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majid_sabet
Mar 16, 2009, 4:37 PM
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JOSHUA TREE – Two rock climbers have been injured, one fatally, at the Joshua Tree National Park.
Authorities say that both were scaling the boulders about a mile from the Hidden Valley day use area late Sunday afternoon. Both fell as far as several hundred feet, according to fire department paramedics.
A 67-year-old Riverside man died at the scene. The other climber was taken to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.
Names of the victims have not been released.
The National Park Service is investigating the circumstances of the incident.
(This post was edited by majid_sabet on Mar 16, 2009, 4:40 PM)
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erclimb
Mar 16, 2009, 4:46 PM
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"climbers" or just people scrambling around where they shouldn't be?
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surfergirl
Mar 16, 2009, 5:44 PM
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they were climbers. i was climbing on the wall directly across from them and my belayer heard/saw it happen. i don't know how it happened though.
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majid_sabet
Mar 16, 2009, 5:45 PM
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surfergirl wrote: they were climbers. i was climbing on the wall directly across from them and my belayer heard/saw it happen. i don't know how it happened though.
Was this on a multi pitch wall ?
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surfergirl
Mar 16, 2009, 5:51 PM
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i believe so...i believe he fell from the top
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jtme
Mar 16, 2009, 6:07 PM
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surfergirl wrote: i believe so...i believe he fell from the top
I have a bad feeling I know who this is. What route were you on surfergirl?
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surfergirl
Mar 16, 2009, 6:10 PM
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foat hog or something? not sure exactly but i was on a 2 pitch 5.6.
i hate spreading wrong information so i should say, i really don't know if the accident was on a multipitch wall...all i know is that it was a really high wall
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mkro
Mar 16, 2009, 6:46 PM
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Here is a link to a local news article that names the climber who died. I am sorry to hear this and my heart felt condolences to his family and friends.
http://www.kesq.com/...story.asp?s=10012862
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c4c
Mar 16, 2009, 6:53 PM
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From the news article it sounds like a lead fall not bouldering or soloing.
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dingus
Mar 16, 2009, 6:56 PM
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Holy shit that's WOODY STARK, JT pioneer.
He was a Supertopo forum regular. I never met him but grew to know him and his rep through the site.
http://www.supertopo.com/...html?topic_id=808573
Damn! Dude's been climbing for almost FIFTY YEARS.
RIP Woody Stark.
DMT
ps. Stunned.
(This post was edited by dingus on Mar 16, 2009, 6:57 PM)
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socalclimber
Mar 16, 2009, 7:03 PM
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IT WAS NOT A RAP ACCIDENT! My wife and a number of my friends on the SAR team here and we're on the incident.
It's still not 100% clear what happened. The details will come out soon enough.
I never climbed with Woody, but have casualy known him for years. He was a nice guy.
(This post was edited by socalclimber on Mar 16, 2009, 7:07 PM)
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curt
Mar 16, 2009, 7:06 PM
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I'm stunned as well--how awful. My condolences.
Curt
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vivalargo
Mar 16, 2009, 7:51 PM
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Woody was a Josh pioneer, FA of Dogleg, Double Cross, etc.
A very sad day in So Cal.
JL
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blondgecko
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Mar 16, 2009, 8:14 PM
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A damn shame. Really sorry to hear it. 
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boymeetsrock
Mar 16, 2009, 8:30 PM
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Very sad indeed. Condolences to all who knew the man.
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jt512
Mar 17, 2009, 6:17 AM
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Article about Woody and the accident from the Press-Enterprise: Link
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notapplicable
Mar 17, 2009, 6:39 AM
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Press-Enterprise wrote: Gordon said in recent years he and others unsuccessfully tried to get Mr. Stark to be more conservative in his climbs. "He kept trying to climb like he was a cutting-edge youngster," Gordon said. Mr. Stark's thrill-seeking extended beyond climbing. Gordon related how Mr. Stark kept his beloved Mini Cooper in mint condition, and that "He drove that thing like a 17-year-old who had been drinking a bunch of Red Bull."
Woody sounds like a solid guy who was still out there soaking up the pleasures of this world. A loss to the climbing community to be certain.
RIP Woody
My condolences to all the friends and family he left behind.
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reno
Mar 17, 2009, 2:10 PM
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Sad to hear of this. Condolences to his family, his friends, and those who knew him.
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caliclimbergrl
Mar 17, 2009, 3:39 PM
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That's very sad.
The journalists need to educate themselves a bit -- especially the author of that second article. They make it sound like protection failing is a common thing and that if you lose your grip, you're going to die. The gear should have protected him. The first article makes him sound like some novice who didn't know how to place gear properly, but it sounds like he was very experienced! Which makes me think that they aren't getting the story right and I think they should be more careful about the accuracy of a story like that before they publish it! Giving the impression that climbing is more dangerous than it is is disrespectful to the community and giving the impression that the person who fell didn't know what he was doing is disrespectful to him.
I'm curious as to what really happened.
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dingus
Mar 17, 2009, 3:46 PM
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deleted
(This post was edited by dingus on Mar 17, 2009, 6:29 PM)
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GeneralZon
Mar 17, 2009, 3:48 PM
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^^^^^^
That is correct.
Condolences to Woody's Family and Friends.
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k.l.k
Mar 17, 2009, 4:13 PM
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dingus wrote: caliclimbergrl wrote: That's very sad. The journalists need to educate themselves a bit -- especially the author of that second article. They make it sound like protection failing is a common thing and that if you lose your grip, you're going to die. The gear should have protected him. The first article makes him sound like some novice who didn't know how to place gear properly, but it sounds like he was very experienced! Which makes me think that they aren't getting the story right and I think they should be more careful about the accuracy of a story like that before they publish it! Giving the impression that climbing is more dangerous than it is is disrespectful to the community and giving the impression that the person who fell didn't know what he was doing is disrespectful to him. . . . . The vast majority of news folks will never get climbing details right. Its futility incarnate to expect it. But having insider info about climbing reveals the wild inaccuracies of news articles. Now apply that filter to ALL THE OTHER NEWS STORIES you read.... do ALL of them contain similar inaccuracies that knowledgable insiders can detect with a glance? OF COURSE THEY DO.
No, this is different. The problem is not that they've gotten details incorrect-- as you say, that is standard in news stories driven by deadlines --but that they've completed misunderstood and thus misrepresented how climbing works at the most basic level.
I can't imagine a newspaper in Wisconsin or Minnesota publishing a comparably stupid bit on a hunting or fishing accident. Or any paper in the US publishing something comparably ignorant about, say, football or baseball.
Imagine if Woody had been a famous old-skool desert racer. There might've been errors of detail, but the news reports wouldn't have been suggestions that he died because his handlebars flew off and that was a normal occurrence.
The reporting is a measure of the marginality of our sport, and the lack of sympathy we have from the larger public. Unfortunately, reporting about climbing is usually this bad in US news outlets. The Manchester Guardian would never publish anything this stupid in a report on an accident in the Peak District.
If we want better reporting from US papers, we'd better begin to cultivate closer relations with what remains of editorial staff. I see that the P-E is going to run an in-depth story today or tomorrow, and I expect that story will be dramatically better.
Maybe Woody can help the paper's readers to understand all of us better.
RIP
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surfergirl
Mar 17, 2009, 4:18 PM
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i don't know what happened but i agree that the news articles do not sound right. my partner saw him at the TOP of the wall, with his second following. she heard the fall, looked up, and saw the second swinging and the leader was gone. maybe someone with more experience than me can make some sense out of these facts.
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climber killed in Joshua Tree National Park 3/15
1
