loop on the side of your harness so it is tucked away to the side. You are now able to clearly see the whole picture in front of you: how the system is fixed, the lengths of each end of the rope, and which strand you are rigging for rappel. You are less likely to mistake one end of the rope for the other.

Always tie stopper knots in end of rope– Patricia had a closed system as she was still tied into the end of the rope. However, it was dark outside and even a short eight-foot long tail can be mistaken as the longer end of the rope. Because the rope was coiled in her lap, she was not able to feel the weight of the rope while she rigged for rappel. Tying a stopper knot on the tail end or clipping it off to the side of the anchor would prevent someone from accidentally rappelling off of that side of the rope.

Properly dress “third hand” rope device– If your prusik is not neatly dressed and wrapped enough times, it will fail to bite the rope when needed. Take these two things into consideration and test your prusik before unclipping from the anchor. 

The climb is not over until you are on the ground– Mistakes are made at the end of a long day when climbers are tired, ready to be down, and it is often dark. Critically assess every decision that you are making as you descend from a climb. Does your tail need to be eight-feet long or would a shorter, four-foot long tail also be enough slack to tie ropes together? How can a mistake be made in each situation? Slow down and stay vigilant with what is going on until you are on the ground.

Test each critical connection point before undoing previous connection– In this case, it sounds like Patricia did weight the system before unclipping her personal tether from the anchor. Although that did not prevent her from falling, it is a good reminder and can catch mistakes before they are made.

Consider Alternatives to Popular Routes– Crowds can often cause distractions and hasty decision-making. Do your research to have a back-up plan when climbing popular routes.