A Californian woman has died after a climbing accident in Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon.
Micah Manalese was attempting to rappel down the popular Community Pillar route when she fell more than 100ft / 30.5m, sustaining multiple serious injuries. Search and rescue officials, were in the midst another rescue operation at the time and diverted in the hope of saving the 30-year-old, but she succumbed to her injuries at the scene.
Married couple Joe and Carey de Luca had been descending the Cat in the Hat route, roughly 100 yards / 91m away from the scene of the fatal accident. While rappelling, their 70-meter ropes tangled with two friends’ ropes, leaving all four stuck. After hours trying to find a solution they called search and rescue and a team began climbing up to them. Rescue teams had planned to stay with the four to help them rappel down without further incident when Joe heard a scream and witnessed Manalese fall down the canyon.
“I saw her hit (the cliff) three times, and then her body stopped,” Joe told Climbing.
“It was evident to me that the chance of life was zero, or at least very low if we didn't do something quickly.”
The decision was taken to extract all four by helicopter, so that search and rescue could quickly get to the site of Manalese's fall but when they reached her she was non-responsive, having sustained multiple injuries.
Search and rescue teams have yet to identify the cause of Manalese's fall or any specific circumstances surrounding the accident.
“Micah was full of life, very brave and fearless, a true daredevil,” friend and fellow climber Rea Wehner told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“She was full of happiness, whenever you saw her, she was always smiling, her smile was contagious.”
Rappelling safety
Also known as abseiling, rappelling is the climbing term used to describe the act of descending a mountain, crag, or wall using a rope attached to an anchor at the top.
Ropes are passed through a top anchor and belay devices attached to you and your partner’s harnesses. You’ll typically face the wall and lean back while your partner on the ground feeds the rope through the belay device, slowly lowering you down.
Top tips for rappelling
- Tie knots at the ends of your ropes so you don’t slide off the end
- Tie an additional knot as a brake, or use an auto-locking belay device
- Make sure you have a climbing partner who you trust
- Communicate with your climbing partner
For more on rappelling safety, check out our expert guide. However, please remember that rappelling is potentially dangerous. It must be learned from a qualified instructor, and cannot be fully understood without in person practice and direction.
