Climber Death at the Needles

This Message was sent to me by my freind Rene, who is involved with (president?) of the Southern Sierra Climbers association, I've edited it a bit, my comments are notated with < ***>, with his permission, and he asked me to post it here. Be carefull folks.

<start quote> The accident occured Monday afternoon <Labor Day> sometime after 3. Two climbers were on Thin Ice, at the Needles Ca. When, I beleive it was the first belay.....the climber coming up second tied in and fell 200 ft. after his harness knot became untied <I think, based on another email, that rene means his harness was not doubled back> The lead climber was able to get up the notch. and to the lookout in about half hour,where Margee, the fire lookout, located 2 canadian climbers (who were emts in canada) in the climbers camp.They Ran all the way to the notch in record time, beleiveing there was still first aid to do. They located the body down the gully a ways and realized the person, patrick shavannygh-<sp?>was dead, a 20 something climber from santa cruz via back eas, he had been climbing only a short time and was already leading 5.12.

after the canadians who had a radio the lookout had given them radioed back the wheels went into motion to do a retrival,finally Lemore search and rescue sent a helicopter still believing it was a rescue and got there around 7 in the evening, 4-5 hours after the fact!!!! Where were the local people? Our forest helicopter was fighting fires far away out of state, the local search and rescue have a problem of some sort with communication,its a ways out there, and the sheriffs search and rescue might not physically be able to make it. <Scary but true, I've seen the local SAR team practice at Dome Rock, and they huff an puff getting to the top of that! Watching them practice made me determined to never need a rescue out there>

sooooooo........dont get hurt out at the Needles, We< the SSCA> will start trying to locate a stokes litter and will place it at a known spot out there,along with a first responder first aid kit, we think there were some major holes in this accident with the response times, it was monday afternoon on a major holiday,this might have played a role, i don't know, but, its a tradgedy.....the first casuality out there,Thanks for listening to this Geoff.....hope you can help us out by posting this info, straight from the first responders.............Rene'.....SSCA <end quote>

There is a stokes under the ice routes of Lincoln Falls on Mt Lincoln (Colo) as well, in the winter season, which I thought was a very good idea Eat Rye, Get Plenty of Rust, & Quit Kissin' My Ol' Lady.

Bent

<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href='http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/gorge/4346'> Southeast Wyoming Climbing Pages</a>

This was a major bit of bad news for me, as I was one of Pat's climbing partners last year. Pat was one of a few. He was a Major go-for-it in a way that I've seen only a few times in my 20+ years of climbing. Last year he was 19 and had been climbing only a season or two. When we'd head to the Valley, he'd always want to do the hard cracks. The only problem was that he'd done most that were easily accessible. We rapped down to Tails of Power where he made an impressive ascent, just a hang or two. He had the hardest trouble with the chimney at the top. On the next day we did Uprising on the Rostrum. Pat ran out of gear at the top and had to lead the last 20' of .11+ without pro. I was impressed. Then we went over and jumped on the Cosmic Debris TR. With just a hang or two he was grabbing the top slings. Strong and determined, that's how I'll remember Pat. :- k

PS. In case you're thinking 'Must have been too stoned to remember to double back his harness,' I'll say that Pat was one of the few young climbers I know who shunned additives; he was a clean climber. The fugger...

Dear Kelly et al;

Adding that this Pat was Pat Savageau, from Ann Arbor, Mich, 20 years old, student at UCSC. I just found out today. He was a much liked young climber at Pacific Edge, of course climbing spots throughout the West.

I also climbed with him, Kelly ( I guess a bit prior to your time with him) back in May of 1999 in the Valley and of course at the gym and also building climbing at UCSC. He was a fierce young thing, bright and talented as many are, and loved to bury himself in difficulty. As you say, he had only been climbing a couple of years and basically had very little base to work from, but had this appetite for the game and its arena that I have seen in the past and cringed when the inevitable news would finally come. I worried over him, I have to admit, and I avoided him early on, for my own sake and from 4 decades of watching this kind of thing.

It was awkward, running into him in the ensuing months, as we had had an auspicious start, with no conclusion. I was getting back into harder climbing after many years off, and young Pat was wanting it all now and in a wierdly beautiful and horrible way, we now know why, as his time turned out to be so brief here

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