A self less act of love: Climber died shielding his wife from rockfall
A BRITISH climber was killed after making the ‘loving and selfless’ decision to dive on to his wife to shield her from a rockfall in California’s Yosemite National Park, an inquest heard.
Andrew Foster, 32, died from brain injuries as hundreds of tons of rocks – including boulders ‘the size of vehicles’ – fell from the face of El Capitan on September 27 last year.
Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Foster and his wife Lucy, 28, who lived in Cardiff, were on a week-long climbing trip to the national park with another British couple. They had just had lunch and were returning to their campsite when rocks began dropping from about 600ft above them.
A report from the US National Park Service, which was read to the court, stated: ‘Lucy was walking approximately 50 metres (160ft) behind Andrew when they heard the rocks begin to fall above them.
‘Andrew yelled back to Lucy to run. As she began to run she lost her footing on the uneven terrain, causing her to fall. Andrew ran back to Lucy and lay his body on top of her, shielding her from the rocks as they began to fall down on top of them.’
When the rockfall stopped – the first of seven that day – Lucy was trapped by her legs, while her husband was motionless.
The report added: ‘As the dust settled and the rocks stopped falling, Lucy saw Andrew was now lying beside her.’
Other climbers said that Mrs Foster managed to free herself and began calling for help, telling them afterwards: ‘He saved me.’ The emergency services were called but Mr Foster was pronounced dead two hours later.
A post-mortem examination in the US revealed that he had died from brain injuries. Mrs Foster was airlifted to the trauma unit of a local hospital, but no details of the injuries that she suffered were disclosed.
Mr Foster, who grew up in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was an experienced climber who had visited the 1,200 sq-mile national park around California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range a number of times.
He worked for outdoor clothing firm Patagonia and had previously been employed by specialist outdoor store Up And Under. He had proposed to his wife, who is originally from Shropshire, during a skiing holiday in the Alps in 2015 and they married the following year.
The inquest heard that the couple were caught in the rockfall, which was followed by six more, shortly before 2pm.
Assistant coroner Caroline Saunders recorded that Mr Foster died in an accident, saying he had been suitably prepared for the climb and that the authorities had not issued any warnings to avoid El Capitan, a 3,000ft granite rock formation that is popular with climbers. ‘The evidence shows that Andrew and Lucy began climbing El Capitan at about 7.15am,’ she said. ‘The climb was not straightforward and was taking longer than expected and so, sensibly, they chose to pause, have some food, and made plans to return to base.
‘Shortly afterwards they were caught in an unexpected rockfall. Andrew was aware that his wife Lucy was in danger and took the loving and selfless act of protecting her from the fall using his own body to shield her from the rocks.
‘In the event Andrew suffered fatal injuries.’