Gear Failure

[ynot]

Hangdogs,wallrats and Rockjocks by John Long is another must read.

[tomdarch]

Mef. Osman was going to kill himself one way or another. I am glad that it wasn't while actually climbing. It does suck that he made work for YOSAR, and it was a pretty lame thing to do to his kid.

[squeezindlemmon]

Superjen, Masters of the Stone V (I think) has a tribute to Dano.

He really kicks ass.

[philip171]

How long of a fall was that guy taking? Also... The first bolt on C sharp, the hanger was real lose, made it a pain to stick clip, any one tightend it down?

[Eagleman]

i dont know how long the actual fall was (does anyone?), but it wasnt the first time he took these falls. He would rig up systems of ropes and such over a canyon or some reall big gap in the earth and then just jump, i think they were all several rope lengths.

[stix]

Dan was the man. I'm not sure exactly how far the rope jump was that killed him, but i think it was just over 1000'

[young'n climber]

It was kind of stupid of him to leave his setup of ropes over yosemite for several months in bad weather and then go jump on them. Thus, hes dead now and for what? Stupidty. Dan is the man, but you should no your gears limits.

[TradMike]

I am pretty sure he got thrown in jail for an unpaid ticket a couple months or something like that and came back and did the jump when he got out. He was coming so close to the ground that he would swing through the treetops. A miss jump or wind and hello pine tree. Also if he got tangled in the line it would have easily cut him in two. He had his cell phone on with a friend when he took his fateful plunge. This wasn't the first death in his circle of friends. His buddy, Tarver, jumped off a bridge in Utah and striked the canyon wall and died. He was using Dan's information but messed up a basic step. Dan jumped that same bridge to say goodbye to him using the exact info he had given his buddy.

[GWG]

He was looking to make a jump over 1,000'. He had set up his system and had tested it with lengths of rope giving him falls from 600' - 900'. Routinely, he would add between 25' - 50' to his fall between jumps thus working his way up to the longer falls.

He went home to see his daughter and upon returning to Yosemite, was arrested for multiple charges:

1. Driving with a suspended licence in a national park (Federal Misdemeaner)
2. Failure to register for probation (State Felony)
3. Unpaid traffic tickets (State Misdemeaner)

He was held in jail for 14 days before posting bail. He went back home for about a month. He returned to retrieve his rig because he had been tipped off that the rangers were going to confiscate it. He and a friend went to retrieve it and decided to take some jumps on it. They both jumped at 925' successfully.

When his friend got back to the top of the cliff, Dan had added "over" 75' thus making it over 1,000'. It was getting dark and he was hurrying to get the jump in before the loss of the remaining daylight. He changed the angle of his jump, reasons unknown. He made his phone call, counted down and jumped. His friend was there at the top and saw the line go tight but then he heard the yell and a crash that he said sounded like a tree falling.

He rappelled down, found the body, verified that he was dead. He got the the campground, made the necessary phone calls and waited for the authorities.

The line was sent to Black Diamond Equipment where they did their analysis of the rope. Their finding was that it was not due to system failure but human error. By changing the jump angle, an "unbearable" load was placed on the knots in his jump line.

This information was pulled from Climbing Magazine (March 1999 I think) and another article off the web.

GWG

[squeezindlemmon]

Must read about Dano: Fall of the Phantom Lord by Andrew Todhunter