“Don’t Die Over a Cam” and More Advice From a Mountain Rescue Team Lead

Last year, climbers reported 210 accidents, according to the newly released Accidents in North American Climbing. Accident rates continue to rise, which is unsurprising. As more and more people get into climbing, there are simply more instances where something goes wrong.

In some respects, accidents just happen. “Ankles roll, ropes get stuck, rocks fall,” says Vernon Nelson, Jr. a team lead with Chelan County Mountain Rescue in Washington. “Climbing is not the world’s safest activity.”

We recently interviewed Nelson for his insights on why accident numbers are so high in Washington. With a dozen years of technical rescue experience—and even more years as a climber himself—Nelson had some invaluable observations about patterns in climber accidents that apply outside his state’s bounds. He also had some interesting takes on rescue work, as a long-time volunteer who holds a full-time job as a high school social studies teacher.

Drawing upon the 150 rescue calls he’s participated in, Nelson shares some common pitfalls he sees climbers fall into, his best climbing safety advice, and misconceptions about getting technical rescues.

Patterns and pitfalls in climbing accidents

As a rescue team lead with over a decade of experience, Nelson has pieced together some patterns when it comes to climbing accidents. While some of his observations hold the most relevance for rock climbing in alpine environments similar to the crags and peaks of his region, other insights apply more broadly.

As far as seasonality goes, avalanches are a common culprit of his team’s calls in winter. But he adds: “In the winter, we don’t do a lot of rescues. We have a lot of winter recoveries.” (Translation: body recoveries). Come summer, it’s often people getting lost. Climbers moving too slowly. Alpinists running out of food. Adventurers who “just can’t keep going,” as Nelson puts it.

While he admits that to some degree, experiencing an accident is “just a numbers game” for climbers, some common threads emerge. Here are a few recurring pitfalls to avoid tumbling into.

Ankle Injuries

“Our number one thing is ankles,” Nelson says. He estimates that his team runs a call for an ankle injury sustained during a lead fall around once per year. A couple years ago, they even responded to a climber on toprope who hit a ledge. “He was kind of a big boy and the rope stretch took him out,” he recalls. More commonly, however, climbers sprain their ankle on the approach.

Want to strengthen those ankles? Try these exercises.

While the Chelan County Mountain Rescue team used to carry anyone with an ankle injury out on a litter, these days, they bring in a custom-sized plastic air boot (like this one) so the injured climber can rappel down from the accident site. This makes ankle-related rescues go a lot more quickly.

Underestimating climb time

When planning for an objective, climbers often do a Google search to see what the fastest or average time is for the route or summit. For example, they see that the fastest known time to summit and descend Washington’s Dragontail Peak is three hours and 40 minutes. But it takes the average person closer to 12 hours—or even 18. “It’s sometimes hard for people to judge where they’re at,” Nelson says.

Underestimating terrain

Another pattern Nelson has observed? Climbers who get stuck on technical terrain, unroped. “They’re going up a fourth class or really low fifth class area and get themselves into harder fifth class,” he explains. Even though they’re venturing into terrain that they don’t have the proper gear for, Nelson says that for some reason, they think, “I’ll keep going.” Next thing you know, they’re calling in Chelan County Mountain Rescue for an evacuation.

Blindly following mapping apps

Sometimes those stuck climbers end up where they are by following a trail mapping app, without supplementing the directions with their own navigation skills or common sense. For example, a mapping app will lead an alpinist the wrong way up Dragontail Peak. Then, off-route, they become stranded on fifth class terrain.

Relying fully on apps for navigation also results in climbers losing their way, according to Nelson. Getting lost was, in fact, the second leading cause of climber accidents in 2024, according to the 2025 Accidents in North American Climbing.

Getting sandbagged on accident-prone routes

Some of the most common sites of climbing accidents for the Chelan County Mountain Rescue? Routes on ridges in the alpine.

For the Washington area, Nelson specifically cites Serpentine Ridge (IV, 5.8, 14 pitches) and Backbone Ridge (5.9) on Dragontail, as well as the North Ridge (5.9+) and West Ridge (5.6) of Mt. Stuart in the Enchantments as top accident-prone routes.

Since these routes follow ridges, Nelson says rappelling off them is “kind of a nightmare.” This makes rescues from said ridges a challenge, too. What Nelson often sees is climbers try to rap off these routes, but then run out of gear or their rope gets stuck—and they lack the skills to self-rescue.

Climbing safety advice: avoiding accidents and rescues

Beyond dodging the pitfalls described above, what can a climber do to avoid becoming a statistic? For one, don’t adopt a mindset that creates a false sense of security. Nelson likes to remind people that climbing is a dangerous sport with real, sometimes unavoidable hazards—and no, the drive to the trailhead is not the most dangerous part.

Climbers should also use common sense. Don’t head into a backcountry climb without the proper supplies, and always pay attention on the approach. Nelson recommends going into an objective with more fuel than you need. He also cautions against blindly following mapping apps.

Brushing on your technical skills doesn’t hurt either. Based on his rescue experiences, one specific competency Nelson recommends all climbers adopt is learning how to free stuck ropes. We would add that it helps to know how to not get your ropes stuck in the first place, too.

Here are a few more key pieces of advice from Nelson to stay safe out there:

Don’t overestimate your abilities

Avoid biting off more than you can chew. Don’t overestimate your ability or underestimate the difficulty of a route. Try to objectively assess whether you’ve got what it takes—and what you need to succeed. This might mean giving yourself far more time than you think you need or bringing extra gear along. You could also try to find a partner more experienced than you.

“Be very cognizant of your own ability and don’t compare yourself to others and their abilities,” Nelson advises. He says it’s easy to look at, for example, how quickly one party climbed a route and assume you’ll be able to do the same. He recommends asking yourself some of the following questions: “How long is it going to take you to do each pitch? Are you a fast leader or a slow leader? Are you comfortable simul-climbing?”

Don’t die over a cam

“Waste the freaking gear if you’re bailing,” Nelson says. “We’ve seen this over and over, We’ve actually talked about making a foundation where we’ll pay you back for your cams. We’ve had multiple deaths where people don’t want to leave gear, so they leave one nut.” Then the nut blows—with tragic results.

Last year, Nelson recalls a climber who let his girlfriend rappel first, then removed a couple pieces to avoid leaving significant gear behind. They were descending during a rainstorm. As he rapped, his gear pulled out and he fell to his death.

The rescue veteran says he remembers what it’s like to be young and feel like you can’t afford to lose a couple cams. “But you really can,” he says. “It’s not worth it.”

Myths and misunderstandings about rescue work

As Nelson says, it’s a numbers game. Even if you do everything right, you could still encounter rockfall or roll your ankle. So if you do need to call for help, what should you know? Mainly, that it’s going to take awhile.

“Rescue is a slow process,” Nelson says. Victims often think rescuers will fly in by helicopter and be there in a flash. But as all-volunteer crews, mountain rescue teams need to identify a pilot and rescuers who are available. A team might be one or two hours out from even assembling to head to the accident site. For example, Nelson might be in the middle of teaching a civics class when a call comes in. Then he has to write a plan for a substitute teacher, go home, figure out what to do with his dogs, and pack, which all takes time.

Nelson recalls a skier calling for help because he lost a ski. “We’ll be there in five hours,” he recalls his team telling them. The team was looking at a three-hour drive, plus a three-hour skin just to reach the accident site. Unsurprisingly, the skier ended up figuring out how to get out on their own.

The last thing climbers should keep in mind is that in the United States, many mountain rescue teams are volunteers, just like the Chelan County Team. Compare that with the Canadian Rockies, where Nelson says many rescuers are paid pros.

“It would be a cool ethic if we could develop as climbers to donate 10 bucks to the rescue group where we’re climbing,” Nelson remarks. Whether you’re a visitor or it’s your local crag, support the team that might end up carrying you out one day.

Chelan County Mountain Rescue is a nonprofit volunteer organization based in Washington. You can support their work here. You can also support mountain rescue work for your go-to climbing area or destination you’re visiting by finding the local team via the Mountain Rescue Association.  

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