Climbing Star, 23, Loses Life After Falling from Yosemite's Iconic Granite Monolith

Placeholder El Capitan

An Alaskan climbing influencer has tragically lost his life after plummeting from El Capitan, a well-known vertical rock formation in California's Yosemite National Park.

The 23-year-old climber, 23, was live-streamed on the social media platform ascending and then plummeting from the monolith on midweek.

Through a heartfelt social media post confirming her child's death, his mother said: "My heart is shattered into countless fragments. I don't know how I will get through this. I love him so much. I wish I could awaken from this horrible nightmare."

Details of the Incident

Specifics of the cause behind the incident are unclear, but his sibling Dylan revealed he was engaging in solo climbing with a rope - a method that enables solo ascents while still protected by a safety line - on a 730m route named the Sea of Dreams route.

After completing the ascent and was hauling up gear when he likely rappelled off the end of his line, according to his brother.

A Yosemite-based photographer who witnessed Miller fall reported he called 911 after the climber tried to retrieve his bag, which was stuck on a stone.

Climbing History of the Adventurer

Hailing from Anchorage, the young alpinist was raised ascending peaks with his father and brother.

He was an accomplished mountaineer and gained global recognition for achieving the first solo ascent of Denali's Slovak Direct, which took him over two days to complete, as mentioned in a post on his social media in June.

"He experienced probably among the most remarkable last six months of alpinism of anyone I can think of," veteran alpinist a climbing expert informed a local newspaper in mid-summer.

A second famous mountaineer from Alaska Mark Westman likened him to Alex Honnold, who became the first person to climb without ropes a full route on the granite wall.

Prior Achievements and Nickname

The climber had devoted several weeks solo climbing in South America and the Canadian mountain range, completing a extremely challenging ice climb called Reality Bath, which had been not duplicated for over three decades, according to a climbing publication.

He was known affectionately as the "Guy with the Orange Tent", due to his distinctive tent setup at the bottom of El Capitan.

El Capitan and Yosemite Incident Record

The massive formation, an immense sheer granite wall of roughly 3,000 feet, is a significant landmark in the national park and attracts big-wall rock climbers from all over the world.

This tragedy represents the third fatality at the Californian national park in the current year. In June, an teenager from the southern state died in the park while climbing unroped on a separate rock.

And in August, a young adult trekker succumbed to injuries after being struck in the skull by a large tree branch.

Official Response

Park authorities stated in a release that they were looking into the event and "officials and first responders responded immediately."

Bonnie Lopez
Bonnie Lopez

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