Did you guys see this article in the New York Times today about deaths in Yosemite? Maybe the park will be a little less busy next summer ....

.... Yeah, right.

Eh. People live, people die. You roll the dice, you take your chances.

For sure, but my hope was that the article might scare away a few tourists who cling tenaciously to their mortal coil.

Or something like that.

I would like to see, in one of these articles, the numbers of deaths vs. the number of rescues that result in the person going home alive.

I bet people would realize pretty quick that there are surprisingly few deaths in Yosemite, relatively speaking.

The permit checking ranger told me Saturday as we were coming down the Mist Trail that the incidents along the route to Half Dome have dropped from 2-4 per day to 2-3 per week, since permits were required.

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AlmostThere
I would like to see, in one of these articles, the numbers of deaths vs. the number of rescues that result in the person going home alive.

I bet people would realize pretty quick that there are surprisingly few deaths in Yosemite, relatively speaking.

The permit checking ranger told me Saturday as we were coming down the Mist Trail that the incidents along the route to Half Dome have dropped from 2-4 per day to 2-3 per week, since permits were required.

That isn't surprising since it probably isn't too far away from the overall % decrease in the amount of people who are actually using the cables everyday. The permit system (and scalpers causing unused permits) has drastically reduced the number of people using the cables. While there is some benefit to that (ie less "incidents" it also means a whole lot less people allowed to go up Half Dome. We will see soon what the new proposal is with the Half Dome Plan Release. I guess I am anecdotally using my experience showing cable under-utilization where I was the ONLY person going up (and down) the cables in the middle of a perfect August summer afternoon in Yosemite. I can't help feel bad for those turned away from the experience by the permit system.

There was a solid stream of people on the cables last Saturday. They were visible to us from the trail.

Under utilized some days, maybe.

That's a significant decrease... but what qualifies as an "incident"?

Anything requiring the attention of park staff. From a lady's heart stopping to a broken ankle....