BAD ENDS: The best of the worst from Over the Edge and Off the Wall

At Yosemite...

Pomposo Merino, age unknown
July 23, 1883
A sheep camp ten miles above Little Yosemite Valley
Merino, a shepherd from Mexico, was in the midst of telling fellow shepherd Henry Montijo about seeing a man knock away a pistol during a brawl. To demonstrate, he pointed his own loaded pistol at his head and struck it away. The pistol went off, killing Merino.

William L. Gooch, 22
May 19, 1976
Ledge Trail to Glacier Point
Hiking solo, Gooch scrambled down the Ledge Trail, which was officially closed and posted with a sign reading DANGER! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FOLLOW THIS ABANDONED TRAIL. Shortly after heading out, he detoured off-trail to fill his water bottle and slipped. Witnesses saw him sliding down a wet slab and heard him mutter, "Oh, shit!" as he fatally plunged 600 feet.

Sonia Janet Goldstein, 33; Richard Russell Mughir, 29
August 17, 1985
Glacier Point
At 7:45 a.m., two witnesses saw Goldstein's body plummeting down the face of Glacier Point. Minutes later, they observed Mughir posing on the ledge with his arms open in a come-to-Jesus posture. According to investigators, who interviewed Mughir's therapist, the psychologically unstable Mughir apparently had convinced Goldstein, his girlfriend, to join him in a suicide pact in which he stabbed her to death atop Glacier Point, tossed her over the side, then followed by jumping off the precipice himself.

Jan Davis, 58
October 22, 1999
El Capitan
Davis, a professional stuntwoman, jumped off El Cap to protest the National Park Service's ban on BASE jumping in the park. Davis failed to deploy her chute in time and crashed into Yosemite Valley in front of 150 onlookers.

Vladimir Boutkovski, 24
August 17, 2001
Northwest Face, Half Dome
At 6:30 a.m., three climbers at the base of Half Dome heard a whoosh and saw a man falling in a skydiving position before slamming into the ground headfirst. Boutkovski, a Russian immigrant, had been studying the teachings of Carlos Castaneda. According to a report by an NPS investigator, a subsequent interview with one of Boutkovski's friends revealed that the young man's belief in "magic and mysticism" had led him to conclude that the jump would "free him from the bounds of earth."

Joseph E. Crowe, 25
December 29, 2002
Zodiac route, El Capitan
Crowe was attempting to do a solo winter climb of an 1,800-foot route on El Capitan. During a snowstorm, he tried to rappel down, but his rope came up short. He froze to death, just 25 feet from the bottom.