Kaaterskill Falls accident

One man is in critical condition after a fall from the top of Kaaterskill Falls near Hunter Mountain.

Rescue workers said he slipped and fell about 80 feet, landing on rocks at the bottom of the falls.


http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=138657

There is an update to the story from the Capital News 9 website. The update now mentions the fall was about 60'. Most likely the fall was at the lower Kaaterskill Falls which is 85' high. The upper falls is 175' high. The video only shows Bastion Falls which is at the hairpin turn on Route 23A, but perhaps that is the closest the camera crew was allowed to go.

The story mentions this is the fourth accident at the falls (3 falls, 1 drowning). There are web links to the two prior falls on the above Capital News 9 web story. They were also discussed on VFTT.

• 1/4/04 fall at the 85' lower falls
• 10/15/04 fall from the 175' upper falls

To my knowledge there has been no drownings at the Kaaterskill Falls in the last two years. I believe that the reference is to the
8/3/03 drowning at Fawn's Leap. Fawn's Leap is about 1 mile downstream from Bastion Falls, directly at a bridge over the creek.

The Kaaterskill Falls and the other falls in the Kaaterskill Clove are all very scenic, but all potentially very dangerous. Fortunately the three recent falls have all been survivable, thanks in no small part to some remarkable rescue efforts.

When I was on top of Giant on Sunday talking to the summit steward the report of this came through her DEC radio. This spurred a discussion of the dangers of that area. Come to think of it, neither one of us thought it was unusual since accidents are so common there. That's sort of disturbing.

Matt

I dread the day when the pave the trail there and install 10foot spiked wire gates around the falls...

With all the reports I hear about the accidents and how crowded it can get in the summer, I wonder how long will it be?

Jay

About a month ago I was at the top of the falls and just as we were ready to leave a middle aged woman approached us and asked if there was any other way to get back to the bottom of the falls. She had just bushwacked up the east embankment of the falls. She said "it was too steep to try to get back down" We told here the only otherway down was to hike back to Scutt Rd. and get a ride. With people doing stupid things like that, it is no wonder that there is an accident almost every year at this location.

Will this (Kaaterskill Falls) become the T-Lake Falls of the Catskills?

G.

imarchant said:

About a month ago I was at the top of the falls and just as we were ready to leave a middle aged woman approached us and asked if there was any other way to get back to the bottom of the falls. She had just bushwacked up the east embankment of the falls. She said "it was too steep to try to get back down" We told here the only otherway down was to hike back to Scutt Rd. and get a ride. With people doing stupid things like that, it is no wonder that there is an accident almost every year at this location.

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It is steep, but the further around you go, the easier it becomes. Of course, this will just contribute to the erosion. They need to put in a stone stair case there, or re-route the trail.

I dread the day when the pave the trail there and install 10foot spiked wire gates around the falls...

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This area is very accessible to people who don’t seem to understand that this is not Disneyworld and the conditions are barely improved from what nature provided.
I don't know the story behind it, but there is a engraved stone bench about 100ft from the top of the falls in memory of a young woman – I imagine she was a victim of an accident. On more than a few occasions I have seen people refer to the bench and likelihood of it being an accident at the falls, then proceed to do some boneheaded maneuver near the edge of the falls.

Jim

Tom Rankin said:

It is steep, but the further around you go, the easier it becomes. Of course, this will just contribute to the erosion. They need to put in a stone stair case there, or re-route the trail.

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There is no trail there, the Escarpment trail used to decend somewhere in that vacinty, but was relocated (due to erosion and limited parking) to it's present trailhead on Scutt Rd.

I'm curious

as to why the local newspaper spells it differently (Catterskill). Seems weird. I've always seen it spelled the old Dutch way.

imarchant said:

There is no trail there, the Escarpment trail used to decend somewhere in that vacinty, but was relocated (due to erosion and limited parking) to it's present trailhead on Scutt Rd.

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You are correct. What I meant was they need to create a safe way up the hill for people who are coming up from the hair pin turn.

jjmcgo said:

I am curious as to why the local newspaper spells it differently (Catterskill). Seems weird. I've always seen it spelled the old Dutch way.

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The original CapitalNews9 story spelled it Catterskill, but that was corrected in the update to Kaaterskill. It is a name often misspelled. Kaaterskill is the name that you will find on the USGS maps and is the generally accepted spelling. However, there is also a Cauterskill Road in the valley below, and the artist Thomas Cole wrote a short poem titled "The Falls of the Cauterskill in Winter". The origin is a bit of a mystery. Kaaterskill is generally considered to be a poetized variation of Catskill. The Kaaterskill is a tributary of the Catskill Creek. Kill is Dutch for stream or creek. Kat is Dutch for cat, but the plural is either katte or katten (not kats or kaat). Some have hypothesized that the Catskill might have been named for the Dutch poet Jacob Cats (1577-1660) or someone named Katz. But there is no evidence of either. There is a current regional magazine with the name Kaatskill Life, showing that people continue to exercise poetic license today.