document that it can be dangerous if you hike outside the envelope of safety. It is rare that you hear or read of accidents on Half Dome. The Half Dome trail has an outstanding record of uneventful trips. The most common injuries are simple sprains or bone breaks – not the harrowing situations described below. Knowledge is power; use this knowledge to conduct a safe hike. Falls off the cables are rare. Do not go up if the cables are down, if the rock is wet and don't wear smooth soled shoes.
Early Saturday morning on September 19, a man committed suicide on the top of Half Dome, having shot himself while at the Visor. He was found by one of the earliest hikers to reach the top around 6:30 am. Unknown how long he had been on the dome or if he may have been there overnight. A group who did the sunrise hike arrived to find the body on the overhanging slabs that resemble diving boards. Search and rescue arrived and called in the helicopter to retrieve his remains. The cables were closed for 2 hours while authorities did an investigation. The body was removed by 9 am.
Manoj Kumar, 40, of San Ramon, CA fell to his death while hiking on Half Dome. He fell from the cables about 3:30 pm while the top of Half Dome was pelted with a cold rain. He slipped and fell 100 feet. Rangers spent the evening helping evacuate 41 other hikers from the summit and cables. All were not off the rock and Sub Dome until 8:30 pm and not back at the trailhead until 1:45 am the next day. Many were dressed in shorts and T-Shirts and suffered from exposure. Woman falls off cables - lives but is seriously injured (June 6, 2009) Gina Bartiromo, 35, slipped while descending the Half Dome cables and slid approximately 150 feet down the east face, coming to rest on a small ledge. Multiple 911 calls were received from hikers in the area who reported the accident and advised that Bartiromo was unresponsive. A visitor scrambled out to Bartiromo and stayed with her until rescuers arrived. At the time of the incident, Half Dome was socked in with clouds, with snow flurries on the summit and mist on the cables and sub-dome. Four teams were dispatched to the scene, including rangers from Little Yosemite Valley, a hasty medical team up the slabs from Mirror Lake, and a support team up the John Muir Trail. There was a narrow opening in the cloud cover just before 7 p.m. and Yosemite's contract helicopter, H-551, was able to land on the sub-dome and insert two rescuers. The rescuers scrambled up to Bartiromo and packaged her in a KED (Kendrick extrication device) and litter. H-551 then made two attempts to short-haul her from the site, but poor visibility caused those missions to be aborted. A final attempt to retrieve her was made after 8 p.m. and was successful. She was short-hauled to Awahnee Meadow, then transferred to a waiting air ambulance and transported to Doctor's Medical Center in Modesto. She suffered a broken clavicle, a compression fracture in the spine in the thoracic region (no nerve damage), a couple of broken ribs, a shattered jaw, and a fractured cranial bone with a small amount of bleeding under her skull (subdural hematoma). She is expected to recover. Woman falls into Merced, drowned (May 18, 2009) Katrin Lehmann of Germany, slipped into the Merced River near the Vernal Fall Footbridge. Spring snowmelt brings Class V rapids at this stretch of the river and it is very dangerous. It is presumed that she was on the rocks, too close and fell into the 43 degree water. On July 15th, her body was recovered below Vernal Fall by YOSAR personnel. It was wedged between a rock and a log in a swift water section of river approximately 150 yards downstream from the point where she was last seen. Witnesses said that she fell off the Mist Trail, slid down a steep wet rock wall, then clung to a boulder in the river before being washed downstream by the strong current. Climber rescued off Half Dome approach (Feb 23, 2009) 7 Korean climbers attempting to summit the face of Half Dome were met with avalanches on Feb 23. They were in training for a climb up the Himalayan mountain known as K-2. It is the 2nd highest spot on earth after Mt. Everest. K2 is 28,251 ft high. The team was setting ropes for their face climb, when snow and ice broke away from above. Jun Ho Wang, 38, who was in the area known as the “Death Slabs,” rode the snow down about a football field in length. The area where all this took place was NOT on the face, but the talus approach to it below the vertical wall. There is a steep tree/granite 2,000 ft rise above Mirror Lake that climbers use to get to the face. Mr. Wang had broken bones and spent the night with the help of a partner. The next day rescue teams located him and later a helicopter pulled him off. He was sent to Modesto's Doctor's Medical Center where he was treated. Man commits suicide off Half Dome (July 29, 2008) A 27-year old man lept to his death off of 8,842 foot Half Dome. This was the second suicide this summer. On June 13, a 36-year-old man jumped off El Capitan. Japanese Man falls off Half Dome cables (June 16, 2007) Last Saturday, a hiker fell to his death while climbing up the cables at Yosemite's Half Dome. Hirofumi Nohara, 37, of Japan slipped and fell while ascending. He lived in Sunnyvale, CA and worked at NEC Electronics in Santa Clara. An investigation as to the specific cause led to no firm conclusions. His party left San Jose early Saturday at 1:30 am and arrived at the park at 6:30 am. His fatigue may have been a factor. He carried his water and may have been dehydrated as well. He was the first to fatally fall off the cables when they are in the "up" configuration for summer use - since they were installed in 1919. Here is the verbatim official Yosemite NPS Ranger report. Hirofumi Nohara, 37, slipped and fell while ascending the Half Dome cables on the afternoon of June 16th. Nohara, a Japanese citizen in the United States on a work visa, was hiking with four friends when the fall occurred. He fell approximately 300 feet from the left side of the cables and was pronounced dead at the scene. An investigation into the cause of the slip and subsequent fall is underway. The Half Dome hike is a round-trip hike of 17 miles and considered extremely strenuous. Hikers gain 4,800 feet of elevation along the hike, which passes such highlights as Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall, and Half Dome itself. A series of metal cables are placed along the steep shoulder of the dome to assist hikers to the summit. Man falls into Merced near Vernal Fall May 19 (June 4, 2007) Kiran Yellajyosula, 27, of Santa Clara and India, went hiking on the Vernal-Nevada Falls Trail with a group of friends. Yellajyosula left the trail and walked about 10 yards to the edge of the Merced River, where he slipped and fell in. Witnesses reported that they’d seen him in the river below the Vernal Falls footbridge, but that he’d then disappeared. Search efforts began in earnest when the park received a call for assistance. Search dogs alerted along the river downstream from the footbridge the following day. Although past its peak spring runoff, the river continues to run at a significant volume, and its velocity near the footbridge made it too hazardous for SAR personnel to enter the water. On Tuesday, May 29th, Yellajyosula’s body was spotted by a park ranger. The recovery, which entailed the use of a high line, took about 3 1/2 hours. Yellajyosula had a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Minnesota. Fatal Fall From Half Dome Cables (April 19, 2007) Jennie Bettles, a 43, from Oakland, California slipped off the Half Dome cables and slid out of sight. The cables are laid down on the rock this time of year and the stanchions which hold the cables up are removed to prevent damage by avalanches. Rescue personnel began hiking up the nine trail miles toward Half Dome because weather made flying impossible. The team was turned around above the shoulder of the dome several hours later by heavy snow, wind, and icy conditions that made travel on the exposed ridge too dangerous even before they reached the bottom of the cables. The bad weather continued throughout the following day and the dome was never out of the clouds. The weather broke the following morning and a spotter posted across Tenaya Canyon from Half Dome picked out what he believed was a body in the gully to the north of and below the cables. The location of the body, about 1,000 feet below the base of the cables, was confirmed from a helicopter. A recovery team was flown to the shoulder of Half Dome and was able to descend to the victim utilizing crampons, ice axes and roped climbing. The body was flown out by long line under a helicopter. Fatal Fall Off Half Dome (November 8, 2006) Emily Sandall, 25, a New Mexico resident, was descending the cables, when she slipped on the wet rock, lost her grip on the cable, and slid out of sight. In this case, she was going up without the full benefit of the cable handrail. As is the custom each autumn, the Park Service removes the steel cables from the stanchions that hold the cables up. This is done to prevent them from being damaged by winter avalanches. Hiking up the backside of Half Dome under these circumstances is very difficult and not recommended. Compounding the problem was the damp surface. Responding personnel had to hike up the nine miles of trail and the slab approach to the northwest face due to marginal flying conditions. Orders were placed for several helicopters; two eventually made it into the valley but were unable to transport crews to the site of the accident due to low clouds surrounding the dome. The medical team arrived on scene at 5 p.m. and found the body of the New Mexico woman. She was found at a spot about 300 feet below the base of the cables. Man Slides down off the Cables - lives! (October 1, 2006)
Photos Courtesy: David Wirtanen
and chilly. He was wearing smooth soled shoes. Almost no one else was venturing to the top on this blustery day. He stood up to put the cable in his left armpit and lost his grip, slipped and fell nearly 200 feet. Horrified onlookers could do nothing. Perhaps it was a stony outcropping that snagged him and he finally stopped parallel to and about 100 feet to the right of the base of the cables. Beneath him lie a 2,000 foot drop and certain death. Nearby hikers tossed him a nylon rope that he tied around his hand. The other end was too short be secured to the cable, so 2 men held it tight. Help was summoned and a helicopter rescue team dispatched. The man lay motionless while maintaining maximum friction with the surface to avoid any further slippage. Rescuers attached ropes to the cables and rappelled out to him. They traversed back, bringing the man to safety. He was unhurt, but near hypothermia as he waited 3 hours for the rescue team to arrive. Sonora resident David Wirtanen witnessed the fall and took these remarkable photos. He said that there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to assist the man. Don't play the lottery with your life. DO NOT go up if the rock is wet. Keep inside the cables. If you have any trepidation, turn around; there will be many more opportunities.
Chintan Chokshi, 24, of Sunnyvale, CA completed his climb up the Mist Trail and was enjoying the Vernal Fall observation area when he climbed over the protective fence and walked into the water (apparently to cool off). He was an estimated twenty feet from the edge of Vernal Fall. He slipped on the slick rocks and the strong rushing water carried him over to a certain death. His companions watched in horror. Lightning strike kills 2 (August 1985) 5 hikers ascended up Half Dome late in the day and met with tragedy from two ferocious lightning strikes. Their story is documented in the book, Shattered Air. A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome, by Bob Madgic (Burford Books). It recounts how the young men, full of enthusiasm and bravado, ignored nature's warnings and hiked up the famed cable trail right into the vortex of a fierce thunderstorm. They took shelter in the rock “cave” enclosure at the summit. Lightning struck the Dome twice, killing one of the hikers and causing a second to tumble over the edge, out of the grasp of his best friend. Two survivors were gravely injured. Other hikers arrived at the scene and administered emergency medical treatment for over five hours deep into the night. Finally, an air ambulance helicopter arrived in Yosemite Valley at 12:30 a.m., and in a race with the descending moon, made three dangerous trips to the top of Half Dome to bring the surviving victims down from the summit. |
| One Best Hike: Yosemite's Half Dome |
Accidents do Happen
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