At Carderock in Maryland.

This also raises the interesting question of what a claw hammer was doing with someone's climbing gear.

A 31-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter after authorities said he killed his friend with a claw hammer during a dispute while climbing in the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park.

According to the court documents, DiPaolo told police that Farrar tried to choke him at the base of the cliff, and that the two fell to the ground and rolled over. Fearing he was about to lose consciousness, DiPaolo told police that he hit the victim in the head with the claw hammer, according to the criminal complaint.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/climber-charged-with-killing-friend-with-claw-hammer-in-national-park-in-bethesda/2014/01/14/33cbc3f8-7d32-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html

This never would have happened if they had concealed carry permits.

This also raises the interesting question of what a claw hammer was doing with someone's climbing gear.

It could have been a climbing hammer. The media doesn't know the difference between a claw hammer and I climbing hammer, so may have got it wrong.

Scott wrote:

This also raises the interesting question of what a claw hammer was doing with someone's climbing gear.

It could have been a climbing hammer. The media doesn't know the difference between a claw hammer and I climbing hammer, so may have got it wrong.

Maybe they were fighting over bolting a route! It's mostly a toproping area, and putting in new bolts is illegal there. I'm not even sure there are even any old bolted routes anymore, so they likely weren't replacing existing bolts.

"Documents filed in federal court describe the two men as friends for 20 years."

So, when the killer was 11 and the killee was 49, they started a friendship?

What they were arguing about is irrelevant. The point is that this moron killed his partner simply because of a disagreement related to a sport activity.

Yesterday, another moron in Florida shot a man and wounded the victim's wife in a movie theatre over a disagreement about texting during the previews to the featured presentation.

What the hell is wrong with people?

Scott wrote:

This also raises the interesting question of what a claw hammer was doing with someone's climbing gear.

It could have been a climbing hammer. The media doesn't know the difference between a claw hammer and I climbing hammer, so may have got it wrong.

You're right here. I'm not sure I've read an outdoor story in everyday media that is not off somewhere. I'm going to wave someone off with a trekking pole sometime just so I can be accused of wielding a sabar.

I tried posting a reply earlier but for some reason it didn't post.

Anyways, I think this is likely another incidence of the media making inferences. To me, it's unlikely that the person would even bring a hammer, climbing or not, since Carderock is just a top roping area. No need for hammers under any circumstances. Also, simply because the death occurred there doesn't mean the two were climbers. How many lost hikers get reported as "mountain climbers" after they've been rescued (Lots). Sounds a lot more like the assailant took the victim out there under the pretense of climbing when he really intended to off him.

Edit: looks like there's some additional facts from over on Mountain Project. They definitely were climbers, which makes the whole story even weirder and tragic:

"Dave Dipaolo (aka Carderock Dave) was the second most commonly seen person at Carderock after Geoff. He is 31, as the article states, and an extremely strong climber. If you had ever spoken to him, he would strike you as a burn-out with a classic stoner affect to his voice. He could commonly be seen free-soloing and bouldering and would happily accept a belay if someone would offer. You could usually find him smoking a cigarette while chalking up his mismatched shoes before a hard bouldering attempt. I've traded belays with him several times at Carderock. I know that Geoff and Dave had climbed together because I had exchanged stories with Geoff about Dave many times. Geoff would fondly refer to him as "little Dave".
I was shocked to hear of Geoff's passing and am now even more shocked by hearing of Dave's alleged involvement. I can only hope these allegations about Dave are not true. Geoff continues to be in my thoughts as I mourn his loss."

adventurer wrote:
What the hell is wrong with people?

Wrong .... with people ?