Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board 3 Swept over waterfall in Yosemite

In case you haven't heard..

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/20/3-swept-over-yosemite-waterfall-witnesses-say/

More in the Fresno Bee.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/19/2469992/yosemite-rangers-fear-hikers-swept.html

It is sad that another tragic event has to be the outcome for those that don't respect barriers or understand that nature isn't an amusement park or a video game. I've seen this type of behavior so many times where the "it can't happen to me" mentality takes over. Sometimes, there are no second rides or do overs!

There will always be people that don't see a risk so these type of accidents unfortunately will continue.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the YOSAR team (they are amazing!) the witnesses on the trail and the friends and family of the victims.

Just saw an updated article (7-20-11, 4 p.m.):

A man and a woman crossed a metal barricade above the 317-foot Vernal Fall on Tuesday, making their way over slick granite to a rock in the middle of the swift Merced River.

The woman slipped. The man reached for her and fell in. Another man in their group of about 10 tried to help but fell into the water as well. Other hikers, including several children in their group, could only watch as the rushing water swept all three over the edge.

The couple who were on the rock hugged each other tightly as they disappeared.

"Everyone was screaming," witness Jake Bibee said. "People were praying. What I will take away with me forever is the look on that grown man's face as he was floating down that river knowing he was going to die and nobody could help them."

Signs in several languages warn people not to cross the barricade, and Bibee said other hikers had shouted that it wasn't safe to go into the rushing river.

The three hikers are presumed dead; rescuers continued searching for their bodies Wednesday. The Yosemite Search and Rescue unit identified them as Hormiz David, 22, of Modesto; Ninos Yacoub, 27, of Turlock; and Ramina Badal, 21, of Manteca.

This is so tragic; I don't have the words to describe it.

Sadly, similar things like this happen at the Grand Canyon, just to get a photograph or a "better view".

Senseless. I can't understand people anymore. Like the father that died trying to get his son a souvenir baseball a week or so ago in Texas. Die, for a photo? For a baseball?

De mortuis nil nisi bonum...

I concur!

I can appreciate all the above comments, as I think anyone on this site can. As nature lovers, I believe most of us have all
known the power of nature and the "unpredictability".

Sadly, the novice weekend-warrior can't respect or believe it can
happen to them.
BTW, translation of the above "par le vue" anyone?
HN

The ancient De mortuis nil nisi bonum is also known as the modern:

"Don't speak ill of the dead"

It dates back to the time of the Spartans/Greeks.

I do not have a morbid fascination with either "death" or this topic.

In my line of work, I deal with the accident victim after he/she has been transported from the scene. I repeat: There is nothing fascinating about the fragility of the human being when lost under under tramatic physical circumstances

I "concur" because it has been my experience that search engines as they are will direct everyone everywhere that the topic appears, so that family and friends of the unfortunate victims will unwittingly take in our discussions about Darwin, Gene Pools, etc. when trying to learn more about the tragedy.

With this said, I remove myself from your hastily generalized inclusion (a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid) of those "morbidly fascinated" by tragedies, accidents, and anything else that reminds me what is waiting for me when the call comes in to report to work.

Idiotical fools die every day, its the people that witnessed this that will die a little everyday

The Sargent doth digress too much, methinks.

Mike, let me be the third voice of a professional that deals routinely with death, sometimes gruesome and morbid. For us, we must develop mechanisms to preserve our sanity, and my observation is that it appears to vary with the individual. Some internalize it all (probably not so good), some in grim humor, some in talking through things with strangers, some in obscure latin object lessons, etc.

I think "normal" people, although they encounter such things much less frequently, are no different, in that they have to find a way to fit the unthinkable into their universe of thought.

"talking" about it with a "community" of people who share a love of a similar activity to the one involved, who can relate to the activity, who may have even been there, (much more than friends and familiy who have never been there or who don't hike), is a very theraputic thing to do. Probably even reading other people talking about it is theraputic.

My take, anyway.

From what i have read,the really tragic part is that only 1 person should have died,the other 2 jumped in trying to save the other.I guess its human instinct to be heroic without having the luxury of time to think about the consequences of that decison.Or maybe they did know that it was a suicide mission to try save someone so close to the falls.Imagine your loved one falls in and you want to save them but then you know you will die like them if you do.So you just have to watch them die instead.How awful.

Latin and Shakespeare are being quoted here, so this term seems appropriate

res ipsa loquitor

I come from a water background, beach lifeguard, scuba and swiftwater rescue instructor, whitewater guide. My feeling is that people do not get enough exposure to the real world outside. Lacking that exposure they can not comprehend what is an obvious danger to me. I have been at several of the falls in Yosemite when the water is high and it makes me nuts with what I see. I would not let any of my party near some of the rail areas much less cross over them.

I have slipped on wet rocks in far safer places and traveled down stream on other rivers (fully knowing how to react in fast water). Any slip within a quarter mile of that fall could be hopeless. The water is fast, cold, and everything is slippery. The only hope for a swimmer would be to catch an eddy and then be guided to safety roped up. I have done a lot of crazy things in water and you would never find me anywhere near that waterfall or any waterfall where I could slip and take a swim.

People need more outside time, a slip with a fall to the ground on the wet rocks of a trail might have given these people the sense of how dangerous wet rocks can be, and the sense to stay back. Most injuries rafting are the result of slips on wet rocks getting in or out of the raft.

Wet rock is slippery

I can't imagine the feeling they must have had, knowing they just made a fatal mistake. My heart goes out to them and their families. I do wonder what they were thinking, but then I remember back to my late teens and early twenties and remember some of the stupid things I did. Maybe I was just lucky!

Arete Joe-

AMEN to what you stated. Too many people think video games are more exciting then real life, too many TV shows are "non"-reality and schools aren't allowed to teach common sense anymore either.

For those that live for those things...Get a life...get outside! You don't know what you are missing.

Could this be a maturity issue for people in their
20's? Maybe not, I'm in my 50's and still do
wacky things according to my wife.