W. Wa Cascadia Autonomous Region '24/'25

**waveshello** · 05-15-2025, 02:57 PM

Sounds like one was rapping off an anchor, which the other three were also tied in to as they waited to descend. The anchor failed (existing piton) and all four ended up falling. RIP.

https://www.krem.com/article/news/lo...6bo6uuattkx21b

**plugboots** · 05-15-2025, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by californiagrown

Lots of pictures as well- Iron Peak, Castle/Pinnacle/Foss peaks. Youll have to use your imagination.I am certainly no climber, but is it SOP to have 4 people all roped into a single piton/anchor? I would have thought that, similar to skiing an avalanche slope, you have one person go at a time while the others wait in a safe zone with its own protection, off-belay? Latest articles say they might have been racing off the mountain to avoid incoming weather, so maybe that factored in. Fucking gnarly survivor story for the person who survived the fall with major injuries, dragged themselves out of there, drove to a payphone and called 911.

I couldn’t figure it out at first, but then, (and I’m not a good climber at all, but I did climb the grand Teton and did this exact thing). We rapelled off the back. We all had daisy chains for this type of application and we all clipped into the same anchor, waited, then my buddy went down first. We waited till he was off, then clipped into that rope with our devices one at a time. So we’re all connected to that one anchor. Apparently they all did the exact same thing. The first guy is the one that probably survived because he fell the least, and the other three were connected on that piton, and were pulled down.
I’ve been reading everything I can about it, and we spent an hour so talking about it at Goat’s Beard, the shop in Mazama about it too.
I can’t remember if I posted here, but I was skiing Spire on Sunday when this happening and knew things were bad when I saw the helicopter nearby.
Edit:
It’s kind of bumming me out. Mrs. Plug, (a Mom), and I were skiing. It’s Mother’s Day. She was skiing a new pair of skis that she hiked up on her back, because she wanted to try them, (a Mother’s Day gift.) It’s a beautiful fantastic day. We were just having a blast and then this happened.

You don’t get out of here alive man, you just gotta go for it every day

**plugboots** · 05-15-2025, 03:40 PM

Because this place was all effed up, even a couple days ago, I asked on a Facebook thread about what happened and here’s more info
https://www.facebook.com/groups/5111...577655912785/?

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**californiagrown** · 05-15-2025, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by waveshello

Sounds like one was rapping off an anchor, which the other three were also tied in to as they waited to descend. The anchor failed (existing piton) and all four ended up falling. RIP. https://www.krem.com/article/news/lo...6bo6uuattkx21b

the timeline is also pretty messed up, though im thinking about it with a fairly clear head, and not after falling off a 200ft cliff, suffering a TBI with internal injuries, seeing your 3 buddies dead, and hauling your mangled body out....

Articles say they fell at 530pm, survivor regained conciousness in the dark. Took up to 8 hours to get back to his car, drove to newhalem to call sometime mid-late morning. I would have assumed the hairpin would have been crawling with people on that Sunday morning... why was there no contact with anyone else prior to the survivor driving down to newhalem? Shock is a helluva thing, and he likely knew there was no helping his buddies. Awful tragedy and hopefully he isnt too fucked up by it mentally and physically. Dont take these days for granted.

**plugboots** · 05-15-2025, 05:10 PM

Yeah. We were trying to time out the corn. We started at 11:00, and there was nothing to indicate a problem. Finished at 1:15, and the chopper was around, yellow tape was out, SAR milling around, etc.