Celebrated El Cap climber falls 1,000 feet to his death in Mexico

[Demovictory9]

Celebrated El Cap climber falls 1,000 feet to his death in Mexico

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Celebrated-El-Cap-climber-falls-1-000-feet-to-his-14870651.php

A rappelling accident is being blamed for the death of well-known California climber Brad Gobright, who fell 1,000 feet off a nearly sheer rock face in Mexico.

Gobright, 31, a native of Orange County, and fellow climber Aidan Jacobson of Phoenix had scaled the challenging Sendero Luminoso route in the El Potrero Chico outside Monterrey and were descending when something went wrong.

The pair were “simul-rappelling,” a technique in which two climbers balance each other’s weight off an anchor point. According to the publication Rock and Ice, Jacobson told a friend via email that Gobright rappelled off the end of his rope.

“Brad set up the rope for a short rappel and didn’t use the middle point. I tried to pull more rope on Brad's side but he said he was fine. We started simu rapping and Brad rapped off his rope.”


Gobright hit a ledge and bounced off it, falling about 1,000 feet off the cliff. Without Gobright’s weight to counter his, Jacobson also fell, reportedly about 30 feet. But he was able to stop himself before rolling off a ledge. Remarkably, he was not seriously injured.


The accident occurred Wednesday. Gobright’s body was recovered the next day.

Like El Capitan’s famed free soloist, Alex Honnold, Gobright was known for his free-soloing exploits, including Rostrum in Yosemite and an extremely difficult climb on the Bastile in Eldorado Canyon, Colo.

[Skittles]

1. I don't understand the description

“Brad set up the rope for a short rappel and didn’t use the middle point. I tried to pull more rope on Brad's side but he said he was fine. We started simu rapping and Brad rapped off his rope.”

any climbers here who can explain this better?

very tragic

[Recursion]

2. They were both rappelling on different ends of the same rope

Imagine taking a rope and hanging it over a piton or something so that two ends are hanging down. Then each of you rappel down one of the loose ends.

If you hang it over the piton at the middle point of the rope, both of you have the same amount of rope, and each of the climbers' body weight balances the other (this is sometime's called a "gentleman's belay", in the sense of a "gentleman's C" in a college class: it's not really a secure belay, but if you're good it's normally enough for you). If you secure it off-center, one of you has more rope than the other. The one with less risks running off the end of his rope if his half isn't long enough, which leaves the other climber still on the rope but with no counterweight.

(And, just to be complete, rappelling is running a rope through a harness or something attached to your body and basically jumping down a cliffside using the friction of the rope to slow you: usually the rope is permanently attached to something, but sometimes you use the weight of another climber like in this case)

[USALiberal]

3. Simply tying a knot at the end of his rope would have prevented it! Common practice. nt

[Recursion]

4. I assume they wanted to retrieve the rope

Otherwise they would have just secured it to the face itself and done a real belay for each other.

[MineralMan]

5. Rock climbing is an unforgiving sort of activity.

The risks are always present, which is part of why people engage in that activity. All too often, they pay for their challenging of their own fear with their lives.

Challenging death is something that really always fails. We will all die. How we die is the difference.

I do not climb.

[dalton99a]

6. R.I.P. - He didn't live a life of quiet desperation

Last edited Sat Nov 30, 2019, 03:03 PM - Edit history (1)

[Demovictory9]

7. i see no rope in the middle pic. scary

[superpatriotman]

8. Died doing what he loved