At Least 1 Dead in Huge Slide at Yosemite

A massive rockslide in Yosemite Valley on Wednesday killed at least one person, injured several others and raised a thick cloud of dust hundreds of feet high that hampered rescue efforts and sent campers fleeing through the trees.

All of the park’s emergency personnel were at the scene and search crews were expected to be scouring the rubble for bodies throughout the night, said Nikyra Calcagno, a park spokeswoman.

“They’ve got dogs out there looking to see if there’s any more people,” said B.J. Griffin, superintendent of Yosemite National Park.

The seriously injured were being transported by helicopters to hospitals in the San Joaquin Valley, Calcagno said. Those who were less seriously injured were being treated at the park’s medical clinic.

About 7 p.m., a 200-foot section of granite cliff, at the edge of Glacier Point, suddenly crumbled. The rockslide tumbled about 3,000 feet to the valley below, its loud rumble audible to thousands of summer visitors. Park officials estimated that the slide was about half a mile wide.

The slide smashed into the Happy Isles area at the eastern end of the valley, at the terminus of the John Muir Trail and along a popular route to Vernal Fall. The area is closed vehicles except for the park shuttle service, but is crowded with hikers and visitors during the summer.

Falling trees destroyed a snack stand in the area. The Happy Isles Nature Center was not damaged.

“I was about a mile away when I heard this rumble . . . it was like an earthquake and all of a sudden I saw this smoke,” said Mary Vocelka, a part-time park employee. “There was so much dust that visibility was completely obscured.”

Yosemite is known for its dramatic topography--a deep valley surrounded by towering walls of granite. The slide occurred during the height of the summer camping season, Yosemite’s busiest time of year.

Brian Nadel of San Clemente and Jeremiah Rutherford of Huntington Beach were jogging past the Happy Isles Nature Center when “we saw what looked like the whole side of a cliff falling down,” Nadel said.

As the rocks tumbled down and trees crashed to the ground, a thick cloud of ash-colored dust made it impossible to see your hand in front of your face, Nadel said. People who later emerged from the slide area were coated head to toe in the dust.

“This whole valley is filled with dirt and dust,” Nadel said.

Harried park rangers set up roadblocks to the slide area and barked commands at each other. Unharmed campers looked for the injured. Nadel and Rutherford went back in the direction of the slide and found two teenage girls trapped under fallen trees.

“We got one of the girls out and there was another girl still trapped under the tree,” said Rutherford, who added that a park ranger arrived to help.

At the time of the slide, tourists were just finishing day hikes from Vernal and Nevada Falls, backpackers were coming back from overnight trips and campers in the valley were eating supper or preparing for nightfall.

At dusk, nerves were jangled further by what several observers said were two more loud slides, though not as severe as the initial one.

Falling trees are the biggest threat in a slide such as this, said Calcagno. “When this much rock comes down it creates a huge blast of air,” she said. “It’s enough of a blast to knock over numerous trees.”

She said the Happy Isles area is expected to be closed for three days. The rest of the park was operating normally.

“The park has an extensive search and rescue staff,” Calcagno said. “We have National Park Service staff and also highly trained people we can hire on an as-needed basis, such as top level mountain climbers.”

Yosemite visitors who hiked in the direction of the slide said they saw people being brought out on gurneys by emergency personnel.

Tourists said they were startled by the slide because the roar was so loud.

“We got hit hard by the Northridge earthquake and this was 1,000 times louder,” said Michele Buttleman of Santa Clarita, who was with her husband and family in the Upper Pines campground when the slide occurred.

Buttleman said she watched in amazement as giant boulders rumbled off a rock wall in the distance and came shooting a half-mile away through a stand of trees that faced her campsite.

“My knees are still shaking,” she said in a cellular phone conversation from her campsite about 45 minutes after the slide.

A woman in her 20s in critical condition was taken by helicopter from Yosemite to Doctors Medical Center in Modesto where she was in surgery. Hospital spokeswoman Catherine Claassen said the facility’s helicopter was flying supplies to the Yosemite Medical Clinic.

Times staff writer Mark Arax reported from Yosemite National Park; Corwin and Hall from Los Angeles.