Today’s Algae-Covered Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The “photo-op-gone-fatal” is a common manner of death by misadventure in Yosemite National Park. Take, for example, 24-year-old Louis Kitzes on June 16, 1934, and 31-year-old Albert Alan Muff on June 17, 1944. Kitzes of San Francisco had waded into the Merced River with four friends then jumped onto a rock at the brink of Nevada Fall to pose for a photo. He slipped off the boulder and fell into the river. It instantly swept him over the 594-foot waterfall. His body was found nine days later.
Oakland Tribune Account of Kitzes’ Fall
(Who knew he was buddies with Al Pacino?
Also, who knew Al Pacino was this old?)
Nevada Fall. Don’t pose for that photo. Just Don’t!
After Kitzes’ demise the next fatal photo episode occurred in 1943 when Albert Muff left Los Angeles and went scrambling off-trail at the head of Snow Creek Falls. Here the 31-year-old man scuttled about seeking a position from which to take the perfect picture. Muff slipped on the wet, algae-covered rocks into the turbulent waters of Snow Creek and shot 100 feet over the fall. He disappeared for two months. His remains were finally located by accident, trapped under a rock in a deep pool at the bottom.
Snow Creek Falls. I said DON’T!
Culled from: Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite