UPDATE: More details have emerged and can be found on Mountain Project, Climbing, and from Stewart Green.

The Dike Wall is a beautiful cliff of pristine granite situated at 9,000ft above Mammoth Lakes where John lived with his son. John was climbing by himself and was found at the base of the 80ft North Wall.

SuperTopo has a thread up as a memorial to John.

(via Climbing Magazine and UKClimbing)

From the article:

At the top, Boratenski found nylon cords as well as a metal carabiner. He used the nylon instead of the metal as an anchor, something he now knows was a terrible mistake.

I thought this was something all beginning climbers learned, but maybe it should be reiterated. Never run nylon against nylon as an anchor. The friction of the rope running through the sling or cord will create heat which will cause failure.

If there are no rap rings available, then just leave your own biner. For about six dollars, it’s worth your life.

While there’s little learning value to climbers on the accident in the main article (no real details on how it happened and the various factors involved), there’s an intriguing afterword about the relative risks of climbing versus other activities:

The American Alpine Club, in its yearly compendium Accidents in North American Mountaineering, reported 15 fatalities in the United States in all of 2007. The highest tally in the last 57 years, in 1956, was 53. The yearly average was 25.

The British government, comparing the risks of various activities, assembled these statistics:

* Maternal death in pregnancy 1 in 8,200 maternities
* Surgical anesthesia 1 in 185,000 operations
* Hang-gliding 1 in 116,000 flights
* Scuba Diving 1 in 200,000 dives
* Rock climbing 1 in 320,000 climbs
* Canoeing 1 in 750,000 outings
* Fairground rides 1 in 834,000,000 rides
* Rail travel accidents 1 in 43,000,000 passenger journeys
* Aircraft accidents 1 in 125,000,000 passenger journeys

To be honest, the data that pregnancies have a higher risk of death than climbing freaks me out since my wife is six months pregnant so I think I’ll just forget I read that piece of data.

I tend to think that while we all know how inherently risky climbing is, this knowledge is in fact the reason there tends to be fewer fatalities than other outdoor activities. My logic here is that since climbers tend to be aware of the risks in climbing, they strive to be competent by gaining training and learning from others on safety and proper use of equipment.

Realizing how dangerous the activity can be, we take the appropriate precautions in order to minimize the risk. The knowledge of the risks actually keeps us safer. Of course despite a climber’s best efforts, accidents do happen and there are sometimes factors beyond control, but overall I think we tend to be a risk aware group (which is sometimes contrary to popular belief).

This climber, however, disregarded the new anchors, choosing instead to thread his rope directly though one of the old bolts. He top-roped three routes off the single old bolt and then according to Josh, a fireman and climber who was on the rescue, he switched to the other old bolt “because he didn’t like the way his rope was running in the anchor.” He then began to rappel, but after descending 25 feet down the slab the bolt snapped off and he fell 50 feet.

The old ½-inch eyebolt that the climber had rappelled from had broken cleanly at its juncture with the rock surface. A close inspection of the bolt indicated that the break was caused by the stress of rappelling and the single anchor being loaded with the weight of the 230-pound climber.

Read the entire analysis, but the moral of the story to me is don’t be complacent – always check (and potentially backup) fixed gear.

The rock climbing community lost a legendary climber and environmental advocate on November 24 when Jimmy Ray Forester fell while climbing in El Potrero Chico in northern Mexico. Forester, an experienced, talented and well-known climber, failed to return to camp after a climb on El Potrero Chico’s “The scariest ride in the park”, a 55-pitch 5.9 ridge route. When he didn’t return after the early-morning climb, an attempt was made to view his progress with binoculars, and when unsuccessful, a search was initiated. He was found the next day at the base of the wall.

“Jimmy was an intelligent and super strong climber,” said Ryan Ray, a Forester climbing partner. “He never put himself, or anyone else, in danger. This climb was well within his capabilities, so we can only speculate what might have happened. It could have been rockfall or a handhold that gave way.”

Forester became an iconic figure throughout Oklahoma and Texas during his 17 years in the sport. He established his own characteristically ground-up, onsight style and was endued with a deep sense of climbing history and tradition that energized other climbers. According to his friends, he was also a consummate climbing teacher and mentor.

“Jimmy was the kind of guy who cared more about the climbing community than he did himself,” said Ray. “He climbed and established new routes so that others would have quality places to climb. Every time he placed a new bolt, he would always think about the next climber who would have to use it.”

When he wasn’t climbing, Forester was dedicated to protecting climbing resources and was an environmental activist. He served on the Board of Directors of the Wichita Mountains Climbing Coalition and the Central Texas Climbing Committee and was a strong supporter for the Access Fund, the only national advocacy organization that keeps climbing areas open and conserves the climbing environment.

“Jimmy worked to preserve the historic ethics of climbing as well as protecting the climbing resources in the North Texas and Oklahoma,” said Ray. “He wanted to make sure that future generations of climbers had the same resources that we have today.”

On his numerous climbs, Forester compiled hundreds of pages of route and historic data for a series of guide/history books that he planned to publish for the climbing community. “He spent countless hours developing guide book information and had one of the most complete and comprehensive collections of information on Texas and Oklahoma climbing that has probably ever been written,” says Ray.

Forester leaves behind one daughter, Riley, age 4. To learn about memorial fund that has been set up in her name go to FriendsofForester.com. “Jimmy was the kind of dad who wanted to see his daughter have a great life,” says Ray. “He worked hard for her, and always gave her the best that he could. Setting up the fund was one way his many friends could support him.”

A memorial website with updated information has been created at www.friendsofforester.com

To make a donation benefiting his daughter Rylie please visit any Chase Bank branch and deposit to “Friends of Forester”!

Donations can also be mailed to:

Friends of Forester
c/o Chase
16831 Coit Road
Dallas, Texas 75248

For questions, contact the account officer, David Ploof @ Chase Bank Dallas branch, 972-407-3415.

His harness broke.  It was old and worn out, and he had a new one on the way in the mail.

If that isn’t a sad reminder for all of us to check our gear regularly, I don’t know what is.

The SuperTopo forum has a long thread with a lot of stories memorializing Todd. Will Gadd (Gravsports) and Dougald MacDonald (The Mountain World) relate their thoughts about Todd and there is some more media coverage at MSNBC, MountEverest.net and The Mercury News.

UPDATE: More from my friend on the accident and the harness failure:

what he heard from one of their SAR friends was that the belay loop gave out

Again, remember to check your gear…

From the scotsman.com,

The study by German researchers was based on the rates and types of injury at the 2005 World Championships in rock climbing in Munich, Germany, which involved almost 500 climbers from 55 countries.

The championships had an injury rate of 3.1 per 1,000 hours compared to adult male national soccer competitions where players face an injury rate of 30.3 per 1,000 hours.

Over the course of the competition’s events that totaled 520 climbing days, only three of 18 medical problems were treated as significant injuries, including a broken ankle, back sprain and knee sprain, while the majority of the problems were just bruises.

An interesting study for the average person who thinks climbing is more risky than other sports, but what I would be more interested in reading is a study that compares the injury rate within the various climbing disciplines. Personally, I find I get more injuries when climbing indoors (especially bouldering) compared to climbing outside. With bouldering, I think the reason is obvious. If you’re bouldering outside, all the problems are spread out across more time, usually the whole day. When bouldering indoors, a climber typically compress the same amount of problems (or more) into a 2 hour session. This simply stresses the body much more.

joost.climbing.nl also has some additional reporting on this study.

Three years ago, Ralston was just another outdoor adrenaline junkie, attempting to be the first person to solo climb all 59 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot-plus peaks in winter. During a break from his quest, he ventured into a Utah canyon where an 800-pound boulder rolled onto his right hand, pinning him for six days until he freed himself by severing his arm with a pocketknife. Within a year, he returned to the Colorado Rockies to finish his climbing quest.

Ralston’s outrageous act of nerve has since made him a bestselling author, a beer pitchman, an eco celebrity and a motivational speaker in high demand by corporate America. At 30 years of age, he is one of the nation’s best-known mountaineers. But in the mountain-climbing community, he is the foolhardy adventurer who nearly died after committing the cardinal sin of hiking into the outdoors without leaving word on his whereabouts.

UPDATE: Although this was a rather short post on my part, the comments have taken off and provide a great conversation on this story. Keep reading below for an interesting commentary on Aron Ralston‘s story.

Both of them successfully climbed Mt. Pumori on March 25, but while returning, they climbed 100 meters down and unfortunately slipped and fell down in mountain trench of 500 meter depth which led them to the death.

These two climbers were on the 11 member International Pumori Expedition 2005 team.

High-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) can occur unpredictably at altitudes above 14,000 feet. Fluid fills the cavity between the brain and skull. The resulting pressure on gray matter induces headache, nausea, dizziness, emotionalism, seizures, disorientation, and, if left untreated (at higher altitudes, mostly), death. We all knew this. The best treatment is to head down the mountain. Immediately.

More information on climbing Mexican volcanoes can be found here and here.

Additional resources:
Briton killed in Greek avalanche (Reuters)
Five dead, six injured by avalanche in Greece (Yahoo)