World-class free solo climber Brad Gobright fell roughly 600 feet to his death on Wednesday while repelling down El Sendero Luminoso, a rock formation in Mexico’s Potrero Chico national park.
The 31-year-old climber was widely recognized in the climbing community for his skill in climbing without ropes. On Wednesday, Gobright and another climber, Aidan Jacobson, were using ropes to scale El Sendero, according to Outside Magazine. The climbers had made the summit and began repelling back down when both heard a loud pop from their equipment and fell.
Gobright and Jacobson had been hanging 20-30 feet above a ledge when they fell. Jacobson landed in some brush on the ledge, slowing his fall and possibly saving him from slipping over the ledge.
“It was basically a blur,” says Jacobson. “He screamed. I screamed. I went through some vegetation, and then all I remember is seeing his blue Gramicci shirt bounce over the edge.”
Jacobson broke his ankle in the fall. Gobright slipped over the edge and fell about 600 feet to his death.
The climbers had declined to tie stopper knots in their ropes, a technique used to prevent such a tragedy. Stopper knots, an extra safety precaution, are often left untied by experienced climbers because the knots tend to get stuck.
The Mexican civil defense authorities announced Gobright’s death in a statement on Thursday. Mexican authorities and a group of climbers had recovered Gobright’s body earlier that day.
