Jun 15, 2009 10:37 am US/Pacific
Bay Area Man Falls To His Death From Yosemite Dome
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
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Yosemite's Half Dome.
CBS5
Park rangers on Sunday identified a hiker who fell to his death from Yosemite's Half Dome as a Bay Area man.
Manoj Kumar, 40, who fell to his death Saturday, is from San Ramon in Contra Costa County, said Yosemite National Park Ranger Kari Cobb.
Kumar was using the cabled hand rails on his descent when he slipped and fell an estimated 100 feet about 3:40 p.m. as about 40 other hikers looked on, Cobb said.
Rain and intermittent hailstorms on Saturday had made the face of the granite monolith slippery.
"The weather was not ideal for the hike," Cobb said. "That definitely played a big part. It gets really slippery when it gets wet."
Rangers spent Saturday evening helping evacuate the other hikers from the summit and cables.
Cobb said Kumar's body was recovered late Sunday morning. The park was still investigating the cause of Kumar's fall.
The last person to fatally fall from Half Dome was a Japanese hiker in June 2007, who also slipped and fell from the cables -- which span about 400 feet up Half Dome.
It is one of the most popular hikes in Yosemite and is about a 17-mile roundtrip. Cobb said the experience of climbing Half Dome is "like hiking up a big, granite dome."
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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