No increased danger after Yosemite rocks fall

sAN FRANCisCo: A geological analysis found there was no more danger than usual of another giant rockfall after two huge slides, including one involving a slab of granite the size of a 36-storey building, occurred this week on the famed El Capitan rock formation.

One person was killed and two injured in the successive rockfalls on Wednesday and Thursday at the climbing hub.

“If we felt any area was unsafe we wouldn’t be allowing people in there,” Yosemite geologist Greg Stock said on Friday.

He and a US Geological Service geologist were studying the mountain after the rockfalls that awed but did not deter people in the closeknit climbing community.

“It’s kind of an inherently dangerous sport,” Hayden Jamieson, 24, of Mammoth Lakes, California, said as he prepared to head up El Capitan yesterday. The park typically sees about 80 rockfalls a year.

Elite climbers who make their way up the sheer rock faces with ropes and their fingertips understand the risk but also know it’s rare to get hit and killed by rocks.

In addition, Stock said it’s impossible to predict when and where a rockfall will strike.

Geologists don’t think climbers who pound stakes into the granite wall or hang from ropes during their treks have much effect on the stability of the mountainside. — AP