‘Her smile was contagious’: California climber falls to death at Red Rock

Rock climbing was not just a passion for Micah Manalese, it was her life, according to her friend, Rea Wehner.

On Saturday, the sport took her life.

Carey De Luca was on her way down the Cat in the Hat climbing route in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area with her husband and another couple on Saturday when she heard what she described as not quite a scream, but sounds of shock from a woman’s voice. She saw a headlamp fall and a couple of thuds, and thought a big boulder fell. But after screaming across the canyon asking if everyone was OK, a man responded: “No. Really bad.”

Manalese, 30, was rappelling down the Community Pillar route when she fell to her death, according to the Metropolitan Police Department Search and Rescue Unit. The cause was multiple blunt force injuries in an accident, the Clark County coroner’s office said.

Contagious smile

Wehner was on the way to Utah to climb when she heard the news of her friend’s death. The two women had spent most days over the past six years at Sender One, their local climbing gym in Orange County, Calif.

“Micah was full of life, very brave and fearless, a true daredevil. She had a way of bringing smiles to everyone around her and was the kindest friend that anyone could ask for,” Wehner said. “She was full of happiness. Whenever you saw her, she was always smiling. Her smile was contagious.”

Manalese, a member of the gym since 2014, was more advanced than Wehner, but the two would talk for hours and encourage each other before climbs.

Two search and rescue missions

De Luca, 44, of Yucca Valley, Calif., and her group were themselves waiting for search and rescue when they had witnessed the scene. The group had gotten their ropes stuck on the route, which she and other climbers said was notorious for getting ropes stuck. After hours of searching for solutions, the group called search and rescue with the goal of getting help rappelling down.

But their plan shifted when they heard Manalese’s fall while waiting on the ledge, and they called search and rescue back about the scene they had just witnessed, telling them to help the others first. The group was airlifted out instead so that the search and rescue team could reallocate their resources to Manalese’s fall and help her climbing partner, who police said was uninjured.

“The original plan was to assist them in rappelling the route just in case any other problems occurred, but unfortunately the incident occurred across the canyon,” Metro search and rescue wrote on Instagram. “That was a tragic event to witness for anyone involved all on its own let alone continuing to need to continue a descent.”

Though traumatic, De Luca said, it feels as though there was a reason her group was there. They were the only ones with a direct view to the accident, which was parallel to them, and were able to communicate directly with search and rescue.

“We know if we had not been there, that guy would have been there by himself,” De Luca said.

Renewed safety concerns

Neither De Luca nor Wehner knew what the cause of Manalese’s fall was but said it was a reminder about safety in climbing, especially when it comes to checking gear.

“We’ve all known someone that has died climbing,” De Luca said. “I haven’t experienced a climbing accident like that in person.”

Although Manalese was a skilled climber with experience climbing difficult routes graded 5.11 and 5.12, she was new to “trad climbing,” in which the climber places their own gear into the rocks. That sort of climbing is more dangerous, as it is easier for the gear to fall out, Wehner said.

Her friend’s death came as a reminder for climbing partners to look out for each other, Wehner said. She also said that studying the route can help prevent accidents and that it is important to check the knots on the rope and all of the gear.

“It is essential to do a safety check,” Wehner said. “Don’t leave the last person without being checked. That’s a life that’s at risk.”

De Luca, who has been climbing for over 20 years, said that she never climbs with someone who does not bring both grigri and air traffic control belay devices, which are both useful.

She worried that with so many people climbing at indoor gyms, they were not learning about the proper gear.

“I would just like to see more teaching of these things and value of these things,” De Luca said.

Climbing community comes together

In the days since Manalese’s death, online climbing groups have been flooded with discussions about the accident. After a post on Facebook asking for help retrieving the ropes, climbers Ahn Ta and Christopher Towers retrieved the ropes on Tuesday.

“The entire Vegas and SoCal community is saddened by this,” Ta wrote in a message to the Review-Journal.

Upon returning home to Orange County, Wehner plans to hold a memorial at the gym.

“I will miss her more than words can express. I’ll always love her beyond measure,” Wehner said.

A previous version of this story misidentified Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.