LITTLE COTTONWOOD CANYON – A University of Utah student fell to his death Wednesday while rock climbing.
Geoffrey A. Despain, 24, and a friend were in a popular climbing area known as Five Fingers at Little Cottonwood Canyon’s Gate Buttress area when the accident occurred about 1:30 p.m.
A man and his wife visiting Utah from Connecticut had stopped to look at the 12–14 hikers in the area and witnessed the incident. John Russell said he was particularly concentrating on a pair of hikers as he watched through his binoculars.
“All of a sudden he was trying to move from one spot to another and it didn’t look like there was much to hold on to. Apparently there wasn’t and he just fell,” Russell said.
We were kind of detached. It was like watching it on television in a way because it was so far away.
Hikers yelled for the couple to call 911 and the Russells sped down the canyon to a pay phone and called for paramedics.
“He was doing some technical climbing. That is a technical climbing area,” said Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. Lee Smith. The victim was using climbing equipment and had apparently just untied himself when he lost his grip and fell.
“I’d say it was a good 100 feet freefall,” Smith said. “When the first medical people arrived, they said it was an obvious fatal.”