It can never be emphasized frequently or emphatically enough - check each other and yourselves. It's all too easy to make it an afterthought or no thought at all sometimes. Take nothing for granted.
I hate that these accidents serve as a stark reminder - but if tragedy can serve any purpose, saving another life would be a fine one.
For those who haven't seen it - this is from the ElCap Report:
As mentioned above, I spoke with the two men, Cletis and Ryan, about the tragedy that befell their partner, Tyler, on the Nose yesterday. They were all at Camp 6 when Tyler decided to rappel down the Camp 5, some 200+ feet, to retrieve gear that had been dropped. Tyler tied into the end of the rope so as not to rap off it. He prepared to go down and soon leaned back off the ledge. He then fell all the way to the end of the rope and impacted the highest ledge at Camp 5. When Ryan rappelled down to him he noticed that Tyler was not connected to his grigri or any other rappel device and thus free fell the length of the rope. The end of the rope was a couple feet above the ledge and Ryan cut Tyler free, laid him on the ledge, and called YOSAR for help.
YOSAR responded quickly and decided to raise Tyler and the other climbers to the top of the mountain and chopper them down. All of that was accomplished that evening. I was wrong in yesterday’s report when I said I thought they would get the men off in the morning. Sadly, the lesson here is to check and double check your set up whenever you commit yourself to the rope. Also, all members of the team should look to see that anyone going on a rope is properly attached to it. It is always a good policy to check, even if just an informal look, each other’s knots and attachments at every belay.. it only takes a moment to look and it could save a life. No matter how much fun you are having a tragedy is just a careless moment away. Our deepest sympathy and condolences go out to Tyler’s family and loved ones. He was 22 years old.
