BACKGROUND ON GROUP
The weekend of August 25th, 2017 five climbers left the Bay Area with the goal of climbing Cathedral Peak. The team consisted of two experienced climbers (Ben and Nate) and three climbers with little to no experience outside of the gym (Megan, Erin, and Andrew). All climbers were in their mid 20’s. Megan and Ben were in a relationship as were Erin and Andrew.
The team’s plan was to leave from the Bay Area Friday night and climb Cathedral Peak Saturday. The group had picked up an overnight permit for the Bud Creek Trail, and were planning on camping somewhere in the Cathedral Range Saturday night.
Ben and Nate were experienced climbers, each having 7-10 years of climbing experience. Furthermore, the two had gone through a self-rescue course together a year or so prior. Both had climbed Cathedral peak in the past. For the remaining members of the group it was their first outdoor multi-pitch rock climb, and they lacked basic knowledge such as anchor building and rappelling.
DAY OF THE ACCIDENT
On Saturday August 25th, the group went to the Tuolumne Wilderness Center to pick up a permit, did a final pack, and headed out on the trail around 10:00 am. They arrived at the base of Cathedral Peak around 11:30 am.
Cathedral Peak is a very popular climb, and this day was extremely busy. Reports have varied on the amount of climbers on route and at the base, but the most common numbers we heard were 30-40 people, including approximately 10 parties on variations of the first 2 pitches alone.
Due to the amount of people on the “standard” start to the left, the team decided to move further right and begin up a variation. The team began climbing at around 12:45 pm.
Locations of the parties members at the time of the accident. Just to the left (route A) is the most common start to the climb.
Because of the large number of climbers in their group, they broke up into two separate teams. The team on the left consisted of Ben (leader), Erin and Megan. This team was climbing with 2 ropes. The other team was Nate (leader) and Andrew who were climbing on one.
Ben and Nate both started leading their respective teams up the first pitch. Both leaders got onto the first ledge system, set up anchors, and began bringing up their partners.
At about 1:15pm Erin was arriving at a mantel move to get onto the belay ledge, while Megan had reached a point about 30’ off the ground and was below Erin. After mantling onto the ledge, Erin put her foot on what appeared to be a solid rock and began to stand up. When she did this she felt the rock below her give way and it fell towards Megan. Everyone who saw this began screaming “ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!” to get Megan’s attention. Megan looked up and saw the microwave size block coming at her. In an attempt to get out of the way she moved right, but during its fall the rock hit something, changing its trajectory to strike Megan in the head.
The impact of the rock knocked Megan unconscious. Team members reported hearing her making incomprehensible noises. Everyone involved realized that Megan had been seriously injured, and knew they needed to act quickly to get her to the ground.
Ben brought Erin the rest of way to the belay and fixed his line to the ground which would allow him to rappel to Megan. He left Erin attached to the anchor via his ATC guide and used a munter to rappel.
Nate and Andrew were both already attached to the anchor with a clove hitch on a locker as well as a Personal Anchor System (PAS). Nate confirmed with Andrew that he was taking him off his clove hitch and leaving him clipped to the anchor solely with his PAS. Once he did this, Nate doubled over his (60m) rope, and began rappelling to Megan using an extended ATC with a prusik autoblock. To reach her, Nate had to pendulum hard left. Neither he nor the rest of the team noticed that by swinging over to a different area of the wall, his rope no longer reached the ground due to the sharp elevation change along the base of the cliff.
OTHER PARTIES
At the time of the accident Patrick (40s male) and his partner had reached the base of the climb. After witnessing the event Patrick was quickly put on belay by his partner and led up to Megan to assist. Upon arriving on scene Patrick requested that Nate put some gear in for him. Nate put in two pieces and Patrick clipped in directly to them with a PAS.
Another climbing party which included an ER doctor, Jenny, had just started up another variation to the first pitch at the time of the accident. After down climbing to the ground and assessing the scene, it was determined that the best way for Jenny to gain access was to tie in short on Patrick’s rope and have him belay her up.
Upon arriving at Megan, Jenny immediately began providing patient care. Jenny told the other team members (now consisting of Ben, Nate and Patrick) that she would be focused solely on patient care while they figured out the best way to get Megan the rest of the way to the ground.
As Jenny was gaining access to Megan, her partner Terry began running to the road to get help and initiate a SAR response. Because the cell phones had been down in Tuolumne, going in person to the visitor center was the only way to initiate a rescue.
RESCUE TO GROUND AND FAILED ANCHOR
With everyone on scene, the initial plan was to have Nate rappel with Megan using a rescue spider. The team also created a chest harness out of a shoulder sling to help keep Megan upright. Once they had checked to make sure she was securely attached, Patrick cut the line which was attached to Megan, removing it from the system and committing Megan to Nate.
Photo of the area where the rock dislodged.
As Nate got ready to rappel he quickly realized that his rope did not reach the ground. Frustrated by this chain of events, the team realized it was time to slow down and reevaluate the situation. Nate clipped himself directly into the two pieces he had placed for Patrick with a sling.
With Jenny still on Patrick’s ATC, it seemed that the simplest solution was to have Patrick lower Jenny to the ground with Megan attached. The team attached Megan directly to Jenny’s harness using a dyneema runner which was girth hitched through Megan’s harness and attached to Jenny with two non-locking carabiners. In order to slowly transfer the load onto Jenny, Nate began rappelling with Megan until her weight had transferred onto Jenny’s harness.
During this process, which was only about a six inch lower, the two piece “anchor” that had been previously unweighted came under tension. When this happened the block it was built in shifted, and both pieces failed.
Due to the interconnected nature of the scene, the result of the anchor blowing was somehow not catastrophic, and in the end the whole team probably dropped somewhere around a foot and were all caught by Nate’s blue line.
After the drop, the team decided to continue with the plan of lowering Megan with Jenny. Patrick climbed up above the team and built a load bearing four piece anchor. Once this anchor was in place, Patrick redirected his rope through it and got ready to lower Jenny and Megan off of his harness.
Once the systems had been checked and the lowering operation began, Nate removed himself from the group and rappelled to the ground on his own. Ben continued rappelling below Megan, assisting with supporting her body during the lower.
In the end, it is estimated that the process of getting Megan to the ground after the accident took around 30-45 minutes.
ON THE GROUND AND NPS RESCUE
Once the team got on the ground, rescue and medical efforts continued. People at the base, including an out of practice EMS professional, had rounded up materials to create a backboard. This consisted of a “carabiner trail marker” and a Therm-A-Rest sleeping pad.
Megan’s situation did not improve over time, and Jenny continued providing medical care, continuously taking vitals signs, and assigning people involved with tasks.
At this point it was around 2:00 and Terry, Jenny’s partner, had made contact with rangers in Tuolumne and initiated a SAR. The Park Service Incident Commander (IC) assigned a group of four Tuolumne SAR personnel as a hasty ground team. The ground team departed the Cathedral Lakes trailhead at approximately 2:30 pm. A second group of five SAR personnel prepared for potential insertion by park helicopter if necessary, and staged at the Gaylor Pit landing zone (LZ) for further instruction.
Simultaneous to dispatching the hasty ground team, the IC requested the Helicopter Rescue Team (HRT) to prepare for a rappel or short haul mission, and to be picked up by the park helicopter in Yosemite Valley. At 3:06 pm, the helicopter departed Yosemite Valley.
At 3:17 pm, as the helicopter was doing a fly over of the accident site they noticed that CPR was in progress. The ground team arrived on scene at approximately this time.
While the NPS rescue was getting underway, the civilian rescue team had moved Megan away from the wall and to a safer and easier spot to work in anticipation of a helicopter rescue.
The helicopter landed near the base of Cathedral Peak and began rigging for short haul while the two HRT members hiked a short distance to the patient’s location to assist the ground team. At 3:53 pm, and after regaining pulses in the patient, a short haul mission was conducted to move her to the nearby landing zone where she was loaded inside the helicopter and taken to Crane Flat Helibase.
Once at Crane Flat, Megan was taken by Air Medical Helicopter (RIGGS Air 1) to Modesto Memorial Hospital. Later that evening, the lead NPS medical provider was notified that Megan had passed away in the emergency room.
A picture taken at the base of the climb on the day of the accident. A close look will show at least 13 people on the rock in this photo alone.
Loose Rock – While a climb like Cathedral Peak is not particularly difficult move for move, it is every bit as serious as any other alpine rock climb. Loose rock abounds in the High Sierra and being highly cognizant of your surroundings at all times is important.
Self Rescue – Before heading into any sort of back country climbing scenario having basic self-rescue skills is a must. In this case the leaders of the party did have knowledge of rescue systems (which helped tremendously) but also struggled a bit when it came time to execute them. The amount of chaos when an accident occurs is tremendous, and if people involved are not experienced, it will be extremely difficult to think through the situation and accomplish tasks efficiently. Learn these skills and practice them often, before you need them.
Medical Knowledge – Having some basic medical knowledge, be it a Wilderness First Responder or a Medical License, can be a very important skill. In this case the patient received the best possible level of care one could hope for in such a situation. Her chances of survival were improved exponentially due to Jenny’s interventions on scene. If you plan on spending time in the back country and have an opportunity to take any sort of medical training, do it.
Overcrowding – While hard to know if, or to what extent, overcrowding on the route contributed to this accident, it is an extremely common and dangerous problem on “trade routes” like Cathedral Peak. Even with multiple variations on the mountain, 30-40 people on a 5 pitch climb creates a tremendous amount of objective hazards, rock fall being a big one. People’s decision making, their risk analysis, the length of time on route, and what one decides to climb can all be affected by having too many people in a small area. The rock is not going anywhere; if there are too many people one day, you might have to pick another objective or simply save climbing for another time.
Chaos on Scene: Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast – The initial response to an event like this tends to be highly reactionary. Getting access to the patient and getting them to the ground quickly is very important. But by acting too hastily, mistakes can be catastrophic (such as a blown anchor) or simply lead to longer periods of time on the wall. Try to take a deep breath and analyze your surroundings. Ask yourself “what is necessary, who is necessary, what is our goal”. More people does not necessarily create a better rescue situation. In this case, lowering the patient to the ground on her rope probably would have been the quickest solution, but by cutting away her rope it eliminated that possibility. Avoiding tunnel vision is hard, but remaining calm and situationally aware are key components in an emergency situation.