Rock climber Hans Florine is recovering from an accident that occurred while climbing in Yosemite last week. Florine and his climbing partner Abraham Shreve were making an ascent of The Nose on El Capitan when he reportedly fell about 25 feet, injuring himself in the process. Fortunately, he was able to be safely evacuated from the mountain and is said to be in good spirits.
The accident occurred around 1:30 PM last Thursday when Florine and Shreve were roughly 2300 feet (701 meters) up the route. Florine says that he was on self-belay at the time when one of the nuts used to hold the rope gave way. He plummeted down the rock face but before the rope could grab him his feet hit a small ledge, breaking his left ankle and right heel.
Following the fall, Shreve lowered Florine about 400 feet (121 meters) down the wall to a small ledge where he sat until a Yosemite Search & Rescue team was able to arrive and lend a hand. It took a couple of hours for them to reach the scene and once they did they pulled Hans up to the top of El Capitan, but by that point it was too dark for a helicopter to make the extraction. Instead, they spent the night camping on the summit and he was flown to a hospital the following day.
While he was on the ledge waiting for the SAR team to arrive, Florine posted a message on Instagram that read: “Well, there is a rescue going on, on El Capitan. And it’s me. I think I broke my leg. Rescuers please be safe.” This was the first indication that friends, family, and followers received of the accident.
Florine, who has set speed records on El Cap in the past, was reportedly out for a training climb. He and Shreve weren't going particularly fast but were making their way up the mountain quickly. It was the equipment failure that ultimately caused the fall that result in injury. Hopefully he'll be back up and climbing again soon. We wish him a speedy recovery.
