Incredibly sad to hear. As RG said I think this is the most tragic climbing accident I've heard of. An TR anchor should never fail, even the worst of them.

Thoughts to her friends and family for what is a terribly tragic time.

This accident is truly tragic, and hard to fathom, considering the preventability. The victim likely didn't think she was taking any serious risk on TR, and trusted her party. I cannot imagine the grief her family is facing, amid the lack of answers or reasons for their loss.
The widespread media coverage will reinforce misconceptions in the public eye regarding climbing safety, unfortunately, and the extreme rarity of a TR failure may not be conveyed.
There are plenty of subtle reminders such as near misses and minor injuries to force safety to the forefront of the community. A needless, preventable death such as this is beyond explanation.

It's often misleading when the press says it was due to a "failure in her safety equipment". Statements such as this make non-climbers even more suspicious of the sanity of our sport. In almost all but the rarest cases, it's usually a failure in the usage of the safety equipment, not the equipment itself.

Wow... What a horrible thing.

Whoever setup that anchor probably is going to need a lot of help getting through this. Take care of yourselves.

There are no words to express how sad this makes me feel. My condolence to her family and friends.

Be careful out there, everyone, accidents happen very fast...

Horrible to hear this. As a few others have said this is the worst accident I can think of. Condolences and strength to all involved.

I saw this today: splice in webbing reportedly cause of accident

Anyone know if there's anything to this rumor?

GO

I don't know where Mr Weber would have go that information. it is a possibility since that is how webbing sometimes ends up on the roll but since no one has an official cause yet he is just guessing?

There is nothing but pure speculation everywhere on this terrible accident. Each forum is reporting something different, and in person, people are saying totally conflicting things as well.

That is the first I'm hearing of anything relating to a splice.

I'm from the same community as Stephanie and my dad was at synagogue with a friend who was actually at the Shiva (the 7 days of mourning held after the death of a jew) at the Prezant household. This individual reports that the discussion at the house revolved around an entirely different cause of the fall - not related to an equipment failure at all. However, it's a safe guess that this individual, along with those who were at the Shiva are not climbers and have a poor understanding of the mechanics of our sport.

On top of that, I am friends with Stephanie's cousin. He is an accomplished boulderer and sport climber. He reported to me yesterday that as far as he heard, the fall was the result of yet ANOTHER form of error, and again, not relating to an equipment failure.

I will not publicly disclose the nature of either of these scenarios because they are pure guesses and the last thing I intend to do is fuel the rumor mill. However, it's patently clear that no one anywhere actually knows what happened.

I think it's appropriate that we all stop speculating on this one. By carrying on, all we're doing is besmirching the names of those she was with or the manufacturers of the gear that was in use when her death may in fact be faultless and truly a freak accident.

I don't see how that could be true, since it was reported by an eye witness that someone had lowered down prior to Stephanie. Hard to imagine that a taped splice could hold someones weight even once.

Although, it's also hard for me to imagine someone not seeing a taped splice and having it fail - but apparently it has happened.