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Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Todd Skinner's hands were cut up and he was
tired after a hard day of climbing, but he was a happy man standing
high above Yosemite Valley on what is known as Leaning Tower.
He and his partner, Jim Hewett of Fairfax, had
spent two weeks practicing what would be the first free climb
up this route, one of the hardest they had ever attempted.
"We'd probably been up and down it 100
times," Hewett said Wednesday. "We were working out
the route, figuring out moves. He was the same super happy person
he had always been."
They talked about their plans for the next day,
then Skinner began rappelling down from a ledge part way up the
2,000-foot face. Five minutes later, he was dead.
Skinner, a 47-year-old former rodeo cowboy and
world-renowned rock climber, fell more than 500 feet to his death
Monday after the nylon loop used to attach the climbing rope to
his harness broke. The accident has sent shock waves through the
climbing community, where Skinner's outgoing nature was almost
as legendary as his courage and skill on some of the world's most
dangerous rock faces.
"There is just general disbelief that this
could happen to him, because he was such a safe climber,"
said Ann Krcik, a longtime friend who also employed him as a motivational
speaker. "He was the pioneer of big wall free-climbing, but
he also affected every climber he ever met because he was so personable."
Skinner, who lived with his wife and three children
in Lander, Wyo., was a specialist in free climbing, a style in
which ropes and other equipment are used only as backup in case
of a fall. He is credited with more than 300 first ascents in
26 countries, and his adventures have been documented on film
and in magazines in 12 languages.
Among the highlights was the first free ascent
of the Salathe Wall on Yosemite's El Capitan in 1988. The route,
which is considered by many climbers as the best and most intimidating
rock climb in the world, is steeper even than the famous Nose
route, also on El Cap.
Skinner's other first ascents include the north
face of Mount Hooker in Wyoming's Wind River Range, the Great
Canadian Knife in the Cirque of the Unclimbables in Yukon Territory,
the Northwest Direct Route on Yosemite's Half Dome and the East
Face of Trango Tower in Pakistan's Karakoram Range.
He also led mountain and jungle expeditions
to Pakistan, Vietnam, Mali, Greenland and Kenya.
Through it all, he gained a reputation as one
of the world's great storytellers. With a mirthful cowboy twang,
Skinner would describe in colorful detail his bull-riding experiences
on the professional rodeo circuit or his jungle adventures with
National Geographic, often with an emphasis on shocking detail.
"He was a character," said speed climbing
record holder Hans Florine, who often ran into Skinner climbing
the big walls. "He told me once that during an expedition
in South America, their food drop didn't happen, so he had to
eat monkeys. He said the meat smelled like burned hair because
the monkeys weren't skinned before they were barbequed."
Skinner, whose stories were generally regarded
as 85 percent true, parlayed his gift for gab into a money-making
venture as a motivational speaker, inspiring audiences at 30 events
a year.
Steve Schneider, 46, of Oakland, said he met
Skinner on the rock climbing competition circuit 20 years ago
and was captivated immediately.
"One of the things I remember him telling
me was that his heroes were the Japanese left on the islands after
World War II," Schneider said. "He said they found some
of those guys 15 to 20 years later in the jungles still fighting
the war. He emulated those guys in that nothing was going to deter
him, and it didn't matter how long it was going to take. He had
that dig-in-and-never-say-die attitude."
It was as much his attitude as his skill that
made his death shocking to climbers, many of whom regarded Skinner
as virtually invincible.
"It's really affecting the climbing community
because harness failure is pretty unusual -- it is not supposed
to happen," said Ken Yager, president and founder of Yosemite
Climbing Association. "It's gotten people thinking about
their old harnesses now. I know I'm going to go out and buy a
new one."
The part that broke, called the belay loop,
is designed to be the strongest part of the climbing harness,
but Hewett, 34, said Skinner's harness was old.
"It was actually very worn," Hewett
said. "I'd noted it a few days before, and he was aware it
was something to be concerned about." Friends of Skinner
said he had ordered several new harnesses but they hadn't yet
arrived in the mail.
On Monday's climb, Hewitt said the belay loop
snapped while Skinner was hanging in midair underneath an overhanging
ledge.
"I knew exactly what had happened right
when it happened," he said. "It was just disbelief.
It was too surreal."
Stunned and in shock after watching his friend
fall, he checked his equipment.
"I wanted to make sure that what had caused
the accident wasn't going to happen to me," he said. "I
then went down as quick as I could."
Hewett said he knew there was no hope. A search-and-rescue
team found Skinner's body, wearing the harness with the broken
belay loop, about 4 p.m. Monday on the rocks near Bridalveil Falls.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Skinner had survived virtually unscathed on
many harrowing climbs. His closest call, friends said, came when
a huge block of granite broke off Salathe Wall just as he and
his partner reached the top in 1988. The huge slab scraped by
them as it fell, breaking their bones but not their rope, which
saved them.
In a sport that is full of rivalries and increasingly
driven by competition, Skinner was universally regarded as the
most generous, helpful and encouraging of all the top climbers.
"It's a huge loss for the climbing community,"
Schneider said. "I pay him the greatest compliment by saying
that I was really jealous of Todd. He turned climbing into dollars
better than anyone in America, and by doing that he's broken ground
for other climbers. I really looked up to him for that."
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