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Woman falls to death while rock climbing in Hyogo Prefecture

14 Comments

A 57-year-old woman, who was rock climbing, fell to her death after her safety rope detached while she was descending from the Horaikyo Gorge in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, on Sunday.

According to police, Toshiko Kamisaka, who lived in Osaka, fell at around 12:25 p.m. Police said Kamisaka began climbing up the gorge with eight other people at around 9:20 a.m., Kyodo News reported.

During their descent, the safety rope attached to Kamisaka’s body became detached and she fell from a height of about five meters. An eyewitness said she was attempting to retie the rope when she fell. Kamisaka was rushed to the hospital but died due to severe head injuries.

Located in Mount Rokko, Horaikyo Gorge is known as a popular area among rock climbers.

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14 Comments
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There is something about people who measure themselves against the absolute consistency of Gravity that mystifies me as a person who expects myself to make mistakes. And falling only five meters, a helmet seems as if it would have protected her from head injuries. A sad day for her family when Mom doesn't come home from her hobby and that terrible grief is born... Requiescat in pace, Ma'am. A sad story...

1 ( +9 / -8 )

I could never understand the fascination people have with these kind of activities.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

In rock climbing the most accidents happen during rappelling. I check my rappelling system multiple times before committing and although I have done it numerous times I am still taking every check as if it is my first time doing it. It seems that this poor lady didn’t tie rope properly through descent device nor used “third hand“ backup system which would stop the fall. Other thing that comes to my mind is cross check or lack of it (here in Japan people are rarely doing it) done between belayer and climber. Harness tie in knot was probably not tied properly and it came loose. Everything said is still a wild guess. Anyhow RIP lady.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Severe head injuries? Was she not wearing a helmet?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I do a lot of outdoor sports including rock climbing, ice climbing and long trails.

Depending on how she fell a helmet may protect but 5 meters head down, no helmet can guarantee your life.

Last weekend i went to Fuji for the 6 time and saw many people unprepared. Especially a lot of people without helmet. Safety is important not only for falling rocks but more for falling and hitting your head on the sharp stones.

For those comments who cannot understand why people do do this kind activities, just don't ask. Everyone has a passion he or she enjoys. Some like some rush and other like reading.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

She died doing what she like, RIP.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Note to self, don’t go Rock Climbing.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Rock climbing and wing suits are two sports I'd never like to try.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Nothing like doing extreme sports.

I have more cuts on my body than a cow in a butcher's shop.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Just turned 60 recently, sold my Harley Davidson motorcycle. I'm all for living life to the fullest and all that jazz but there comes a time when motorcycles and rock climbing are just pushing your luck.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"An eyewitness said she was attempting to retie the rope when she fell..."

This should not happen if the knot is tied properly - grave error on her part and any other person that might have been next to her who should have checked.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I’ve repelled 200+ cliffs in my younger days, untying that repelling knot never came to mind.

Cant imagine why she did that.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I’ve repelled 200+ cliffs in my younger days, untying that repelling knot never came to mind.

If these things repulse you, perhaps you shouldn’t be doing them.

VERB  If something repels you, you find it horrible and disgusting.

...a violent excitement that frightened and repelled her. 

Synonyms: disgust, offend, revolt, sicken

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I saw a video on "Reddit" with something similar, though in that case, through an amazing bit of luck the falling Climber was caught by another climber below - however that's where the video ended, without any confirmed statement as to the outcome....

Climbing is a Dangerous Sport - both with safety ropes, and certainly without - for those who climb Free-style without, they are... well - you decide...

@oyatoi - its very easy to make typo's these days, and Auto-Correction sometimes doesn't help - so please, give us a break... we all make mistakes....

rapelling vs repelling - clearly the first is flagged as a mistake (at least by Chrome), but the second isn't and as it phonetically sounds correct, it's an easy mistake to make.

rappelling vs reppeling - the correct choice should have been "rappelling" however, depending upon how you pronounce it, the latter sounds right, but until you remove that extra "p", is flagged as incorrect... hence how I imagine, "WA4TKG" could have arrived at their typo.

Also... seems to be a common enough occurrence to warrant a web-page:

https://grammarist.com/spelling/rappel-repel/#:~:text=To%20repel%20is%20(1)%20to,a%20device%20that%20provides%20friction.

@WA4TKG - Sadly, my experience of Rappelling was limited to my Youth "summer camps" - however I recall my first over the edge experience, even to this day, after repetition, it grew upon me - and soon I was bouncing my way down - and enjoying it. It's a useful skill to master, even for non-rock-climbing situations. Imagine getting yourself down a steep wet slippery slope to save / assist someone needing help.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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