{"id":199369,"date":"2025-10-03T11:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/199369\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:33:12","slug":"climber-dies-in-fall-from-yosemites-el-capitan-during-livestream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/199369\/","title":{"rendered":"Climber dies in fall from Yosemite’s El Capitan during livestream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A popular and promising young mountaineer fell to his death on Yosemite\u2019s El Capitan on Wednesday, a tragedy that was reportedly livestreamed on social media.<\/p>\n

Balin Miller, 23, from Anchorage had already reached the top of the 3,000-foot granite wall \u2014 among the most famous and challenging rock climbs in the world \u2014 when a gear bag he was hauling behind him got stuck, according to a Facebook post<\/a> by well-known Yosemite photographer Tom Evans, who said he witnessed the accident.<\/p>\n

So Miller, still attached to his rope, went back down to fix the problem, Evans said. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis rope didn\u2019t reach the bag\u2019s location by many feet, but he seemed unaware of that fact,\u201d Evans wrote. \u201cOn the way down he rappelled off the end of the rope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rappelling off the end of a rope is a distressingly common and often deadly mistake \u2014 one that can be prevented by tying a stopper knot at the end of the rope. That\u2019s a step climbers sometimes forgo in the name of efficiency, because the knot can get snagged in a tree or jammed in a crack, leading to more work and slowing them down.<\/p>\n

Yosemite National Park officials \u2014 some of whom are on furlough due to the government shutdown<\/a> \u2014 did not respond to an email requesting comment or issue any statements confirming the accident or its cause.<\/p>\n

Witnesses said park rangers, many of whom are exempt from the furloughs, arrived at the scene shortly after the accident.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s mom, Jeanine Girard-Moorman, confirmed her son\u2019s death via social media<\/a> on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with a heavy heart I have to tell you my incredible son died during a climbing accident today,\u201d she wrote, adding that her heart was shattered \u201cin a million pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller wasn\u2019t exactly a household name in the climbing world, like Alex Honnold, star of the Academy Award-winning documentary \u201cFree Solo,\u201d<\/a> but his exploits were impressive enough to catch the eye of other climbers and mountain enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

He had completed impressive routes in Patagonia and the Sierra Nevada, but he propelled himself into the ranks of elite climbers with a June ascent of the demanding South Face of Denali, North America\u2019s highest summit.<\/p>\n

His route, known as the \u201cSlovak Direct\u201d because it was first climbed by three Slovaks in 1984 and goes almost straight up the mountain, is considered one of the most challenging in the Western hemisphere. It requires more than 9,000 feet of extremely technical ice climbing, often in brutal weather, and had been successfully climbed by only about 20 people before Miller pulled it off solo.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Miller was climbing a route called Sea of Dreams on El Capitan. It\u2019s challenging, but if the rock was dry and the weather was mild, it was probably within his comfort zone.<\/p>\n

El Capitan not only attracts climbers from around the world, but also serves as a destination for photographers, videographers and aspiring social media influencers. It is among the most photographed rock formations in the world.<\/p>\n

Several Reddit users claimed to have watched Miller fall on a TikTok livestream.<\/p>\n

Others said he was well-aware of the risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than once we discussed the dangers of his craft and the likelihood that his career would end in a tragic way,\u201d wrote a poster on Reddit who claimed to have been friends with Miller since middle school. \u201cNevertheless, we both understood that what made his life meaningful\u2026was climbing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular and promising young mountaineer fell to his death on Yosemite\u2019s El Capitan on Wednesday, a tragedy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[24366,23,114999,115001,8609,70071,2737,112563,115002,15798,3,115003,115000,25533,21,19,22,20,25,24,6601,4477,79936],"class_list":{"0":"post-199369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-accident","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-balin-miller","11":"tag-climber","12":"tag-death","13":"tag-el-capitan","14":"tag-end","15":"tag-furlough","16":"tag-impressive-route","17":"tag-name","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-other-climber","20":"tag-rope","21":"tag-social-medium","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-wednesday","29":"tag-world","30":"tag-yosemite"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}