Accomplished Colorado climber injured after rope severed by sharp rock

A 69-year-old Colorado man with decades of climbing experience was saved by other climbers after a 100-foot fall caused by a rope failure two weeks ago.

The man fell Nov. 2 while climbing in Eldorado Canyon southwest of Boulder. His climbing partner and other nearby climbers responded to the incident and "immediately started CPR," according to a press release from Mountain View Fire Rescue. The man never regained consciousness and he was transported from the scene with life-threatening injuries two hours after falling. 

MVFR, Eldorado Canyon State Park staff, Boulder County Sheriff's deputies, and the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group were part of the rescue effort.

Drew Hildner, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group (RMRG), told CBS Colorado the rope being used apparently severed where it "scraped down an edge of protruding rock as the rope was absorbing the force of the climber's fall."

Several online sources have identified the injured climber as Greg Cameron of Boulder. Cameron was previously profiled in publications for his climbing experience in Colorado, specifically for free routes in the Black Canyon near Gunnison, for establishing routes on the Black Wall of Mt. Blue Sky, and on well-known routes in Yosemite National Park. 

Messages left with Cameron's family seeking an update on his condition have not been returned. 

A poster on a public climbing forum who identified himself as Cameron's partner that day, Dean Brubaker, said Cameron was leading their effort on the second pitch of the Chockstone route. Cameron was traversing, or working his way across a portion of the route rather than climbing vertically, when the fall occurred. Brubaker stated he was on belay below when it happened.

"Greg had a couple of good pieces in before the traverse," Brubaker wrote, referring to climbing gear inserted on a wall during ascent. "[T]hey held an earlier lead fall and I'm pretty sure the gear was still in place after the rope was severed." 

Estimates of the fall from rescuers and witnesses vary between 50 and 100 feet. 

Another man on the same climbing forum said he was climbing a nearby route when he heard a yell. He helped perform CPR, guided by medical instructions delivered during a call to 9-1-1.  

"Everyone involved was levelheaded and did an amazing job, including his climbing partner, who was administering rescue breaths. Blessings to Greg and his family," Karl Manteuffel wrote. 

Manteuffel said Cameron hit a tree during the fall, "which broke his fall substantially" and prevented further injury. 

"It breaks my heart to think about this," Brubaker wrote about his climbing partner in the recent discussion forum. "But I want to thank the many people that helped out with the rescue. Greg is one of the toughest people I've ever met, and if anybody can pull through this, it's him."  

Another climber died years earlier from a similar fall and rope failure in the same area. Joseph Miller, then a 38-year-old Lafayette resident, was killed in June 2010 during an ascent on Yellow Spur, another of the many routes in Eldorado Canyon. RMRG helped recover Miller's body that year, then later investigated the accident with its own re-creations at the scene and on a tower at its training site. 

One top piece of "protection," or inserted climbing gear, was pulled free when Miller fell, according to RMRG's account. Two others, however, held and briefly slowed his fall past a ledge. But the rope then severed under stress. Miller fell to the base of the cliff. 

RMRG's simulation on its training tower used a 165-pound weight, sometimes a mannequin. The mannequin was attached to a similar rope to Miller's, which was draped over an edge of flagstone, then dropped. The breaking and fraying of the rope matched the pattern on Miller's. 

At the re-creation on the Yellow Spur route, investigators noted a sharp ledge that Miller's rope likely rubbed along as he "pendulumed" or swung to one side during his fall's brief stall. They speculated that the sharp ledge was the cause of the rope's severing.