Killer park murders another victim! Fox News at 9!

[Iceaxe]

Woman hiker killed by hard landing at end of 600-foot fall at Yosemite Park

[QUOTE]A woman slipped to her death Sunday while descending Half Dome in the rain, the latest accident at Yosemite National Park in a year that is breaking records for the deadliest in recent history.

Fourteen people have died so far this year, including three who were swept over Vernal Fall two weeks ago while taking photographs upstream in the Merced River. In 2007, seven people were killed at the park, the most in any recent year until this one.

One factor in the high number of deaths is a record snowfall that has created treacherous snowmelt, swelling streams and rivers at a time of year when nature in Yosemite is supposed to be relatively tranquil.

For Haley LaFlamme, 26, it likely was the unseasonable rain that brewed on the day her group of four secured a rare permit to ascend the enormous, smooth granite dome, the park's iconic feature. They were among a group of about 20 hikers who were braving the trip to the summit despite the wet conditions, slippery granite and distant lightning and thunder.

The permits limit traffic on the popular 8.5-mile climb. LaFlamme was using the cables that park officials install during the hiking season to help with the steep and sometimes slippery footing up the final pitch of the granite dome.

At about 11 a.m. people in the park began to send messages on Twitter about a raging thunder storm with rain. At noon, Yosemite's emergency communication center received a 911 call reporting a hiker had fallen at the bottom of the cables, where the granite trail becomes less steep and the cables end. Cobb says LaFlamme fell 600 feet from the shoulder. She was dead at the scene.

Between 2006 and 2010, 38 people died in the park and 1,225 had to be rescued at a cost of more than $3 million. Nearly 4 million people visit the park every year.

Most of those who get themselves in trouble in Yosemite are day hikers who are unprepared for the challenges and changing conditions of the wilderness, according to Search and Rescue records at Yosemite.

By far the single biggest age group of people who get into trouble is young adults ages 20 to 29, records show. The second largest: those over 60.

The allure of the park's treacherous features combined with a population of tourists more accustomed to Disneyland than the great outdoors can contribute to a false sense of security.

"A lot of people who visit Yosemite aren't necessarily familiar with nature," said park spokeswoman Kari Cobb. "They are really out of their element and may not understand the force of nature and what they may encounter in nature."

The three people swept over the 317-foot falls last month apparently didn't realize the upstream pool in which they were wading for a photo had a strong current running underneath. The bodies of Ramina Badal, 21, of Manteca; Hormiz David, 22, of Modesto; and 27-year-old Ninos Yacoub Turlock are still trapped somewhere in the raging Merced River.

The trio ignored warning signs by climbing a barricade to take a photo, then lost footing on the slippery granite bottom.

"If the trail isn't closed, people tend to take that as a source of information: Wouldn't they tell us not to do it if it were dangerous?" said psychologist Paul Price, a professor of psychology at Fresno State.

The last person to fall and die on Half Dome was also from San Ramon. Majoj Kumar died in June 2009. The hikers who witnessed the fall were so frightened that 40 people refused to move and had to be rescued from the dome, Cobb said.

In 2007 Hirofumi Nohara slipped on the cables and died. Two other deaths on Half Dome

[optikal]

ugh Some people's children

[Iceaxe]

I had to see what these cables looked like.... I think I'd rather be poked in the eye with a sharp stick instead of fighting those crowds.

[CarpeyBiggs]

sometime's there are no crowds though... just depends.

[Dr. Nebz]

Descending that in a rainstorm does not look like much fun.

[dmMatrix]

Killer Park.....

Yeah, give it a few years and every place in the country with a 2 foot rise will be on the "black" list.

I have heard so many different places get threatened to be shut down... I just wish they would realize that its not because its unsafe... its because some people are daredevils and also idiots.

[dmMatrix]

but, that place looks really cool. I agree though, those crowds would drive me nuts.

[ststephen]

Last time we were there we got to the sub-dome saddle just a little past dawn. The folks who wanted to be on the summit at dawn had just descended and we went up completely empty cables. At the top...not a single other group. We did have to deal with some folks on the way down but it wasn't too bad.

[BLUEberryBOB]

Woman hiker killed by hard landing at end of 600-foot fall at Yosemite Park
You can't fix stupied.... it sucks to be them....

Death fixes stupid.

[ststephen]

The stupid ones were the trio that climbed the barriers to get out into the Merced River just above Vernal Falls. It's tougher to know how ill advised the Half Dome cable ascent was given the rain. The fact that they made it up and down through all the steep sections but slipped on the "easy" part at the bottom makes me wonder if it was more of a freak accident or if it was due to poor judgement.

[dmMatrix]

The stupid ones were the trio that climbed the barriers to get out into the Merced River just above Vernal Falls. It's tougher to know how ill advised the Half Dome cable ascent was given the rain. The fact that they made it up and down through all the steep sections but slipped on the "easy" part at the bottom makes me wonder if it was more of a freak accident or if it was due to poor judgement.

I would say a combination of the two. Poor judgement leading into a freak accident

so many of the stories that I hear are "man dies is 4 foot fall" or "child breaks leg stepping off curb" then you have the crazy stories that are like this: "woman survives 30 story fall" and "man landed on cement head first and had no injuries"

So, to me its almost a "SIGN" from above when stupid people get killed on things that are so simple.

[remoteman45]

Looks like some 5/10s would be the ticket on that climb