On November 17, 2017, Yosemite Park Rangers were notified that the body of Niels Tietze had been found at the base of the Fifi Buttress. The reporting party stated that Tietze was deceased.
SCENARIO
On November 17th, two friends of Niels Tietze hiked to the base of Fifi Buttress to look for their overdue friend. The two knew that Tietze had been up on the formation, working to establish a new route and had been doing so solo using fixed lines and self-belay techniques. It was late in the season and he was most likely removing his ropes and gear off the wall. Nobody had seen Tietze since earlier in the week and he had missed climbing plans with friends the day prior. When the two arrived at the base of the cliff they discovered Tietze’s body and immediately recognized that he had taken an un-survivable climbing fall. At approximately 2pm they notified a Park Ranger by cell phone.
YOSAR quickly organized a team to go up to the cliff to recover the body. Tietze’s body was carried out that evening.
INVESTIGATION
Location of Tietze’s final resting spot
Tietze was wearing a climbing harness when located. His shoes were off, but there were two climbing shoes found nearby. He had climbing gear clipped to his harness including cams, carabiners, and slings. There was also an adjustable wrench and round wire brush. A low stretch, 254 foot rope was found strewn about the scene. The rope was not connected to the harness. There were no knots in the rope. The midway point of the rope was looped into only one slot of the rappel device. The retention cable of the friction device was broken. The rappel device was not attached to the locking carabiner found on the harness. The carabiner attached to his harness belay loop had a screw lock with the screw in the locked position; however, the gate was effectively locked open because the nose of the carabiner was not captured by the screw lock.
Since Tietze was by himself at the time, no one can know for sure what happened. The findings at the scene suggest that Tietze may have accidentally weighted a rope set for a doubled-over rappel with only one strand of rope in the device and carabiner. However, the fact that the ATC and rope were not connected to his harness when he was found detract from this theory, and could be explained only if they had managed to come out of the “locked open” carabiner during the fall.
A second option to be explored would be that an unknown event interrupted Niels as he was rigging for rappel – after he passed the rope through the ATC but before the ATC was clipped to his belay loop carabiner. An attempt to grab the rope could then explain how it made it to the ground. There is simply no way to know if this was the case.
The broken retention cable on his rappel device is unusual, but in and of itself would not have caused an accident to occur as the retention cables do not actually assist in the operation of a plaquette device.
The “locked open” carabiner certainly could have played a part in the accident. However, that the middle mark of the rope was through his rappel device strongly suggests a rappel rope rigging error as opposed to an accident during the rappel.
TAKE AWAYS
- Always go in direct to the anchor while rappelling – Whether it is with a Purcell Prusik or a company made PAS (personal anchor system), or even simply slings on hand, it is extremely important to always attach yourself to the anchor while rigging for rappel.
- Always test your system – After going in direct and rigging for rappel, weight and test your system before unclipping from the anchor. Know that you have done everything correct before trusting your life to it.
- Always use a “third hand” – using a hands-free backup can be important for a number of reasons. When you attach a prusik (kleimheist, autoblock, etc) prior to loading your rappel device, you have an initial point of attachment to the rope, if all else fails it could save your life.
- Be cautious while alone – Whether hiking or climbing, the stakes are higher when solo. No one is there to check your systems, and no one is there in case of an accident. Stay at high alert and recognize your situation.
- Be careful of complacency – Tietze was an expert climber and mountaineer of the absolute highest caliber. He had spent years of his life rescuing people off the walls of Yosemite as part of Search and Rescue. It only takes one bad rappel after thousands of well executed ones for something like this to happen.