A California woman fell 600 feet to her death Sunday while trying to descend a landmark rock formation at Yosemite National Park, according to park officials.
Hayley LaFlamme, 26, of San Ramon, had hiked with three other people to the peak of Half Dome, a granite formation that rises about 4,800 feet above Yosemite Valley in eastern California. She was descending the cables area - the dome's highest 400 feet, where hikers hold onto fixed metal cables - when she fell, park officials said Monday.
One of her companions called 911 about noon to report the fall, park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said. Park rangers pronounced LaFlamme dead when they found her body, the park said.
FULL STORY
it wasn't the fall!!!! it was the sudden stop,,,,
*Facepalm*â„¢
Let this accident serve as a warning to others! The lesson here is, we should all "respect" nature, if we fail to...we pay, at times with our lives.
Could you enlighten us with an example of how to "respect nature" as you refer on your nonsense comment above??
Life is like a box of chocolates....
People are all the time tripping over those stupid cables the park service installed so that everyone could make these sorts of decents. The cables are made safe for the rock but not for the people who trip on them. And any climber can tell you that it's a lot safer climbing-up than it is climbing down...it has something to do with eyes being in your head rather than your feet. Anything for a buck and the park service will do it nowadays. It wasn't always that way ya know.
Second person that was killed that way this summer.
This is very sad. But Park Rangers and politicians please,please do not make knee jerk reactions to these kinds of situations and try to make the national parks "safer" by putting railings all over the place. Hiking and walking around rivers and mountains can be dangerous, that is part of the deal you sign up for when you go to into natural environments. We love the wild places because they are just that, wild. People take risks and sometimes make mistakes, but that is no reason to treat the public like toddlers and try to make mountains and forests safe.
I agree, it's not Disneyland, it's the real thing. If people want to give themselves Darwin awards like the people that climbed over the rail and went over the falls that's improving the gene pool. 16 people have gotten themselves killed so far this year.
She didn't fall she was hit by lightning.
The most common death on Half Dome is slipping and falling off the cables when the granite is wet following a storm or from snow melt. The cables were installed on the steepest part of the shoulder of Half Dome in 1919. The handrails of the cable system are taken down during the winter, but the remaining part of the system is in place year round.
Ifitsdangerousthenmakeit"SAFER"forppltonjoyitherfamilyisverysadandbeyondthemselvesGODblessthem
If it dangerous for ppl then they should make it "SAFER" so u can njoy it her fam is in pain and r hurt by this GOD bless them Ipray
This is NATURE NOT DISNEYLAND!
This is NATURE NOT DISNEYLAND! They should ban climbing it altogether, all those people swarming half dome are an eyesore for the rest of us that want to enjoy it as it is.
Lawyers are on the way.
Now I know why it's called "Half Dome" ...
I wish they would ban all climbing on half dome. I am sick of goiing to Yosemite to enjoy the beauty of nature as she made it and having to look at dozens of people crawling all over it. There are other places to climb, it doesn't have to be on one of our national treasures. All those people swarming all over it are an eyesore!
Don't you just love Susan Sarandon? She's the best!