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San Francisco Examiner Staff Report - November 25, 1998
A veteran rock climber was killed in a 1,200-foot fall from a granite wall
near Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite while engaged in what appeared to be a modified
form of bungee jumping.
The lifeless body of Daniel Eugene Osman, 35, of Reno, was found Monday evening
at the base of "Leaning Tower," an outwardly tilting pillar.
Osman had evidently performed the maneuver that killed him several times earlier
in the day, National Park Service ranger Kendall Thompson said Tuesday.
With about 800 feet of dynamic or stretching rope, Osman was tethered to a
horizontal, static or non-stretching line reaching about 1,000 feet across
an indentation in the cliff below Leaning Tower, Thompson said.
In the previous maneuvers, Osman would jump from the edge of the cliff, and
at the end tie a loop in the dynamic rope with another rope he carried and
rappel to the base of the cliff, the ranger said.
Thompson said it appeared that Osman "wasn't getting low enough for the effect
he wanted and added about 100 feet of rope, and then when he jumped off again,
the static line bowed in the middle and it didn't stop him."
He hit the rocks below.
Thompson said that Osman was well known in Yosemite and "probably climbed
everything around here." But he added, what Osman was doing "isn't climbing."
"This is some kind of recreational activity, and we'll be looking to see if
it's appropriate for a national park," Thompson said.
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