Yosemite accident brings 2011 death toll to 14
In this July 23, 2011 photo provided by the National Park Service, visitors are seen climbing Half Dome via cables in Yosemite National Park, Calif. / AP
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, California - A woman slipped to her death while descending Half Dome in the rain, the latest accident at Yosemite National Park in a year that is breaking records for the deadliest in recent history.
Fourteen people have died so far this year, including three who were swept over Vernal Fall two weeks ago while taking photographs upstream in the Merced River. In 2007, seven people were killed at the park, the most in any recent year until this one.
Video: Yosemite waterfall victims remembered at vigil
One factor in the high number of deaths is a record snowfall that has created treacherous snowmelt, swelling streams and rivers at a time of year when nature in Yosemite is supposed to be relatively tranquil.
For Haley LaFlamme, 26, it likely was the unseasonable rain that brewed on Sunday, when her group of four secured a rare permit to ascend the enormous, smooth granite dome, the park's iconic feature. They were among a group of about 20 hikers who were braving the trip to the summit despite the wet conditions, slippery granite and distant lightning and thunder.
The permits limit traffic on the popular 8.5-mile climb. LaFlamme was using the cables that park officials install during the hiking season to help with the steep and sometimes slippery footing up the final pitch of the granite dome.
At about 11 a.m. people in the park began to send messages on Twitter about a raging thunder storm with rain. At noon, Yosemite's emergency communication center received an emergency call reporting a hiker had fallen at the bottom of the cables, where the granite trail becomes less steep and the cables end. Cobb says LaFlamme fell 600 feet from the shoulder. She was dead at the scene.
Between 2006 and 2010, 38 people died in the park and 1,225 had to be rescued at a cost of more than $3 million. Nearly 4 million people visit the park every year.
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They need to hire guides and give a training course to stop this madness. Yosemite is the "Gem of the National Parks" and it should be accessible to all, but something must be done.
Seriously, no guides or training course is needed; just common sense and a respect for authority. I read the Half Dome rules afew weeks ago, and it made very very clear not to go anywhere near the Dome if rain or lightning were predicted. But this person and her friends decided to ignore the rules and all the signs and "brave ... the trip to the summit despite the wet conditions, slippery granite and distant lightning and thunder." Brave? No. Terminally stupid. Please don't interfere with the access to the park for people who follow the rules just because there will always be some idiot out there ignoring them. The three people in the falss? CLIMBED OVER railings and signs that made it clear not to go in the falls--but they WANTED to so, so they did. Darwin Award.
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14 fatalities ... 4 million visitors?
it's obviously not good that anyone dies when going on a vacation in yosemite ... but these odds are roughly the same as being hit by lightning.
http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/probability.html
You know what's always felt to me a lot less safe than it might seem, is that drive up to Lake Tahoe on that one-lane highway. There are parts where it's really narrow, and I'm not even sure there's a guard rail?
Kind of scary ...
It is a remarkably bad idea to even start up if there is a chance of rain. Those storms can come in fast and you are completely vulnerable with no quick way down (short of falling).
People also forget that they are not as physically adept at altitude -- reactions times are slower, for example, making accidents more likely.