Early reports suggest a Korean climbing school instructor died while climbing El Capitan last week.
The instructor was killed while rappelling from Sickle Ledge on The Nose, one of the most famous routes on Yosemite National Park’s iconic rock face. That’s according to Tom Evans, a longtime photographer and chronicler of climbing on El Capitan.
“He had several of his students with him on the route when he went down to fix lines to the deck and went off the end of his rope,” Evans wrote for El Cap Report on September 29. “[Ours] is a close knit climbing community here in Yosemite, and we all mourn his loss and send condolences to his friends and family in this difficult time.”
GearJunkie reached out to Yosemite National Park and local emergency services, but official sources have remained mostly silent.
“The incident remains under investigation,” a spokesperson for the national park said Thursday.
However, multiple users on Reddit and Mountain Project claimed to have witnessed a death on El Capitan on Sept. 28. And, they have pressed the park regarding the lack of info about the death.
GearJunkie is actively working on reporting this story; stay tuned for more details. Currently, the climber has not been publicly identified, and no official press release has been published by NPS/Yosemite National Park.
