Couple killed in fall at Yosemite loved ‘daredevilry’
It was supposed to be a fun little junket near the end of a cross-country trip, but the excursion to Taft Point in Yosemite National Park turned out to be the last stop for a bubbly couple who had gushed in a travel blog how much they loved “daredevilry” and standing on the edge of cliffs.
Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, were identified Monday as the man and woman who fell to their deaths last week after stopping at the famous promontory while driving back to Viswanath’s job in Silicon Valley.
Rangers recovered their bodies on steep terrain Thursday below Taft Point, an area known for its spectacular views 3,000 feet down to the valley floor, said park spokesman Jamie Richards.
The married couple had recently moved from New York after Viswanath took a job as a systems engineer at Cisco Systems Inc., based in San Jose, according to a friend.
It was not clear Monday how the couple fell or what they were doing when the accident occurred. A friend of the couple said they were on a driving trip from New York and were seeing the sights in California at the time.
“We still do not know what caused them to fall,” Richards said. “We’re trying to understand what happened. We may never know, (but) from everything we see, this was a tragic fall.”
The investigation is likely to take several weeks, but the couple’s blog, holidaysandhappilyeverafters.com, may provide a clue why Viswanath and Moorthy were near the edge.
“A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry
attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs and skyscrapers, but did you know that wind gusts can be FATAL???” Moorthy wrote on an Instagram post attached to a photo of her sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon. “Is our life just worth one photo? When we squirm at another selfie attempt gone south from a skyscraper, let’s remember to save that in our core memory.”
Visitors spotted the couple’s bodies Wednesday below Taft Point, a spectacularly exposed cliff that draws tourists from around the world. Hikers can walk 1.1 miles from Glacier Point Road directly to the cliff’s edge and take in dizzying views of Yosemite Valley, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls.
The granite ledge at the edge of the cliff is a favorite place for snapshots. There is a safety railing at the edge of the point.
Viswanath and Moorthy, married since 2014, were software engineers, she sporting distinctive pink hair. They loved to travel, friends said, and often took photographs in exotic places. On the cover of Viswanath’s Facebook page is a picture of the two of them smiling on the edge of a cliff at the Grand Canyon.
Raj Katta, 24, of New York, said he got to know both of them while attending Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. He said Viswanath, who graduated about six months before he did, was both a good friend and mentor, who helped him with his MBA application just last week.
“He was a thoughtful and amazing guy, very talented. They are a really happy couple. Very positive,” Katta said.
He described Moorthy as an extremely positive and enthusiauastic woman.
“She’s one of those girls who wants to explore the world and discover a deeper meaning in life,” he said.
Moorthy described herself in their travel blog as “a mermaid-haired wanderess who loves to waltz with words.” Her husband, she wrote, “is Captain Creative who wows me and everyone with his phantasmagoric photographic skills.”
Katta said Viswanath and Moorthy loved New York, but decided six months ago that he would take the job at Cisco and they would live in California for a year or so to see what it was like.
Katta said both of them were happy and enjoying life, and he is certain it was a tragic accident that caused them to fall, not a suicide.
“They like to travel and take pictures,” he said. “Probably they would have gone up to the cliffs to take a couple of pictures. They have thousands of pictures like that. They are really into this stuff.”
The couple studied computer science and engineering at the College of Engineering, Chengannur, in India, before coming to the United States.
The faculty “deeply mourns the accidental demise of its two alumni,” the college wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “Our hearts go to the friends and family members of this lovely couple.”
Richards said 10 people have died in the park this year. Six of those park visitors fell to their deaths.
In May, a 29-year-old man fell from the climbing cables on Half Dome. In June, two veteran rock climbers, ages 45 and 42, fell from El Capitan. In September, an 18-year-old man fell from Nevada Fall while apparently taking a selfie.
“Yosemite is a wild and scenic place. If you are not paying attention to your footing, it is very easy to have a slip and fall,” Richards said. “Now, we don't know what happened in this case, but we urge hikers to stay on the trail.”
People have been tumbling off waterfalls and ledges, hurtling through rapids and getting killed in Yosemite since long before Europeans arrived on the continent, but records began in 1851, when a California militia first attempted to drive American Indians out of the valley.
Since then, close to 800 people have died in accidents in the park, according to records kept by the Yosemite search-and-rescue team. A disturbingly large number of those accidents occurred, according to park rangers, because somebody got too close to the edge while trying to take a photograph. Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @pfimrite