Capitol Peak Fatality

[ggaapp7]

Rest In Peace to this courageous climber. Props to the rescue team for a swift recovery on this deadly peak.

[timstich]

Still no identity of the woman who fell?

[Ed_Groves]

Still no identity of the woman who fell?

I was curious as well. Sad and terrible thing. My deepest condolences to her family and friends for their loss.

[oldschool]

Still no identity of the woman who fell?

I was curious as well. Sad and terrible thing. My deepest condolences to her family and friends for their loss.

This name has been made public on other media venues/forums so I will say her name is Sarah Beechler.

There is a Celebration of Life for her on Sat, Sept 10th, in Denver, CO. It is at Dimestore Delibar at 2:00 pm.

RIP Sarah

Mike

[Wimyers]

Tragic, clearly a very experienced climber. It really can happen to anyone.
It's hard to see the beauty of the mountains in times like these.

[DVJ38]

Still no identity of the woman who fell?

I was curious as well. Sad and terrible thing. My deepest condolences to her family and friends for their loss.

This name has been made public on other media venues/forums so I will say her name is Sarah Beechler.

There is a Celebration of Life for her on Sat, Sept 10th, in Denver, CO. It is at Dimestore Delibar at 2:00 pm.

RIP Sarah

Mike

Thank you for posting her name and the details about her Celebration of Life, Mike.

RIP Sarah

[14erFred]

Prayers for comfort and strength for Sarah's family and friends. May she rest in peace forever, and may her memory always be a blessing.

[pcrotty41]

Condolences to the family of Sarah.

Do we have any information on what route she was on and on what section of the route was she killed? Was it loose rock from what the initial reports were? Was she climbing alone? Was she wearing a helmet? Can we learn anything from her death? Although tragic we should learn from this and use the forum to warn others of the potential dangers of climbing on Capitol Peak.

This is what we have so far:

The witness was able to provide MRA with the exact location of the woman’s body. It was then estimated that the woman had fallen approximately 900 feet, falling from the route that connects the knife edge to the Capitol Peak summit down to Pierre Lakes Basin.

Plus this account:

My buddy and I were on capitol today. We were one of only 6 climbers to make the summit before they were turning climbers away. We didn’t hear about the accident until we were back off the face and on the ridge (past where the fall occurred). A large number of folks on the ridge saw her fall and were very shaken, as were we. Slow and somber return off the mountain with planes and choppers buzzing. We saw the chopper with the recovery as we neared the TH later in the afternoon as well.

The presser linked above matches our understanding of the situation surrounding the accident except that according to other climbers who witnessed the fall, she might have been slightly off route, trying to get back to the route via some looser/sketchier terrain. Also according to other climbers, this was her 14er finisher.

[Ptglhs]

Do we have any information on what route she was on and on what section of the route was she killed? Was it loose rock from what the initial reports were? Was she climbing alone? Was she wearing a helmet? Can we learn anything from her death? Although tragic we should learn from this and use the forum to warn others of the potential dangers of climbing on Capitol Peak.

"Analyzing what went wrong on Everest is a useful enough enterprise; it might conceivably prevent some deaths down the road. But to believe that dissecting the tragic events of 1996 in minute detail will actually reduce the future death rate in any meaningful way is wishful thinking. The urge to catalog the myriad blunders in order to “learn from the mistakes” is for the most part an exercise in denial and self-deception. If you can convince yourself that Rob Hall died because he made a string of stupid errors and that you are too clever to repeat those same errors, it makes it easier for you to attempt Everest in the face of some rather compelling evidence that doing so is injudicious."
Jon Krakauer, 'Into Thin Air'

Also, your post seems insensitive to me.

[bigredmachine]

Do we have any information on what route she was on and on what section of the route was she killed? Was it loose rock from what the initial reports were? Was she climbing alone? Was she wearing a helmet? Can we learn anything from her death? Although tragic we should learn from this and use the forum to warn others of the potential dangers of climbing on Capitol Peak.

Also, your post seems insensitive to me.

Couldn’t agree more. Also, most of the answers to your questions have already been provided.

[daway8]

"Analyzing what went wrong on Everest is a useful enough enterprise; it might conceivably prevent some deaths down the road. But to believe that dissecting the tragic events of 1996 in minute detail will actually reduce the future death rate in any meaningful way is wishful thinking. The urge to catalog the myriad blunders in order to “learn from the mistakes” is for the most part an exercise in denial and self-deception. If you can convince yourself that Rob Hall died because he made a string of stupid errors and that you are too clever to repeat those same errors, it makes it easier for you to attempt Everest in the face of some rather compelling evidence that doing so is injudicious."
Jon Krakauer, 'Into Thin Air'

Also, your post seems insensitive to me.

Agreed.

With every fatality you see, treat it as if it was your brother/sister, son/daughter. Because for someone - perhaps someone on this very forum - it was.

[Gandalf69]

"Although tragic we should learn from this and use the forum to warn others of the potential dangers of climbing on Capitol Peak."
Look at the route description for the peak. I agree with the others, your post is pretty insensitive.