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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.

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.

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.

goingup wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:09 pm The climber who died was a good friend of mine Scott Dewey.