Jake Whisenant, the record-setting Yosemite speed climber who died this month, suffered fatal blunt-force trauma during a climb. The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office coroner ruled that Whisenant’s Aug. 3 death was an accident after a witness saw him fall while climbing in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. According to TMZ, the witness said the fall led to instant death. Whisenant was an accomplished speed climber who tackled some of the country’s toughest routes. In October 2024, he and Brant Hysell set a new speed record on Yosemite’s famed Lurking Fear route on El Capitan, completing the climb in 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 32 seconds, according to Gripped. Their time surpassed the record held by Yuji Hirayama and Nick Fowler—just two days after Whisenant and Hysell completed an initial run on the same route in slightly more than four hours. Following his death, Whisenant’s longtime friend Bailee Moore paid tribute to him, writing on Instagram: “I will look for you in every life, my brother. Now go rest high up on that mountain.”
