That's two hiking fatalities this year on Angel's Landing in Zion NP.

Very sad.

I have wondered what people are doing before they fall. If it is a case of simply stumbling, or if people are screwing around doing the "hey look at me, I'm fake falling!" and then they really fall.

spengy wrote:I have wondered what people are doing before they fall. If it is a case of simply stumbling, or if people are screwing around doing the "hey look at me, I'm fake falling!" and then they really fall.

In one case at least, the fall was attributed to a stumble that sent the woman form the relative safety of the trail, over the N edge. In another, some kids actually went outside the normal trail, away from the chains.

That trail gets so crowded. People tend to grab onto the chains, hang on for dear life, and jerk the chains, throwing the people behind off balance. A tiny bit of snow makes the route very unsafe. My main fear up there is that someone will peel off and hit me on the way down. Sometimes people get paralyzed and can't move, so you want to squeeze around them, forcing you off the normal trail.

When it's crowded, I tend to avoid the chains and the tourist trail as much as I can. I know that's not good, but at least I won't get hit by someone's falling body.

Terribly sad, every time.

MoapaPk wrote:When it's crowded, I tend to avoid the chains and the tourist trail as much as I can. I know that's not good, but at least I won't get hit by someone's falling body.

I'm with you. I went out in a crowd once. Never again.

I went up there on a busy Saturday, carrying 18-month-old DayHikerJr. I know I passed a few people who were going too slow.

I used the chains a lot, since I had the kid strapped to the front of me. His life is worth a lot more than mine.

http://members.cox.net/dayhikerjr/DayHikerJr_Image016.html

He slept the whole way up the class-3 part, but was awake for the descent. We both loved it.