Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

Todd Skinner - Dies on Leaning Tower Yosemite


Breezy

25-Oct-2006
10:04:45 AM

Todd Skinner has died on Leaning Tower. Not much known at this stage.

More info here;

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=270833&f=0&b=0


IdratherbeclimbingM9

25-Oct-2006
10:47:29 AM

Very sad if true.
My condolences to his family and friends.

Interesting reading the link how the younger generation regarded him as more than a mortal.
Being in the public eye / receiving iconic status does this to perceptions I guess.

He certainly was an achiever and the climbing community is the poorer for his passing on.

(Thanks for the link Breezy).


Breezy

25-Oct-2006
11:36:39 AM

This is definatley true.

If you read the link about 10-15 posts inot it a Head Rescuer from YOSAR confirms it (see post by WBraun)


peck

25-Oct-2006
11:56:05 AM

Here's a link with a bit more info

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/102506dnnatclimberkilled.2960de7.html


nmonteith

25-Oct-2006
11:57:12 AM

...another legend leaves this world. He wa scertainly one of my climbing idols. A bloody strong all round
climber. Trad to grade 32, soloed 26+, developed tonnes of Heuco bouldering. This guy was awesome.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

25-Oct-2006
12:14:50 PM

From peck's link above.
>Todd Skinner was rappelling Monday after he and a partner worked on pioneering a new route near Bridalveil Fall, said Adrienne Freeman, a park spokeswoman.

Seems it can happen to the best of climbers, and we can never be complacent.
Take care out there folks.

25-Oct-2006
2:07:51 PM

A little more info from http://rockandice.com/pages.php?pno=0&action=shownewsdetail&newsId=100

"Skinner and his partner, Jim Hewitt, were rappelling the route Jesus Built My Hot Rod, and were several hundred feet above the base when the accident occurred. Apparently, Skinner went first, and suddenly fell; his rappel device and locking carabiner remained on the rope."


Sabu

25-Oct-2006
4:09:33 PM

Oh dear, this is certainly grim news. he was a great pioneer who will be sorely missed. Condolences to his family and friends.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

25-Oct-2006
4:18:03 PM

>his rappel device and locking carabiner remained on the rope
Given the recent threads on girth hitches (failure), I wonder if one of those was involved in the abseil rig? ... as I have extended abseil devices off my harness in the past, especially when abseiling with a haulbag.


Paulie

25-Oct-2006
4:33:29 PM

Terrible news. Condolences to family and friends.


Breezy

25-Oct-2006
8:14:03 PM

On 25/10/2006 M9iswhereitsat wrote:
>>his rappel device and locking carabiner remained on the rope
>Given the recent threads on girth hitches (failure), I wonder if one of
>those was involved in the abseil rig? ... as I have extended abseil devices
>off my harness in the past, especially when abseiling with a haulbag.

Will be interesting to see what the outcome of the investigation is. I am sure, due to his experience there will be lessons to be learned.


brat

25-Oct-2006
8:46:54 PM

Todd Skinner is my motivation to climb Halong Bay (Vietnam), his story/pictorial on the region inspired me to get there (we leave Kuala Lumpur by bike Dec 3 2006 and will try to get there Jan 2007)

We'll burn a candle for him!

Thanks.

kieranl

25-Oct-2006
9:25:04 PM

It is sad. I still think his and Pianna's free ascent of the Salathe was a landmark. During his lfe his reputation was more secure outside the US than in. Skinner always did what he wanted and that didn't always sit well with other local climbers. I would guess he probably went too far over the top on occasion.
It is interesting that the Huber bros originally tried to play down the significance of the Skinner/Pianna Salathe ascent because of its style but eventually formally defined styles of big-wall freeclimbing to include the original Salathe free-ascent style.
It is also sad that the cause of the accident will probably prove to be banal. There is an element of hubris in us all, otherwise we would not climb. If it can happen to Todd Skinner, it can happen to any of us.
Vale Todd


Doc

25-Oct-2006
11:13:16 PM

Very sad to here this news.
He was an inspirational climber.

cragrat

26-Oct-2006
5:15:04 AM

He was fun and friendly with a bunch of newbies to the valley from NZ when we hung out a bit in '88 when he was freeing the Salathe. Sad to hear and a reminder to check check check


Breezy

26-Oct-2006
8:45:21 AM

Seems it may have been harness failure;

taken from LA Times

Climber plunges to death in Yosemite
By Stuart Silverstein, Times Staff Writer
October 25, 2006

Todd Skinner, a leading American rock climber who gained international fame for a pioneering 1988 ascent in Yosemite National Park, was killed in an accidental fall while on another Yosemite outing this week, park officials said Tuesday.

Skinner, 47, plummeted at least 500 feet about 4 p.m. Monday while rappelling down the Leaning Tower monolith near Bridalveil Fall in the Yosemite Valley. A park spokesman, Scott Gediman, said rangers arrived within 10 minutes after being called by Skinner's climbing partner, Jim Hewett. They pronounced Skinner dead at the scene.

ADVERTISEMENT
Park officials still are investigating the cause. However, a family spokesman, Steve Bechtel, said authorities had told him that their preliminary finding was that Skinner's climbing harness broke.

Skinner was a leading free climber — meaning he relied on his hands, feet and other parts of the body to ascend cliffs, and used equipment only for protection against a fall. On his website, http://www.toddskinner.com , he said he had achieved more than 300 successful first ascents in 26 countries.

He is best known as being the first to make a free ascent, along with partner Paul Piana, of the Salathe Wall of El Capitan, a forbidding granite formation in Yosemite National Park. That 1988 accomplishment also was one of the most harrowing moments in his career. He and Piana were anchored by a rope to a huge boulder at El Capitan's peak when the giant rock began to roll over them.

As he and Piana recounted the story to Life magazine in 1994, the boulder crashed down to the Yosemite Valley floor, more than 3,000 feet below. The two climbers would have been pulled down too if the rock hadn't luckily cut the safety rope, while leaving a backup line intact.

Piana had a smashed foot and a leg broken in five places, and Skinner suffered broken ribs, but despite being hampered by their painful injuries, they managed to climb down.

"We learned the hard way that the adventure isn't over when you reach the top," Skinner told the magazine.

In 1995, he gained further acclaim for a pioneering climb of Nameless Tower, also known as Trango Tower, in the Himalayan Mountains in Pakistan.

That year, in an interview with the Denver Post, Skinner was quoted as saying there are three types of fear in rock climbing: "What you have been afraid of, what are you afraid of now, and what you will be afraid of. The last one is the worst. It is the part of the climb that you cannot fight with right now, and for some climbers, the specter of it above their heads is too much for them," he said.

He also said, in the same interview, that rock climbers in some cases are motivated by competition, "but in the big ranges, on the big walls, it is not the driving force. There is nobody up there to compete with except yourself."

Skinner was born and raised in Wyoming and had lived for 16 years in Lander, Wyo. His wife, Amy, is an amateur climber, and they have three young children, ranging in age from 5 to 7.

Skinner's death follows the recent fatal accident of another outdoor adventurer. Brian Schubert, who inspired the extreme sport of base jumping when he and a friend strapped parachutes to their backs and leaped off the El Capitan cliff in 1966, died Saturday on his first jump in 40 years. Schubert, a former Pomona police officer, was killed when his parachute opened too late after he jumped off an 876-foot bridge into the New River Gorge in Fayetteville, W.Va


Breezy

26-Oct-2006
10:26:27 AM

Interesting discussion going on over at supertopo forums regarding the abve article and what may have caused the accident, re; broken loop

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=271445&tn=0&mr=0


nmonteith

26-Oct-2006
11:23:01 AM

This is quite a good tip from that thread...

"I use a 1" webbing for my chalkbag and also as a backup for my harness. I tie the rope through the 1"
webbing EVERY time I go climbing. I also back up the belay loop with a 'biner I have dedicated to the
task full time. This way when I belay or rappel, I'm not just on the belay loop(I've heard this called a
frindler too). Be redundant in everything you can in your anchor chain. That goes for harnesses as well."

Good advice. I have a permanently fixed backup to my belay loop.


Eduardo Slabofvic

26-Oct-2006
11:32:38 AM

Back in my day, harnesses didn't have belay loops. I've also had many arguments RE the loading locking
biner in three directions etc etc, but if this accident occurred through the failure of the belay loop, then I'll
file the lesson away for future reference.

I agree about the chalk bag sling too, I have used my chalk bag sling on a couple of occasions for bailing
off something.


Richard

26-Oct-2006
1:07:24 PM

>I also back up the belay loop with a 'biner I have dedicated to the
>task full time. This way when I belay or rappel, I'm not just on the belay
>loop

My limited experince has been that this loads the harness in an awkard manner (due to the 3-direction loading), as the load of your weight while abseiling is distributed on to the leg loops too much. And not being comfortable while abseiling can be distracting and a contributer to acidents. So I have relied entirely on the belay loop. But this event puts a new perspective on the issue.

There are 63 messages in this topic.