Both had been rappelling and had underestimated the amount of rope they needed to descend the wall. Carlsen was stranded about 250 feet from the bottom and Howard was stranded about 200 feet from the bottom.

That's a pretty serious underestimate. Guess they just didn't bring enough ropes

I am slightly confused why they were stranded 50 feet apart from eachother.

Considering the following quote from article here:

http://www.ktvz.com/news/25663743/detail.html

"A total of 18 SAR members responded to assist in the mission, which took about seven hours to complete, the deputy said."

There must be more than meets the eye here....

if it were a simple, "they rapped, miscalculated the amount of rope and/or didn't have enough experience to get out of the situation"... why would it take 18 search and rescue responders, 7 hours to complete????

That's because search and rescue is rarely ever simple.

Sounds like the two chuckleheads in the Gunks earlier this year. This is not an emergency!!! This is a mistake, and you should suck it up, call some friends, figure it out...basically, TAKE CARE OF IT YOURSELF!!!!

I don't know about you, but I would crawl out on bloody stumps before I let rescuers save me. It's my decision to do stupid things, and my responsibility to extricate myself from my stupidity.

RR

Sounds like the two chuckleheads in the Gunks earlier this year. This is not an emergency!!! This is a mistake, and you should suck it up, call some friends, figure it out...basically, TAKE CARE OF IT YOURSELF!!!!

I don't know about you, but I would crawl out on bloody stumps before I let rescuers save me. It's my decision to do stupid things, and my responsibility to extricate myself from my stupidity.

RR

So my vote goes to simu-rappelling with no prussics. It sounds like they would have been fine if they had two ropes from someones post so I don't think that they were simu-rapping with a static tag as their second rope, which having different elasticity could put them both at the ends of the ropes with a 50 foot difference.

I agree with Jung. It is sad if they really did get stuck due to severe lack of necessary knowledge, but it is better to have them rescued than potentially killed in a half ass'ed gumby self rescue. 7 hour rescue does imply there might be more going on here, or that the approach is substantial.

And people need to chill with the Darwin comments, There are plenty of assholes that are a much larger drain on society than the worst gumby climber clusterfuck. I wouldn't wish death on anyone, and a Noob getting in over their head is a lame reason to declare that person deserves to die or should be left to thier own means. It will not promote Darwinism and if you think so, please read up on Darwinism and how it is proposed to work, and you will see that letting gumby's die when they are in a pickle has nothing to do with Darwinism. (Dawrinism is based on genitic traits that promote procreation, and a gumby is uneducated, not ginetically inferior). Letting gumby's die from their mistakes will not prevent more climbers from getting stuck as well, but will close more crags. Other posters who feel that people need to die rather than get rescued kinda scares me, especially if those people are breeding and teaching their kids the same.

These guys seem to be Gumby's stuck on rappel, but deserved to be rescued regardless. (Unless they called 911 to prevent having to leave gear, than that makes them greedy and self-centered, and should be slapped in the face, not killed)

the best part is that a rappel isn't even necessary on red wall, there is a maybe 4th class walk off in a gully.

And people need to chill with the Darwin comments, There are plenty of assholes that are a much larger drain on society than the worst gumby climber clusterfuck. I wouldn't wish death on anyone, and a Noob getting in over their head is a lame reason to declare that person deserves to die or should be left to thier own means. It will not promote Darwinism and if you think so, please read up on Darwinism and how it is proposed to work, and you will see that letting gumby's die when they are in a pickle has nothing to do with Darwinism. (Dawrinism is based on genitic traits that promote procreation, and a gumby is uneducated, not ginetically inferior). Letting gumby's die from their mistakes will not prevent more climbers from getting stuck as well, but will close more crags. Other posters who feel that people need to die rather than get rescued kinda scares me, especially if those people are breeding and teaching their kids the same.