[國際攀岩資訊] 一個攀岩者逝世 (Todd Skinner）

[大濟]

Todd Skinner 大家或許不熟。在懷俄明州的 Lander，我和他曾有過數面之緣。Todd 是一位謙沖的攀岩者，也是世界知名的攀岩前輩。是他在 1988 年開創了「自由攀登大牆」的先河。

前幾天，Todd 在 Yosemite 的 Leaning Tower 練習可能是世界最難的 multi-pitch 自由攀登後，下降時因吊帶確保環斷掉，墜落 500 英呎逝世。

下面是有關的報導：


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."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...26/CLIMBER.TMP

[4x4]

todd skinner..

[ed512]

http://www.worldjournal.com/wj-la-ne...seq_id=1436172

攀岩高手優勝美地摔死【世界日報編譯雷沛綜合報導】

　徒手攀岩高手史金納驚傳在優勝美地國家公園意外身亡，圖為友人提供的遺照。 （美聯社）

繼低空跳傘老前輩布萊恩‧李‧舒伯特（Bri-an Lee Schubert）上週六跳橋意外身亡，攀岩（rock climbing）高手陶德‧史金納（Todd Skinner）週一也驚傳「折損」。

47歲的史金納和另一夥伴週一在優勝美地（Yosemite）國家公園新娘面紗瀑布（Bridalveil Fall）附近的「鈄塔岩」（Leaning Tower）開闢新路徑，在下山時身上吊索的繩套突然斷裂，使他墜落五百呎當場死亡。
史金納家住懷俄明州，太太是業餘登山好手，三名小孩從五歲到七歲。「高手失足」消息傳來震驚登山界，他的老戰友保羅‧皮亞納（Paul Pi-ana）說:「我絕對沒料到他會在攀岩時走了，至少不是這種走法。」
皮亞納說，和史金納一起攀岩的夥伴透露，出現斷裂的吊索已經磨損得很厲害，史金納有時會使用這種早該淘汰的裝備。皮亞納說:「我和史金納的裝備都是自己親手設計並測試過，對其耐用性深具信心，可能也會因此太過自信。」
史金納是「徒手攀岩」（free climb-ing）專家。徒手攀岩強調靠雙手雙腳展開「壁虎功」，藉岩縫、邊緣向上攀爬，不用繩梯等「人工器具」，繩子只用來保障安全。
史金納的名氣建立在永遠跑第一，在世界26國創下三百多次首度徒手登頂紀錄，足跡遍及北美、非洲、格林蘭和喜馬拉雅山，著有「超越顛峰」（Beyond Summit）一書。
史金納和皮亞納1988年因首創徒手攀登優勝美地險峻的「酋長岩」（El Capitan）一砲而紅。1994年他告訴「生活雜誌」，兩人在登頂成功後，賴以固定的一塊巨石突然滾下山谷。
史金納說，如果兩人這樣被拖下山谷必死無疑，所幸巨石切斷他們的兩條安全索中的一條，才撿回一命。他的肋骨被巨石壓成骨折，皮亞納的腿有五處骨折，腳也被壓爛。

2006-10-27

[4x4]

上傳...