Cannon Cliff Accident on 9/20

https://www.wmur.com/article/mass-man-dies-in-climbing-accident-on-cannon-cliff-in-franconia-notch/34103070

Maybe it happened on the 4th pitch where all those giant loose rocks are?  Horrible situation for everyone, and I'm sure there were many people getting after it that day.  

So sorry to everyone involved for this loss. Loose rock is of course always a hazard on Cannon. 

Fucking awful... condolences to family, friends, and the MITOC community. We walked past the base around 3pm and saw one party atop the finger. At least nobody else got hurt with a block that big.

Yikes, that's terrible.

E C wrote:

Maybe it happened on the 4th pitch where all those giant loose rocks are?  Horrible situation for everyone, and I'm sure there were many people getting after it that day.  

I'm wondering what fell off and whether it was a memorable feature like the sickle or the finger of fate. The blocky corner stuff leading up to that on the 4th pitch always struck me as scary junk so that seems like a good candidate also. 2nd pitch comes to mind also but that would put the climber at the base.

The article mentions a 150' fall though seemingly not to the ground. I'm surprised they hauled the body to the top if it was that low on the route.

Very sad news, and condolences to anyone who knew the party reading this.

I hate hearing about accidents like this that sound more like something that could arise out of pure bad luck rather than something preventable through good safety practices.

This article[1] says "rescue personnel were lowered to the man’s body, which was found lodged in small spruce trees" -- based on "lowered to" I would guess the climber was closer to the top of the cliff. There are some ledge bands with vegetation above and right of the finger, see the image below, so, if a 150' fall is accurate that would put the climber on or around P7, which IIRC does have some questionable rock on/above it. Not as bad as P4, but I wouldn't be shocked to learn that something broke free up there. Of course, all of this is pure speculation until more details come out.

From reddit

They were the lead party of the day and on the top pitch when it happened. No parties were above them. We were one pitch below when the rock came loose. Horrible scary bad luck.

That is very sad and disturbing news. RIP fellow climber.

sad and terrible. there are many ways to finish the last pitch so  we may not find out exactly which feature it was...  I have felt that one of the next major events on cannon would involve the area  just above and to the right of the chimny pitch near the top of Moby.. 

I was at the scene when this happened and was one of the climbers who rappelled to find Ben.  I was in the party directly below his and spent much of the day hanging around on ledges with them as we climbed slightly faster but stayed behind them.  

They did the standard finish to the right and we finished on Kirk's Corner.  There seemed to be a lot of variations possible for the standard finish.  The block came loose at the top from the right less than 50 feet from the last belay.  Kirk's Corner seemed solid, I would recommend that finish.  That being said, there's a lot of loose and precarious rock all over this route.      

It's been a pretty rough couple of days for me and I'm sure it is so, so much worse for his climibng partner, family and friends.  My condolences to you all and please reach out if there is anything I can do to support you or help you understand what happened better.   

Big thanks to PemiSAR and NH Fish and Game for showing up and helping us all get down safely in the dark as well as all those who helped in the recovery.

I plan to write up a detailed account of the incident and work with the American Alpine Club to publish in Accidents when the dust starts to settle.      

Be safe and spend some time with your loved ones.  Rest in Peace Ben.

Kevin Soleil wrote:

I was at the scene when this happened and was one of the climbers who rappelled to find Ben.  I was in the party directly below his and spent much of the day hanging around on ledges with them as we climbed slightly faster but stayed behind them.  

They did the standard finish to the right and we finished on Kirk's Corner.  There seemed to be a lot of variations possible for the standard finish.  The block came loose at the top from the right less than 50 feet from the last belay.  Kirk's Corner seemed solid, I would recommend that finish.  That being said, there's a lot of loose and precarious rock all over this route.      

It's been a pretty rough couple of days for me and I'm sure it is so, so much worse for his climibng partner, family and friends.  My condolences to you all and please reach out if there is anything I can do to support you or help you understand what happened better.   

Big thanks to PemiSAR and NH Fish and Game for showing up and helping us all get down safely in the dark.

I plan to write up a detailed account of the incident and post it in the near future when I feel up to it.    

Be safe and spend some time with your loved ones.  Rest in Peace Ben.

On the behalf of others, I thank you Kevin and other climbers for assisting those on the scene.

Understandably Ben's climbing partner and friends who were at the cliff that day are still shaken up and processing it all.

Thank you kevin! sorry you had to go through this. 

Thanks Kevin, take care of yourself. We met you at the base and let you climb through - awful that what started as a good day ended this way.

does anyone know if they were on single or double ropes? did he fall because rock hit him or when it cut the rope and/or both?

important things to include for accident analysis.

my condolences to family and friends.

Fu&k man, this is extreme and hard to believe.   Rock fall at Cannon is a known thing, but fatalities are extraordinarily rare.   I know Jon Sykes won't be commenting here, but as the guidebook author and a Cannon expert I would guess that he would say this is one of the only known climbing deaths on Cannon (especially in modern terms).  This is a monumentally sad and shocking event.  This route is super popular and was thought to be a safe outing.

JB Gregory wrote: does anyone know if they were on single or double ropes? did he fall because rock hit him or when it cut the rope and/or both? important things to include for accident analysis. my condolences to family and friends.

Hello I was also on scene during this situation (Kevin’s Climbing Partner). Ben and his partner were using a single rope. I don’t think there is a clear answer to you second question at this moment of time however.

My heart goes out to Ben’s family and friends and I can’t imagine the pain they are going through at the moment. From what I’ve learned in these past few days Ben seemed like an amazing person and I wish we could’ve had a different outcome to this situation. 

Hey Bill & Kevin, I was below you guys on the cave pitch when it happened. Glad to hear you're both alright, and thank you both for all your help. 

Condolences to Ben's family and friends. Such a tragic day...

Condolences to Ben’s family and friends. It was such a tragedy.

I only climbed moby grape once and witnessed a table sized rock knocked off by the party below. Luckily it missed the belayers and only cut their rope half open. I heard someone on the trail was hit by debris and had a mild concussion, though. 

Syks seemed to belive that they were off route to the right of the standard finishes?

Russ Keane wrote:

Fu&k man, this is extreme and hard to believe.   Rock fall at Cannon is a known thing, but fatalities are extraordinarily rare.   I know Jon Sykes won't be commenting here, but as the guidebook author and a Cannon expert I would guess that he would say this is one of the only known climbing deaths on Cannon (especially in modern terms).  This is a monumentally sad and shocking event.  This route is super popular and was thought to be a safe outing.

Not sure if the top pitches of Cannon can ever be considered a safe outing... similar to Molly the one time I've climbed Moby G a microwave-size block was pulled off by the party below on the way to the Kurt's finish.

Can we all just agree that Cannon sucks? Rock fall has some pretty binary outcomes. When it’s bad, it’s really bad.