Seattle climber falls to his death at Skaha
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On Saturday August 30th, 31 year old Stas Eric Gray of Seattle, fell while rappelling at the popular Skaha Bluffs near Penticton BC. According to local news reports he only fell about 8 meters (25'), but died soon after impact. There have been no more details released, but the base of the area where he was climbing (The Fortress) has many large boulders. It would be interesting to know if he was wearing a helmet.... |
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Here is an eye-witness account which sheds a bit more light (from cascadeclimbers.com). |
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What a difficult loss for his wife and family. RIP |
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A Tragic turn of events. |
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Correct link to cascadeclimbers thread |
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Thanks Amarius! |
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Wow, that is horrible! I too, have witnessed too many accidents. It is awful seeing something like that happen. This is why I always say something when I see someone doing something unsafe! |
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Thanks for the eyewitness account. |
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I feel for his family. What a tragedy. |
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applewood wrote: He had one strand of rope through his ATC and the other end was going up to the anchors. It appears he clipped only one strand of his rope into his ATC when rapping instead of 2 and so fell about 70 feet. |
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Jaime Saucedo wrote:I feel for his family. What a tragedy. Can someone explain what he did wrong in detail so us beginners can learn from it?I think it's already been explained: applewood wrote:Here is an eye-witness account which sheds a bit more light (from cascadeclimbers.com). "Yesterday around 3 pm a guy had a rap accident in Corridor at Skaha. I was there immediately along with 2 local climbers who were nurses. He had one strand of rope through his ATC and the other end was going up to the anchors. It appears he clipped only one strand of his rope into his ATC when rapping instead of 2 and so fell about 70 feet. |
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"It appears he clipped only one strand of his rope into his ATC when rapping instead of 2 |
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Jaime Saucedo wrote:"It appears he clipped only one strand of his rope into his ATC when rapping instead of 2 and so fell about 70 feet. " What happened in between these two events?Presumably he removed his tether and then weighted his rappel. The rope that is not through this rappel device is very difficult to control. It's pulled out of your hand and then whips through the anchor. |
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Marc H wrote: Presumably he removed his tether and then weighted his rappel. The rope that is not through this rappel device is very difficult to control. It's pulled out of your hand and then whips through the anchor.Thanks! |
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Marc H wrote: Presumably he removed his tether and then weighted his rappel. The rope that is not through this rappel device is very difficult to control. It's pulled out of your hand and then whips through the anchor.I'm one of Stas' frequent climbing partners, and although I wasn't there when it happened, I've spoken with his girlfriend about the accident. No one knows the exact chain of events that led to the fall, but we know Stas rappelled off one of the ends of the rope. He didn't make a catastrophic mistake like failing to set up his rappel device correctly. Based on the information we have, it seems like he made a few small errors that resulted in a dangerous situation: 1) He used a 60m rope with no middle marker and therefore may have had difficulty identifying the mid point of the rope. 2) He wasn't aware of the correct descent route when he embarked on the climb and ended up rappelling farther than he anticipated. 3) He didn't knot the ends of the rope. The second point may require some explanation. Stas climbed a 50m 5.10d called Fortuitous at the Fortress area. His girlfriend showed me the route's description in two versions of the guidebook. The most recent version doesn't say which intermediate anchor to rappel from, but the older version notes that the correct decent is via the anchor of the route to the left of Fortuitous. Instead, Stas rappelled straight down to what he thought was the correct anchor, which turned out to be about 10m lower than the one to the left. That meant he was attempting a ~30m rappel with a 60m rope - not much margin for error. Stas wasn't a reckless climber, and he knew how to load a rappel device. It just seems like he took a couple shortcuts - knowingly or unknowingly - that we've all taken at some point, only this time, the universe called him on it. |
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Worked a similar accident in the Durrance area of Devils Tower years ago, rap ropes not knotted, beginner climber trying to reach a lower anchor that the rope wouldn't reach. |
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Thanks for the additional information Jordand. That scenario is closer to what I imagined may have happened when I first heard the news. Very sorry for your loss. |
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I'm still unclear as to what happened. I guessed from the initial description that he set up his rappel correctly and that the mistake was having a rope drop that was uneven/too short and therefore rappelled off one side. |