When Ben Kessel, 34, passed away in a climbing accident in September 2020, climbers received the news online in a popular forum with shock, with condolences, and with acknowledgment of the small but real risks that climbers take when they do what they love.
The shock came from the cause of the accident, unavoidable in the moment: A large rock fell and knocked Ben off the climb, cutting his rope.
The route, Moby Grape, is listed by the climbing site Mountain Project as the second most popular on Cannon Cliff. Ben is one of many, many climbers who on any given day, or year, choose to climb there.
The climbers called it sad, harrowing, and gut-wrenching bad luck. They said there was no evidence of the climber causing the rock to fall. They said it was not fair. They also considered the varying risks of climbing Cannon Cliff, or anywhere.
It’s clear from the conversation: All climbers accept some amount of risk. So how dangerous is climbing rock?
There are few definitive studies comparing climbing deaths to other sports with clear risks, like horseback riding, skiing, boating, and hunting.
But as a starting point, it’s worth considering that the Outdoor Industry Association surveyed Americans and estimated in 2017 and 2018, each year 4.6 million Americans climbed rocks, ice, and participated in mountaineering.
Over those same two years, 51 Americans died climbing, according to the Accidents in North American Climbing, published by the non-profit American Alpine Club.
The risk of dying climbing is real, and is also very small. But it is not non-existent.
As reported in “Evaluation of Injury and Fatality Risk in Rock and Ice Climbing”: “When climbing outdoors, there are objective dangers and physical hazards such as variable rock and ice quality.... The vast majority of climbers manage the above inherent risks with their climbing experience and skills, thereby avoiding serious injuries and even fatality.”
Climbers accept these risks because they love climbing, and they believe they can eliminate many risks, manage others, and accept the ones they cannot manage.
In 2020, Rock & Ice published an analysis of 30 years of climbing accident reports from the American Alpine Club. These narratives include most serious and deadly incident in the U.S. and Canada, totaling 2,724 accident reports since 1990. About 20% of accidents were deadly for one or more people.
In all 2,724 reports, 93 cases of Natural Rockfall were identified - cases where the climber didn’t do anything to trigger rockfall. In 22 of those cases, over 20 years, the accident was deadly. That is 4% of the total 544 deadly incidents over three decades.
These are small enough risks that climbers accept them, but they are not zero.
In the final view, no climbers who read the story of Ben’s accident in the online forum commented that they would quit the sport.
Some said they would not climb that route. For them, Ben’s story served as a warning to re-calibrate their tolerance of risk.
Other climbers expressed compassion for his family and friends, and offered each other support and reminders to take care of each other’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Just as Ben’s professional achievements continue to help people, and the Ben Kessel Scholarship Fund provides an opportunity for like-minded people, his accident, a tragic event, also made its mark on fellow climbers in his community.
It reminded them to live and climb in line with their risk tolerance, while acknowledging that risk, and the reason they accept it: A love of nature, and of climbing on rock.
Written by Eliot Caroom, climber and researcher
The shock came from the cause of the accident, unavoidable in the moment: A large rock fell and knocked Ben off the climb, cutting his rope.
The route, Moby Grape, is listed by the climbing site Mountain Project as the second most popular on Cannon Cliff. Ben is one of many, many climbers who on any given day, or year, choose to climb there.
The climbers called it sad, harrowing, and gut-wrenching bad luck. They said there was no evidence of the climber causing the rock to fall. They said it was not fair. They also considered the varying risks of climbing Cannon Cliff, or anywhere.
It’s clear from the conversation: All climbers accept some amount of risk. So how dangerous is climbing rock?
There are few definitive studies comparing climbing deaths to other sports with clear risks, like horseback riding, skiing, boating, and hunting.
But as a starting point, it’s worth considering that the Outdoor Industry Association surveyed Americans and estimated in 2017 and 2018, each year 4.6 million Americans climbed rocks, ice, and participated in mountaineering.
Over those same two years, 51 Americans died climbing, according to the Accidents in North American Climbing, published by the non-profit American Alpine Club.
The risk of dying climbing is real, and is also very small. But it is not non-existent.
As reported in “Evaluation of Injury and Fatality Risk in Rock and Ice Climbing”: “When climbing outdoors, there are objective dangers and physical hazards such as variable rock and ice quality.... The vast majority of climbers manage the above inherent risks with their climbing experience and skills, thereby avoiding serious injuries and even fatality.”
Climbers accept these risks because they love climbing, and they believe they can eliminate many risks, manage others, and accept the ones they cannot manage.
In 2020, Rock & Ice published an analysis of 30 years of climbing accident reports from the American Alpine Club. These narratives include most serious and deadly incident in the U.S. and Canada, totaling 2,724 accident reports since 1990. About 20% of accidents were deadly for one or more people.
In all 2,724 reports, 93 cases of Natural Rockfall were identified - cases where the climber didn’t do anything to trigger rockfall. In 22 of those cases, over 20 years, the accident was deadly. That is 4% of the total 544 deadly incidents over three decades.
These are small enough risks that climbers accept them, but they are not zero.
In the final view, no climbers who read the story of Ben’s accident in the online forum commented that they would quit the sport.
Some said they would not climb that route. For them, Ben’s story served as a warning to re-calibrate their tolerance of risk.
Other climbers expressed compassion for his family and friends, and offered each other support and reminders to take care of each other’s mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Just as Ben’s professional achievements continue to help people, and the Ben Kessel Scholarship Fund provides an opportunity for like-minded people, his accident, a tragic event, also made its mark on fellow climbers in his community.
It reminded them to live and climb in line with their risk tolerance, while acknowledging that risk, and the reason they accept it: A love of nature, and of climbing on rock.
Written by Eliot Caroom, climber and researcher