Climb to the top of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park and you'll have an incredible view of Zion Canyon and the surrounding cliffs. You'll also risk a spell of vertigo if you get too near the edge and glance into the void.
In fact, reaching the top of the landing can be unnerving at times as you have to climb up some steep, and narrow, stretches of rock. The Park Service is well aware of the exposure on these sections and has anchored heavy chains into the most precarious spots so you have something to hang onto.
Over the years five people have died in falls from Angel's Landing....the most recent death occurred yesterday morning with a 29-year-old Las Vegas woman fell 1,200 feet to her death. No word just yet on how Bernadette Vander Meer came to fall off the cliff.
Woman Dies in Fall From Angel's Landing
By Kurt Repanshek - August 23rd, 2006
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Comments
I'm very sorry for your loss!! I think safety harnesses is a great idea
I climbed to Scouts Lookout today with my family. My wife and boys of 17 and 14 took a look and decided not to go on. Instead they continued on the West Rim trail to a point higher than Angel's Landing. I went on to Angel's Landing. I would not do it again. All of us are quite athletic and sure of ourselves, my family would have made it. It all comes down to a risk / reward decision. I was actually more scared for the other roughly 200 people on that trail. Very few should have been there. I am amazed that there aren't more deaths, and I mean a lot more. There really must be an angel up there.
Keep in mind afternoon heat and chance tunderstorm (lightning). Otherwise go for it and have fun. Ed Pomphrey Rumosn, N.J.
i live near zions, it is very beautiful, and i've worked at the hotel/motel nearest it. lots of scarey stories come in from the trail. i like your suggesting.. each visiter be attached to a harness that sides with them along the trail.. i don't like the idea of three million people hooking and unhooking to chain links however.. and i'm sure somebody will figure out how to fall with it on anyways.. but we have become a weak nation full of couch potatos... i think that one day i will take angels landing, but i have mildly lame legs.. i would surely go over, but with a cable attachment.. thats a great idea. its a long trek.. ppl can get weak.. tired.. they might could even charge a nominal fee for just those that do angels landing. i'm sorry about your cousin. i remember when that happened. i was working a front desk at the hotel when the family came up a few weeks or months later to see the landing for theirselves, she was just married if i am correct? (maybe it was another lady).. i feel for everyone that lost their life on the landing and for their families that are left with those images of their loved ones last few moments. Bless all of you.
And what point on Angels Landing are you challenged to top? Jesus, what kind of freaky trail is this?
You've never attempted hiking that trail I take it? Maybe you should. Then maybe your next post won't come across so cavalier and flippant.
I hiked up to Scout's lookout today 6/7 with the decision the night before on calling it a day once there and not continue up to AL bc I know my limits. But there I was standing below and mentally challenging myself and at the same time battling my decision making at that very moment. I observed older people, young kids, big people dressed all type of ways and questioned myself, why not me? At the 3rd set of chains I got my answer: Slipping to my death. I was prepared mentally to keep going until there was traffic jam of people death gripping the chains going down while others including myself attempted to go up and to make my situation worse it got very gusty and the sandy dirt got in my eyes and face. No way. I sat down, waited for the crowd to get smaller and turned back down. I realized I was part of the problem, I really had no business up there. People of all age, shape, and form that succesfully get to the top provides a false sense of security to many future AL hiker despite the warnings. On the shuttle on your way to The Grotto stop there are various warnings of deaths at AL as well as warning about fear of heights, slippery trails, and if you have pulmonary or heart problems do not hike AL. Also it is reminded to carry water and proper gear. So you've been warn. I am surprised no more death have happened.
I was there June 06, 2019. I was truly shocked at the lack of physical fitness of some hikers not to mention the lack of proper hiking footwear / gear that I witnessed hiking up the main trail let alone the top section of AL. I know my limits and did not do the last stretch. I truly would love to do those types of hikes and finish off the last sections of many summits I have had to sit back and look at. I choose instead to hike further up the West Rim Trail above and behind the washrooms that left me with a statisfying view looking down at AL with my binoculars and some of valley and mountains surrounding it. More deaths will happen on the AL hike becasue lots of people that do it - should not be there to begin with. But that said it is truly a beatiful hiking trail up the sides of the mountains and valley.