'Death in Yosemite' goal: Save lives

Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite," by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Charles R. "Butch" Farabee, Jr.; Puma Press; 2007; 585 pages; $24.95

Yosemite National Park in central California is one of the nation's most popular outdoor treasures. A new book, "Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite," outlines and investigates a total of 870 deaths by various causes in the park from 1851 to 2006.

A sequel, of sorts, to "Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon," published several years ago by one of the same authors of this book — through the same publisher — Puma Press of Arizona.

The authors make it clear that they aren't out to glorify death or sensationalize disasters in the park, but rather to save lives.

"Knowing exactly what they did wrong and why they decided to do it that way helps prevent history from repeating itself," the authors wrote.

They also warn that "some incidents in this book contain graphic descriptions of traumatic fatal events."

Well-organized and written, this isn't a book that will appeal to everyone — only true lovers of Yosemite will likely find it worth the purchase price.

(The book hits home for myself, since in two of my four visits to Yosemite, I've been in the park on days when two of its fatalities occurred — one a homicide and the other a freak accident.)

The book is divided into 14 chapters covering various types of death from waterfall cause or location to traffic fatalities, aircraft crashes, snow, homicides, drownings, fauna and flora, hiking, freak accidents and even park construction and base jumping.

With the 870 known fatalities in the park during its 155-year history, that's an average of 5.6 deaths each year.

What's the biggest killer in Yosemite? It's on the roads. Motorcycle crashes account for 158 total deaths, or some 18 percent of all deaths. A close second are drownings, with 144 deaths and third are hiking/scrambling accidents with 124 deaths. Fifth are big wall climbing with 104 fatalities.

Not surprisingly, men account for 83 percent of all fatalities. There have also been 60 total suicides that occurred in Yosemite and another 44 homicides.

The freak accidents (lightning, rockfall, wildlife, etc.) only account for 50 deaths in Yosemite's history, or less than 6 percent of the total. That emphasizes that a majority of the deaths in the park could have been avoided with common sense or preparation.

The authors quote Lee Whittlesey, author of a similar book, "Death in Yellowstone," who said, "Nature demands that we pay attention. Even so, every day, someone enters a wilderness unprepared."

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