A 21-year-old rock climber from Wisconsin was descending the national monument when he fell, officials said.
A rock climber tragically died on Sunday evening after falling from Devils Tower National Monument, a striking rock formation in northeast Wyoming, according to park officials.
The climber, Stewart Phillip Porter, 21, from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, fell just before 8 p.m. while rappelling down the second pitch of El Cracko Diablo, one of the numerous parallel cracks that divide the 870-foot tower into columns, as reported by the National Park Service in a release on Monday. The exact distance of Mr. Porter’s fall was not disclosed, and the Park Service did not immediately respond to further inquiries.
Authorities located Mr. Porter around 8:40 p.m., but despite rescue efforts, paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene due to severe injuries. At the same time, a search team discovered Mr. Porter’s climbing partner stranded on the tower, requiring a rescue operation. The partner’s name has not been released.
The circumstances of the fall remain unclear, though the Park Service noted in their release that most accidents and fatalities at Devils Tower occur during the descent.
Mr. Porter’s death marks the seventh recorded climbing fatality at Devils Tower, which has been a premier climbing destination for over a century, according to park officials. He is the fourth climber to die while descending the monument.
Approximately 5,000 to 6,000 climbers attempt to scale the tower each year, drawn by the breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape. Despite the allure, the Park Service emphasized that, “While climbing fatalities at Devils Tower are infrequent, it is still inherently dangerous.”
This incident follows a troubling trend in national parks. Data from the Park Service, covering 2014 to 2019, shows that falls are one of the leading causes of death in parks, along with vehicle accidents and drownings.
Orlando Mayorquín is a breaking news reporter based in New York and a 2023-24 Times Fellowship member, a program supporting early-career journalists