An Israeli teen who fell 600 feet to his death in Yosemite National Park in September was dangling from a steep ledge and posing for a picture when he suddenly lost his grip before several horrified tourists, according to a new report.
Tomer Frankfurter, 18, of Jerusalem, was visiting a family friend in Fresno, California, for several weeks last fall before he planned to return home and start his service with the Israeli army. But Frankfurter and his friend got separated after arriving at the nearly 1,200-square-mile park, leading him to join another group of tourists from Israel, Germany and other countries to trek along the strenuous, 5.4-mile Mist Trail above the 594-foot Nevada Fall, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
After eating lunch at what’s billed on Yosemite’s website as a “thunderous waterfall,” Frankfurter and his newfound companions were getting ready to leave Nevada Fall when he had a last-minute idea: He wanted a daring picture of himself.
So Frankfurter tossed off his orange backpack and gave his phone to a young woman in the group before starting to climb over the cliff’s edge. He ignored several hikers, who told him to stop, and within seconds, he was hanging hundreds of feet above steep, rocky terrain below.
The woman tasked to capture Frankfurter’s risky maneuver, meanwhile, took several photos, according to details of the fatal Sept. 4 accident obtained by the newspaper via a Freedom of Information Act request.
“I need help,” Frankfurter suddenly said, causing several in the group to grab his arms and wrists.
The other hikers, strangers just a short time ago, were now straining to pull Frankfurter back onto the trail, but the teen’s arms were slick with sweat, and the teen slipped away to his death in an accident that “he was entirely in control of until the point of the fall,” according to a report written by a Yosemite park ranger.
“The witnesses that attempted to render aid were heroic in their actions,” the ranger wrote. “But once Frankfurter descended to hang from the edge of the cliff face, there was nothing they could have done to prevent his fall with the equipment available.”
Frankfurter told the group that he wanted to replicate a popular photo on social media platforms, especially Instagram, of hikers hanging from a rock outcropping in Brazil called Telegraph Rock near Rio de Janeiro. That rock, however, is just feet above a nearby trail, unlike the formidable Nevada Fall in Yosemite.
“I thought he was joking,” one witness told investigators of Frankfurter. “I turned around because I couldn’t watch, but he was hanging off the rock. Then he started to struggle.”
Another witness said they heard someone scream, “Come quickly, everyone hurry!”
“Help! We need help,” another person in the group screamed as three others tried unsuccessfully to pull Frankfurter to safety. “But he just couldn’t hang on anymore.”
Frankfurter died instantly on impact near the Merced River below, according to the report. He’s one of at least 1,004 people who have died at the park since 1851, including more than 300 who died in falls, according to Michael Ghiglieri, co-author of “Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite.”
Ghiglieri said Frankfurter’s death appears to be part of a “selfie epidemic” now plaguing travelers, especially the younger crowd.
“Today people are trying to prove that they did something,” Ghiglieri told the newspaper. “In the old days people went out to have an experience. Now they go out to record that they had that experience.”
Ghiglieri said most people recognize that risking their lives for a photo just doesn’t make sense.
“Some people — and it’s almost always guys — recognize it’s dangerous, but they don’t internalize it as dangerous,” he told the newspaper. “They perceive it like a Hollywood movie set. It’s a disconnect.”
Ghiglieri called on national parks to consider updating safety guidelines, perhaps with warnings that selfies aren’t worth a potentially fatal fall. But that’s not currently in the works, according to Yosemite officials.
“We post signs in some areas, at top of Mist Trail, for example, warning people to stay away from the edge,” Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told the San Jose Mercury News. “And, of course, we have safety messages in our park newspaper and on the website. However, we don’t have anything specific about taking photos on the edges of cliffs.”
Short of daunting warning signs, Ghiglieri said strangers should use common sense the next time they get a request to become an amateur photographer from a daring hiker or adventurist.
“In a common-sense way, many of these accidents could not happen with that assistance,” Ghiglieri said.