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Alaskan climbing star Balin Miller dies after falling from Yosemite's El Capitan (www.bbc.com)

submitted 4 weeks ago by cm0002@sh.itjust.works to c/usa@midwest.social

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An Alaskan climbing influencer has died after falling from El Capitan, a famous vertical rock formation in California's Yosemite National Park.

Balin Miller, 23, was live-streamed on TikTok ascending and subsequently falling from the monolith on Wednesday.

In an emotional social media post confirming her son's death, his mother Jeanine Girard-Moorman said: "My heart is shattered in a million pieces. I don't know how I will get through this. I love him so much. I want to wake up from this horrible nightmare."

Details of what caused the incident are not clear, but Miller's brother Dylan told AFP he was lead rope soloing - a technique that enables climbing alone while still protected by a rope - on a 2,400ft (730m) route named Sea of Dreams.

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[–] blargh513@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 weeks ago (15 children)

I will never understand the appeal of such dangerous hobbies.

Roller coasters are pretty thrilling and dont come with the risk of death (typically).

I like being alive more than I need some thrills.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

Honestly, it could be some kind of hormonal imbalance.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

No. It really isn't. This was not free solo, it's not super dangerous. On average.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I don't know much about solo lead climbing, but it seems sketchier than I'm comfortable with. Had he done conventional lead climbing the belayer would have either avoided that problem entirely or sorted it out for him.

Also, climbing is pretty safe when proper precautions are taken. A lot of people seem to be a little laissez-faire about details like stopper knots, though. This guy was either missing one, or used one which was too small for his combination of rope thickness and belay/rappel device.

Anecdotal, but as a newbie climber I once went out with some friends who climb a lot outdoors, so I trusted them to know what they were doing. When it was time to rappel they attempted to use a figure 8 as a stopper knot, which naturally untied itself instantly. Clearly they didn't usually use stopper knots when rappelling, because if they did they'd know the proper knot.

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