buttress

As the late September sun set on the East Buttress of Mt.

The Whitney climbers set out from the base of the mountain at 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 21 with plans to summit via the East Buttress route, which includes 11 pitches, according to the incident report.

The pair started their ascent of the East Buttress around 10 a.m., but five hours later had only reached the top of the third pitch.

A rescue team was brought part of the way up the mountain by helicopter the next morning and climbed the East Buttress to perform the rescue.

But the moderators’ velvet-gloved handling of fact-checking, couched as clarification, was not enough to buttress the event’s anemic utility.