El Capitan, Realm Of The Flying Monkeys – Leader Fall
Initial Call
On the night of October 13th 2018, Yosemite dispatch was informed of a climber fall resulting in injury on the upper pitches of Realm of the Flying Monkeys, an obscure route on the West Face of El Capitan. Due to poor service in the area, the call was not initially connected, but 911 was alerted that the number had attempted to reach them, and they called back. This time the team was able to communicate a little bit of the situation before the call was lost again for good.
A few local friends of the climbers then received texts from the team with basic information about their location and injuries, and were asked to contact YOSAR. They were also informed that the team’s phone was essentially out of batteries.
Response
The SAR duty officer on the morning of the 14th received a report of the situation first thing the next morning. A page was put out for 3 SAR personnel to do a hasty response to the Big Oak Flat wood lot with a spotting scope and loudspeaker to make audio and visual contact with the team. Over the next few hours this was accomplished, and by answering YES and NO questions via arm signals it was determined that the main injury was a broken ankle and that the emergency was not life-threatening.
Meanwhile, the rest of the SAR team mobilized at the Emergency Services Center and prepared for a top-down rescue operation to extricate the injured party. By early afternoon the team and all the necessary gear had been flown to the top of El Capitan using park fire Helicopter H551 and within the next hour the lowering operation began.
The plan was to lower a rescue team member down to the patient (who was approximately 300 meters below the summit), pick him off the route, and raise him to the top. The rescuer brought a spare rope with him to see if the patient’s partner felt comfortable rappelling the rest of the route by himself. This would avoid the need to complete two lowering and raising operations. Upon reaching the party and discussing options it was determined that the safest option would be to raise the rescuer and patient to the top and then return to raise the partner.
SAR personal prepping to fly off of El Capitan
Just before sunset, both the patient and partner had been successfully raised to the summit. The patient was then brought back down to El Capitan Meadow via helicopter, where he was taken by his friends to the nearest hospital for examination.
Accident
On October 13th at 4:44 am the team of two began climbing Realm of the Flying Monkeys, planning on a one-day ascent. The two had climbed another route in the West Face area together previously and were both highly experienced El Capitan climbers.
The patient’s partner led the first 6 pitches of the route as per plan, and then turned over the lead to the patient after 6 pitches (and approximately 7-8 hours). At this point the patient began leading and following the topo as best he could. Hours later, and with the sun gone, the team found themselves climbing in terrain that seemed out of character with the route, and had a feeling that they might be off course.
Somewhere, approximately 300 feet below thanksgiving ledge and around 9:00 pm, the patient found himself committing to a leftward traverse towards a large crack system. He climbed out approximately 20 feet past his last piece of protection and had just reached the crack when his foot slipped and he took a large pendulum fall. As he was falling he recalled noticing himself hitting his head and back but never lost consciousness. When he came to a stop, he felt mostly OK but immediately noticed he had a broken ankle. His partner lowered him back to the belay and they began discussing options.
Due to the severity of the injury, fatigue, and the time of night, the team decided to get settled in on the small ledge they were on, and try to reach rescue personal. The team had only one phone between them, and it was running very low on battery. After getting some broken/dropped calls into 911, they sent some texts to local friends in the hope that they could get a rescue started. Their phone died just after this was accomplished. The team had two jackets, headlamps, some spare food and two liters of water. Although it was cold, they were prepared to bivy for the night.
Without knowing if their messages had gone through, the team yelled for help the next morning. About this time, the YOSAR hasty team had arrived at the spotting site, made audio and visual contact, and began prepping for the rescue operation.
Patient and SAR personal waiting to be flown off the top of El Capitan
Haste and Fatigue – Upon interviewing the patient, he was certain that haste and fatigue played a big factor in his injury. At the time of the fall, the team had been in hard terrain for almost 16 hours and were rushing to get to Thanksgiving Ledge (a gigantic ledge system marking the end of the hard climbing) which was just a few hundred feet above them.
Pendulum Falls – Swinging pendulum falls tend to carry much more opportunity for injuries with them than standard vertical drops. The patient stated that he could have placed gear on his traverse, but did not due to concerns of rope drag and making it easier for his partner to jumar the fixed rope later. In a situation like this, it sometimes makes sense to protect yourself during the traverse, then lower down and back clean gear later.
Communications – Cell phones can get a call out on most routes in modern Yosemite. Having two phones with a full battery is a very important tool in case of an emergency. Also, even with no cell service, it is worth trying to contact 911. If another provider in the area does have coverage, it will pick up your call and transmit for you.