Climbers never fail to amaze me
Yosemite National Park (CA)
Rescue from El Capitan
On the evening of May 4th, Scott Ring, 25, of Wilmington, New York, fell 30 feet while climbing the seventh pitch of the Zodiac, a big wall route on El Capitan, with his partner Cam McKenzie. Ring struck a ledge during the fall, fracturing his pelvis.
Despite pain that he described as nine on a scale of ten, he began rappelling off the cliff. At 9 p.m., he used his cell phone to call a friend living in Yosemite, who alerted the park.
The park rescue team hiked half a mile up the steep talus slope to the base of the route and prepared to climb to Ring’s assistance. Ring, however, managed to continue his descent all the way to the ground, a process that necessitated passing a knot joining his ropes while hanging in a waterfall in the dark.