Rockfall off of Yosemite Falls Today

A rockfall happened just before 2 in the valley today off of upper Yosemite Falls. It was lower down, approx 1/3 the way up the wall, on climber's left of the waterfall. Didn't appear to hit or impact the trail but threw up a nice dust cloud. Didn't hear any sirens so I assume no injuries, closures, etc. Will try to get a photo of the release pt and of the cloud this weekend.

Well, sometimes timing is everything.

On Friday, a friend and I went up Sunnyside Bench and then up the slabs at the base of Upper Yosemite Falls to enjoy a nice lunchtime spot. We had finished lunch and were hanging out in the spray at the base when he heard that distinctive crack and looked up to see a huge block breaking off near the top of the falls. He yelled and I looked up a moment later, a second that will forever be burned in my memory, to see what looked like a 2 car garage hurtling downward toward us. It struck a ledge about 2/3 of the way down, leaving a couple distinctive white scars (maybe why one might assume it originated there), fragmenting and continuing its 1,300 foot freefall. He sought cover and I RAN LIKE HELL as rocks rained down. One about the size of a refrigerator missed me by about 20 feet. It was very, very intense. Life changing, almost. We were pleased and astounded to find each other afterwards completely unharmed. The huge dustcloud and rocks scattered over several hundred yards down to middle cascades spoke to the awesome impact.

We have a few low res cell pics of the aftermath but pictures and words cannot convey the experience. You take your chances...etc.

The rest of the weekend - fun scrambles up Illilouette Gorge, Sierra Point and the Ledge Trail were all fantastic - but a bit anticlimactic!!!

Cheers~

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buster
A rockfall happened just before 2 in the valley today off of upper Yosemite Falls. It was lower down, approx 1/3 the way up the wall, on climber's left of the waterfall. Didn't appear to hit or impact the trail but threw up a nice dust cloud. Didn't hear any sirens so I assume no injuries, closures, etc. Will try to get a photo of the release pt and of the cloud this weekend.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2011 09:18PM by Eddy.

WOW!! Glad to hear that you're o.k. Way to shrug off the terror and continue on. The good news: statistically speaking, you're golden from here on out!

Glad to hear that you and your friend survived the rockfall unhurt.

Wow, glad you made it down safe!

Here is the best photo I could find, off of a friend's cell phone. You can kind of see the dust cloud. Looks almost like mist from the falls.

Saw you at the falls. Wondered about you guys...We went down the water course. Lots of rock shards way down canyon. You are the most blessed two in the park that Friday!

Wow, you were lucky. Maybe you should buy a lotto ticket.

Surviving something like that is how I've always wanted my luck to kick in, as opposed to a lotto ticket. OTOH if I do win the lotto, I've always felt the fallen tree would land on top of me instead of missing me by a few feet.

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Ohnivy-Drak
Surviving something like that is how I've always wanted my luck to kick in, as opposed to a lotto ticket. OTOH if I do win the lotto, I've always felt the fallen tree would land on top of me instead of missing me by a few feet.

I can understand you feeling that way. You and your friend were so very lucky not to have been hurt.

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parklover

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Ohnivy-Drak
Surviving something like that is how I've always wanted my luck to kick in, as opposed to a lotto ticket. OTOH if I do win the lotto, I've always felt the fallen tree would land on top of me instead of missing me by a few feet.

I can understand you feeling that way. You and your friend were so very lucky not to have been hurt.

I was just sharing my general, personal philosophy/view. Although I did see a tree fall in the Mirror Lake area a few weeks ago. The tree didn't completely topple due to another tree, but the sound/crack of a tree falling was unmistakable.

Yes, thank goodness the OP and friend were not injured.

I cross-posted your report to this thread:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1652936/Impressive-rockfall-video-from-the-Franz-Josef-Glacier

(If you want to see an enormous rockfall, click on it)

Greg Stock, the park geologist, replied:

Here's a photo of the Yosemite Falls rockfall on October 28, taken by a visitor in Sentinel Meadow. The rockfall originated from the left corner of the big roof to the west (left) of and slightly below the top of the falls. The block was mostly in free-fall down the cliff, with the exception of one big impact on the flake left of the falls (which produced the dust cloud in the photo), and then completely shattered on impact at the base of the falls.