Yosemite Visitor’s Death Prompts Half Dome Safety Review
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.20.07 | 8:00 AM ET
Particularly fit and adventurous visitors to Yosemite National Park often make the 17.2-mile round-trip trek to the top of Half Dome. The final leg, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is “a dizzying 400-foot climb up a ladder-like contraption made of cables and wooden steps.” And it was there, on Saturday, in good weather, that 37-year-old Japanese citizen Hirofumi Nohara slipped and fell over the dome’s edge to his death. He’s the third person to die on the dome in a year. But particularly noteworthy, the paper reports, “Since 1971 there have been nine falls, including Nohara, but only three of them were fatal, all within the past year.” Understandably, according to the paper, rangers are now taking a close look at safety on the dome.
Related on World Hum:
* Thou, Yosemite, Art His Goddess
* R.I.P. Colin Fletcher, ‘The Father of Modern-Day Backpacking’
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Yosemite Photos 09.26.08 | 7:20 AM ET
Having done this trek last year I can certainly testify that it is “dizzying” - and dangerous, but the views really are spectacular!