Hiker falls to death from cables on Yosemite's Half Dome

The National Park Service said that few people have died while climbing the cables, which help hikers during the last 400 feet of the 5,000-foot climb.
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Cables on Yosemite's Half Dome

The cables stretch the final 400 feet of the 5,000-foot climb.

A hiker slipped and fell to his death from Half Dome’s cables in Yosemite National Park on Monday afternoon, marking the first visitor fatality of 2018 and the first death on the cables since 2011.

The National Park Service in a news release on Tuesday said the male hiker was ascending the rock formation with a second person during a thunderstorm.

After they received the call, park rangers arrived on scene and provided assistance to the second hiker. Rangers recovered the body of the hiker on Tuesday afternoon.

His identity has not been released and the cause of the fall remains under investigation.

"Relatively few" people have fallen and died on the cables since 1919, according to the NPS. The two metal cables aid hikers during the last 400 feet to the summit of the 5,000-foot climb and are installed seasonally, typically the Friday before Memorial Day.

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