Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

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Jorts
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Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by Jorts »

Condolences to his friends and family. Few details have been released at this point.

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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by OldTrad »

Bummer - my sincere condolences to the climber's friends and family.

I have to say that I don't agree with Mountain Project's assessment that the majority of routes on Rincon are "moderate". Perhaps times have changed that much, but virtually everything on Rincon is 5.9 or higher (5.10 or higher, really). Back in the stone age, when I climbed there, "moderate" was 5.6 and below. 5.7 was considered "beginning severity".

Regardless, technical climbing accidents hit me especially hard given the many folks I have known who died (especially on technical terrain) climbing. This accident, along with the one a couple of months back on the Wind Tower (anchor failure) could really happen to any climber, myself included. I used the same crappy anchor on Wind Ridge that surely was the same one that failed a couple of months back, and probably climbed up on Rincon over a hundred times. None of this is to mention the many stupid mistakes I made and close calls that I just lucky to survive.

Bottom line:

Be careful
double check your knot
double check your partner's knot
double check your rappel anchor and personal rig
spend a few $$ and leave gear if you are not completely confident in your anchor.
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by onebyone »

OldTrad wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:16 am Bummer - my sincere condolences to the climber's friends and family.

I have to say that I don't agree with Mountain Project's assessment that the majority of routes on Rincon are "moderate". Perhaps times have changed that much, but virtually everything on Rincon is 5.9 or higher (5.10 or higher, really). Back in the stone age, when I climbed there, "moderate" was 5.6 and below. 5.7 was considered "beginning severity".

Regardless, technical climbing accidents hit me especially hard given the many folks I have known who died (especially on technical terrain) climbing. This accident, along with the one a couple of months back on the Wind Tower (anchor failure) could really happen to any climber, myself included. I used the same crappy anchor on Wind Ridge that surely was the same one that failed a couple of months back, and probably climbed up on Rincon over a hundred times. None of this is to mention the many stupid mistakes I made and close calls that I just lucky to survive.

Bottom line:

Be careful
double check your knot
double check your partner's knot
double check your rappel anchor and personal rig
spend a few $$ and leave gear if you are not completely confident in your anchor.
Good post. We have all have overlooked something or made a bad judgement call at one point or another.
I do think that soloing anything on Rincon is pretty crazy. I don't think there were any witnesses so hard to say where he was or how far he fell.
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by ltlFish99 »

Unfortunate to hear of another bad outcome during nature adventures.
RIP.
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by goingup »

The climber who died was a good friend of mine Scott Dewey. There was no anchor or gear failure, he was free soloing, something that he loved to do. This is an incredibly difficult time for his friends and family as Scott was a pure kind hearted soul. I have so many walls built up around myself but somehow 6 years ago Scott squirmed his way through and stuck in my life. He is one of the few people who consistently checked in on me and stayed in touch with me the entire time I was living in Canada and he was stoked when I came back to Colorado. He was one of the first people I saw and of course climbed with upon my return. Scott pushed me as a climber and a person. He is one of those people who just makes you a better person. I am at a complete loss. This does not feel real. But I know one thing..... he died doing what he loved. Scott loved to free solo in Eldo more than anything else in this god forsaken crap hole we all currently live in. There are two ways to measure life; the number of days you simply exist or the number of days you spend truly living your human experience. I am going to measure Scott's by the latter. I love ya buddy and I am going to miss you every day.
*Please keep in mind, it doesn't matter what you think is crazy or stupid, Scott was doing what he thought was in his wheelhouse and something went wrong. He knew the risks, we talked about them often. Soloing was when he was his happiest. The route he fell from was a 5.8 and he had solo'd it and harder dozens of time prior.
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by Mountainsroam_2012 »

goingup wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:09 pm The climber who died was a good friend of mine Scott Dewey. There was no anchor or gear failure, he was free soloing, something that he loved to do. This is an incredibly difficult time for his friends and family as Scott was a pure kind hearted soul. I have so many walls built up around myself but somehow 6 years ago Scott squirmed his way through and stuck in my life. He is one of the few people who consistently checked in on me and stayed in touch with me the entire time I was living in Canada and he was stoked when I came back to Colorado. He was one of the first people I saw and of course climbed with upon my return. Scott pushed me as a climber and a person. He is one of those people who just makes you a better person. I am at a complete loss. This does not feel real. But I know one thing..... he died doing what he loved. Scott loved to free solo in Eldo more than anything else in this god forsaken crap hole we all currently live in. There are two ways to measure life; the number of days you simply exist or the number of days you spend truly living your human experience. I am going to measure Scott's by the latter. I love ya buddy and I am going to miss you every day.
*Please keep in mind, it doesn't matter what you think is crazy or stupid, Scott was doing what he thought was in his wheelhouse and something went wrong. He knew the risks, we talked about them often. Soloing was when he was his happiest. The route he fell from was a 5.8 and he had solo'd it and harder dozens of time prior.
Sorry for your loss, he seems like a real good dude. Obviously he was more than a capable climber, better than most.. It's a dangerous sport, but the rewards are fantastic.. Peace
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by Trotter »

Im sorry for your loss. Scott sounds like a great person. You are looking at it the best way, your friend died doing what they love. Thats helped me a lot with my friend who also died climbing there this year.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. -Nelson Mandela
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called Ego. -Nietzsche
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by WVMountaineer »

goingup wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:09 pm There are two ways to measure life; the number of days you simply exist or the number of days you spend truly living your human experience.
Well said and so sorry for you loss. The ones who shine bright with contagious attitudes are the people to keep close.
"There are two ways to measure life; the number of days you simply exist or the number of days you spend truly living your human experience." 14ers.com user goingup
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by Jorts »

goingup wrote: Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:09 pm The climber who died was a good friend of mine Scott Dewey.
Sorry for your loss. It's inspiring that he had the courage to really live rather than slowly die. Take comfort in that.
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Re: Fatal soloist accident at Eldo

Post by Ed_Groves »

My deepest condolences to Scott's family and friends. Words fail at times like these.
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