Half Dome Cable Rescue 06/22/2012

how is every person in the comments related to either the hiker who fell or the hiker who saved the hiker who fell lol

The man is my brother-in-law. He was descending when someone above him dropped a cellphone or something. He tried to grab it and started sliding. He finally stopped the slide on some small toe hold. He couldn't move without sliding more; he was stuck. The quick thinking of the people there (which included his sister and some friends) and the heroic actions of James Williams saved his life.

That's my amazing husband!! HE IS A HERO!!! Thanks to his quick thinking, even under so much pressure, he was able to save a life. And thanks to the people down the mountain for helping. It wouldn't have been possible without such awesome teamwork.

The real hero is whoever stabilized this footage.

I am a family member of the man who saved this hiker. The hiker went off the trail to pick something up and slipped down the rock until he got caught there on his back in that crevice. (about an 8,000 ft drop below) My cousin took off running down the trail to find help while my cousin-in-law James Williams came up with this plan to use the cable as a rope by pulling each pole out and swinging it over. He could not swing the cable over by himself (these poles are very heavy and made of metal) so with the help of other hikers below, they were able to swing it over to the man so he could grab it and walk safely back. Film cred to my uncle

All of us in Terry's family are forever indebted to your husband, Andrea.

I take people up there all the time, and know how real the danger can be. This brought me to tears. Thank God for the goodness of others. Those people are heroes!

I've been climbing in Yosemite for years and have descended the cables numerous times. They are great and we generally come down on the outside to give more room to the hikers. But no one I climb with would leave the cables unroped regardless of what we dropped. The glacial polished granite in the valley can be very hard to read especially on descent. And it's sandy in places. It definitely deserves more respect than it is often afforded.

That guy was my ping pong coach back in high school. Wow glad he made it out alive

Its unsettling watching him slowly slide down and having to keep pushing himself up. Great job to the rescuer.

How brave and loving thing to do for someone, who is not your family. You are our hero here in Finland too. All the best for you and your family.

I know the man who was saved; we hiked HD 3 years running. He’s an experienced hiker who’s done this before & simply lost his grip on the cables. Ironically, the last year we went, he did the entire hike & then turned around to rescue members of his group who’d gotten disoriented. If you’ve done Half Dome, imagine finishing the hike & then going back up Vernal Falls & leading 2 people down in the dark. Heroism comes full circle! :) So glad you're okay, Terry, and special thanks to YOUR rescuers!

Thank you to all that helped in this amazing rescue. Our family cannot express the extent of our gratitude. My wife is glad she still has her brother.

That is some serious hero cred. God was with you both. My palms were sweating just watching this. 99% of people wouldn't have had the courage. Well done.

I’d like to thank that brave mans parents for raising a good man!

I’m related to the guy who fell. We make soaps out of bees wax and fermented yak piss. He was up there trying to give out free samples and accidentally stepped on a bar of soap and slipped. Thankfully the guy up top didn’t get a free sample so he saved my relative to get a free bar of soap. I’m forever thankful.

Dear Lord. I flew in the Navy…never had a fear of heights…..but I could not believe how my palms sweated watching this. In law enforcement, we used to say, a good day was any day when everyone “goes home”. This, thank God, turned out to be a “good day”. Whew.

I'm guessing it eventually happened, but at least in this clip I noticed the guy who was rescued seemed to thank everyone but the guy who actually risked his life to do so. You can see how taxing it was for him to do, because he tries to stand up at one point and just falls back down because his legs simply give out from the stress of being on them all that time during the rescue. I would have been wrapped around that dude in forever gratitude.

One of the most heroic things I have ever seen.

I've been in your shoes, and you never quiet get comfortable with being called hero, but there is no doubt you saved a man's life that day. I've also been up Half Dome and had someone above me drop a water bottle. If you've been there, you know how steep it is and how AMAZINGLY calm you'd have to be to come up with the plan to use the cables to rescue him, and how brave you'd have to be to step out on the face alone outside them... Wear your title proudly, hero.