The light was visible on Tenaya Peak after hours of rain, hail and lightning. When a ranger called toward it, someone on the mountain shouted for help.
Two climbers were stranded more than two-thirds of the way up the Northwest Buttress. It was September 20, 2014, and the Yosemite route they had expected to finish that day had become an exposed place to survive the night.
According to the National Park Service, the Tenaya Peak lightning storm was close enough that one climber’s hair stood on end.
Tenaya Peak: Three pitches from the top
The pair had checked the forecast. It included a 40 percent chance of precipitation, but they chose to climb. Under good conditions, the route’s difficulty appeared to fit their abilities.
Weather changed that calculation. They were three pitches from the summit when the storm hit. They descended three pitches before stopping for the night, still in exposed terrain.
This was not a case in which the climbers had brought nothing useful. Advice in their guidebook had prompted them to carry warm clothes, trousers, headlamps, spare batteries and an emergency blanket. The park’s account says those items helped significantly.
They could signal. They had insulation. What they did not have was a straightforward way to end their exposure while the storm continued.
The forecast also constrained the rescue. Rain, hail, lightning and the route’s exposed position made an immediate response unsafe. A team was scheduled to start at first light.
Morning was the next opening
The weather improved overnight. Two Yosemite Search and Rescue members climbed the route the following morning and reached the pair at 7:30 a.m.
The climbers were very cold but uninjured. After receiving dry clothing and food, they continued to the top with the rescuers leading.
The ending can make the wait sound less serious than it was. The official sequence preserves the difficulty: the same technical route rated within the pair’s normal abilities became an unsuitable place to move once wet rock, poor visibility and electrical danger were added.
Their headlamps helped make them visible. Their extra clothing made the night more survivable. Neither changed the weather into something a rescue team could safely ignore.
The fear in this account lies in a limited choice. The summit was close enough to describe in pitches. Safety was far enough away that the next practical chance to reach it depended on morning.
Sources and reporting
Researched reporting: an original narrative based on the published records linked below.
