Rockfall at Yosemite’s El Capitan ’10 times bigger’ than slide that killed tourist a day earlier, witness says
September 29, 2017 by admin
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A massive hunk of rock fell off Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan on Thursday, a day after a rockfall in the same area of the granite monolith killed a British tourist and seriously injured his wife, park officials said.
One person was hurt in Thursday’s slide, though it was unclear if the individual was a climber or a motorist. Tourists were asked to use Southside Drive to exit Yosemite Valley, as the rockfall left Northside Drive closed.
“It could’ve been a lot worse,” said Ken Yager, president of the Yosemite Climbing Assn., who saw the aftermath of the rockfall. “From what I hear, we got really lucky.”
A rock the size of a golf ball could be fatal, he said, and he estimated Thursday’s fall was “10 times bigger” than the colossal chunk that broke off a day earlier.
“That anybody survived, it just blows my mind,” he said.
Yager was coordinating a park cleanup when he saw a dust cloud, from about a mile away, billowing from the formation. Immediately, his phone began buzzing as people tried to figure out what had happened and emergency crews rolled to the scene.
“After yesterday, I guarantee there’s no climbers climbing near that rock,” he said. “If they were, they’re crazy.”
On Wednesday, a sheet of granite the height of a 13-story building — about 130 feet long, 65 feet wide and in some sections 10 feet thick — separated from the rock face and dropped to the base of El Capitan, officials said.
A couple were apparently standing at the base of the cliff at the time of the crash. The man who was killed was identified Thursday as Andrew Foster, 32, of Wales, according to the National Park Service. His wife was airlifted to a hospital; her name has not been released.
The slab fell from a spot about 1,800 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor, officials said.
It was one of seven rockfalls that occurred in a four-hour span on a bright and sunny afternoon. In total, officials estimate about 1,300 tons of rock fell from El Capitan on Wednesday.
About 30 climbers were on El Capitan just before 2 p.m. Wednesday when the slab crashed down from the popular East Buttress climbing route, officials said.
The release point appears to have been near the waterfall route, where the seasonal Horsetail Fall flows in the winter and spring. The site draws experienced climbers from around the world seeking to scale the granite cliff face, which towers more than 3,000 feet above Yosemite Valley.
Dramatic photos posted on social media by witnesses showed a plume of dust billowing from the rock formation after the crash. After the dust cleared, a massive white scar was left behind.
Yosemite Valley, with its steep, glacier-carved cliffs, has seen many rockfalls, though fatalities are rare. In more than a century of record-keeping, rockfalls at Yosemite have resulted in at least 17 fatalities, 85 injuries and damage to buildings, roads and trails, according to news and park reports.
In 2013, a 28-year-old man died as he attempted to climb El Capitan. Felix Joseph Kiernan and his climbing partner were about 600 feet up the East Buttress when Kiernan’s partner stood on a rock and knocked it loose.
The 1-by-2-foot rock fell about 150 feet before it struck Kiernan, killing him, officials said.
A couple of weeks earlier, a climber died after a rock dislodged and sliced his safety line. Mason Robison, 38, fell about 230 feet before a second line stopped his fall, but he was dead when rescue teams reached him.
Most rockfalls occur during periods of heavy rain, snowmelt or cold temperatures. Geologists actively monitor the rock walls and hillsides throughout the park, officials have said.
As scientists have come to learn, the domes and arches carved into the park’s famed granite cliffs are constantly moving, according to a study published last year in Nature Geoscience.
“Granite rocks, any kind of rock, is more dynamic than people realize — pieces are falling off, they’re constantly changing,” Yager said. “Over the course of the years, these features gradually loosen…until one day, it’s just a catastrophic release.”
The dramatic rock formations were formed as layers of rock peeled away from the mountainsides, like an onion. The flakes remain attached at a few points but are completely hollow in the middle.
In Yosemite, these precarious attachments — geologists call them “exfoliations” — fall at a rate of one a week, on average. Most often, they collapse because water repeatedly freezes and thaws in the cracks, destabilizing the cliffs. Sometimes they fall apart during an earthquake.
Other times, though, rockfalls happen on sunny days with no sign of rain or seismic activity. Now geologists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service have found a potential cause for the seemingly spontaneous rockfalls: heat.
As the temperature rises from morning to afternoon, the thin outer layer of rock moves ever so slightly away from the cliff, then returns as the evening cools.
As the cliffs inhale and exhale, so to speak, the tips of the cracks weaken. Over time, the cracks slowly open wider and the stress from the heat can prompt the rocks to fall.
joseph.serna@latimes.com
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter.
Staff writer Sean Greene contributed to this report.
UPDATES:
10:05 p.m.: This article was updated with another quote from Yager.
8:30 p.m.: This article was updated with an interview from a witness and the identity of the victim who died in Wednesday’s rockfall.
4:40 p.m.: This article was updated with information about another rockfall reported Thursday.
2:10 p.m.: This article was updated with details on the rockfall distance.
This article was originally published at 12:55 p.m.
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Packers win easily over Bears on injury-plagued night
September 29, 2017 by admin
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A strange night in Green Bay, interrupted by a 47-minute lightning delay, ended in a familiar fashion. The Packers’ 35-14 victory over the visiting Chicago Bears was notable for its total lack of suspense, the home team holding a two-touchdown lead before the Bears even ran a second offensive play.
The comfortable margin of victory comes at a great time for a Packers team beset by injuries and erratic play through September. Coach Mike McCarthy’s crew hasn’t played particularly well and has been particularly unlucky, yet the team hits the quarter mark of the season at 3-1. That’s how successful organizations manage the schedule and the Packers should be happy to avoid digging another early season hole to the season. Here’s what we learned:
1. This felt like a Pyrrhic victory in some ways for the Packers because of all the injuries. The scariest one happened when wide receiver Davante Adams was taken off the field in a stretcher after taking a vicious hit to the helmet from Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan. (Adams was taken to a hospital for evaluation with a head and neck injury. He was conscious and had feeling in all his extremities.)
It wasn’t the only Packers injury. As NFL Network’s Rich Eisen sagely put it, the annual ritual of the Packers being forced to play a running back you’ve never heard of has arrived. Starter Ty Montgomery, who has played a higher percentage of snaps than any running back in football, broke his ribs on the team’s first drive, stayed in for several carries, and left after five rushes for 26 yards. Montgomery’s backup Jamaal Williams subsequently hurt his knee, leaving rookie runner Aaron Jones and fullback Aaron Ripkowski to take over. Packers inside linebacker Joe Thomas, who made a crucial pass breakup early in the game, left with a knee injury.
2. Trevathan is at risk of facing a hefty fine or even possibly a suspension for the hit. The league’s ownership made a point of emphasis this offseason that a player can be ejected immediately for a particularly egregious hit to the helmet and a suspension is possible even for a first-time offender. Trevathan was not ejected, but could be at risk of missing time.
3. Playing without both his starting tackles, Aaron Rodgers did a great job managing this game. He threw for four touchdowns and 179 yards on only 26 attempts because he wasn’t required to do more. Rodgers got the ball out of his hands quickly on the team’s opening drive and didn’t force the issue for much of the night. His 58-yard completion to Jordy Nelson late in the first half, in which Rodgers avoided pressure to step up in the pocket and flip the ball deep downfield, is a play that perhaps no other quarterback could make.
“I’m so proud of my guys up front,” Rodgers told CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson after the game. “Those guys battled all night, I’m really proud of them. That’s a great group of guys … they had a great approach tonight. We kind of have a mantra going on right now, ‘no excuses.’ Those guys stepped up and played really well tonight and I’m proud of them.”
4. This Packers’ defense is completely different when outside linebacker Clay Matthews is playing well. Matthews was off to his best start in years heading into Thursday night, then set the tone in this game with a sack-fumble on Chicago’s first offensive play. Matthews became the franchise’s all-time sack leader with the play. After a few down years, it would be a huge boon to Green Bay if they can get Matthews and fellow edge rusher Nick Perry cooking at the same time.
5. Bears starting quarterback Mike Glennon had a night to forget. He lost a fumble on his first dropback and watched a bad snap bounce off his knee right back to the Packers later in the first quarter. Glennon mixed in some nice throws while completing 21 of 33 passes for 218 yards and a score, but he threw two ugly interceptions. Glennon has five interceptions and five fumbles in four games. Coach John Fox is not a fan of playing rookies early, but No. 2 overall pick Mitchell Trubisky could give this team a spark. At 1-3, Fox could be staring at his final season as Bears head coach unless he does the most un-Fox thing possible and plays a rookie quarterback.
“We have 11 days to evaluate, do things necessary for us to improve, and that’s across the board,” Fox said. “We need to make a lot of changes. We will evaluate everything. We got a lot of work to do here before we line up here against Minnesota on Monday night, and we will evaluate everything.”
6. The Packers’ defense did a great job limiting Bears running backs Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen to a combined 77 yards on 24 carries. As CBS analyst Tony Romo pointed out, the Bears’ running game is limited by Glennon’s lack of mobility and inability to run bootlegs and pass plays with a moving pocket. A change is gonna come at quarterback in Chicago. The only question is when.