DENVER — The San Miguel Sheriff’s Office confirmed Tuesday a woman’s deadly fall while climbing the via ferrata in Telluride was due to an “unwitnessed misstep while the victim was unclipped.”
The Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call Thursday for a report of a woman who had fallen an estimated 200 feet. The 53-year-old woman from Tuscon, Arizona, was climbing with her friend when she slipped and fell.
The sheriff’s office said Tuesday that the investigation determined there were no hardware failures in the route’s infrastructure and no malfunctions in the victim’s equipment. She was unclipped from the system west of the “Main Event” when she fell.
“We once again offer our sincere condolences to the victim and her family,” the sheriff’s office said in a tweet. “The Via Ferrata is a wilderness route that requires experience and expertise to navigate safely and should be travelled on with due caution.”
