Balin Miller, age 23, who was an Alaskan climber, marked the third death at Yosemite National Park, on October 1st. The three deaths all occurred in different ways, the first incident of this year was in June of 2025, an 18 year old from Texas, Grant Cline, died while climbing without a rope. The second incident was in August, a 29 year old woman, Angela Lin, died from a tree branch falling on her head during a hike. Bailin was the most recent as he passed October 1st 2025, falling to his death while climbing.
Balin was an amazing climber;he had been climbing since he was a little boy. “He said he felt most alive when he was climbing,” Dylan Miller, Balin’s older brother said. A loving quote from Dylan about Bailin stated “I’m his bigger brother but he was my mentor.” Balin was an experienced and successful climber. Miller completed the first solo ascent of Mt McKinley taking him 56 hours to complete (nationalparktraveler.org). This gave Balin a boost of fame on social media platforms. He often streamed his rock climbing adventures on tiktok to thousands of his fans. Balin was live streaming part of his climb on El Captain 2 days prior to his death (people.com).
Balin Miller fell from El Capitan, a popular vertical rock, in Yosemite National Park. Standing at 3,000 ft tall, this rock is famous among rock climbers around the world. The park services say “More than 100 climbing accidents happen every year” (npr.org). Miller, knowing about these deaths, continued to take on this challenge. Wednesday October 1st, Balin was lead rope soloing – a technique used during solo climbing where there is an anchor at the bottom instead of a person, allowing them to ascend by themselves- when the incident occurred. Eric, a livestreamer was cheering on and filming Balin at this time. “Everone was cheering for him and wanted to see him summit. It was when he was almost on the top that it seemed his bag got stuck, he tried to fix it but rappelled off the rope”(Eric)(climbing.com).
His mother confirmed his death early October 2nd, on her blog, virrgetoutdoors.com, for their family outdoor business. Balin’s mother, Moorman wrote in her blog “This is unthinkable, we don’t know all the details but we do know that the world lost an extraordinary soul, and all our hearts are shattered” (cnn.com). Rest in peace Balin Miller.
