Seattle climber falls to his death at Skaha

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....

My deepest condolences go to his family and friends.

castanet.net/news/Penticton…
theprovince.com/life/Climbe…

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.

When we arrived he was prone and breathing but unresponsive verbally and to ocular stim. We didn't want to move him-- no collars etc-- and we took vitals but he was on his way down. We CPR'd him when his heart stopped and got a pulse back and then the EMTs showed and took over. They had him on O2 etc but they called it after an hour of CPR. From the initial lack of responsiveness to the incredible damage he'd sustained-- doing CPR on him he had basically a destroyed sternum-- it was probably a lost cause from the get-go but we did our best.

Anyway the nurses were solid. My heart goes out to his wife who was there. Check your rap and other setups, ppl, I don't EVER wanna watch another guy die."

cascadeclimbers.com/forum/u…

What a difficult loss for his wife and family. RIP

A Tragic turn of events.

Condolences to his family and friends.

Correct link to cascadeclimbers thread

Thanks Amarius!

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!

Thanks for the eyewitness account.

I just want to clarify that it was his girlfriend, not his wife, but yes... it has been a tragic loss for her and for all of the Seattle climbing community. We are all heartbroken. Stas was well-loved by a great many of us here in Seattle and known for his positive attitude, goofy smiles, kind words, and zeal for life. He was a great climber and a great friend, and he will truly be missed.

Stay safe out there friends.

I feel for his family. What a tragedy.

Can someone explain what he did wrong in detail so us beginners can learn from it?

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.

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.

"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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

Be Careful out there it doesn't take much to die.

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.

Did you see that a similar fatal accident happened last weekend at Liberty Bell? According to a friend of his wife, he rapped off the end due to having tied a knot in only one strand, so when he got to the end the other side pulled through.

spokesman.com/blogs/outdoor…

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.

I now understand that he didn't have a safety knot. But it does seem that he was aware that the rope length might be an issue so what is unclear is what actually caused him to not be checking the rope length as he rappelled and before he came off the end of it.

In such a situation if one knowingly was taking a few short-cuts or chances one would generally be keeping a close eye on the end of the rope. When you saw halfway through the rappel that the rope was going to be too short you would get back on the rock, clip into a bolt and readjust the rope.

Was he on a large overhang where once he began the rappel he couldn't get back on the rock (and didn't have gear/knowledge to re-ascend the rope)? Anything other than an overhang would seem to be easy to just get back on the rock. Just curious about the actual circumstances of this specific route.