I was a little concerned at Sunset a few weeks ago. There were about 100 people where I was and I worried for my 27 year old daughter that someone might bump her over. she is very coordinated like I am but all it takes is someone bumping you and you are gone in situations like this. I used to be a Rock Climber and lost a friend that was free climbing at Castle Crags near Mt. Shasta in the 1970s. So, I don't take for granted being safe near a drop off. I almost didn't go to Shaman's Cave near Sedona because there was at least 130 feet of exposure and I questioned whether I had the coordination and concentration to walk the 10 most dangerous feet sideways with 130 feet of exposure. I would have to do a barefoot, red sandstone back to the wall traverse sideways with no handholds. And I'm 68 now and used to be a rock climber with ropes and pitons with friends in the 1960s and 1970s. But, after almost dying from a heart virus and last year a burst appendix I questioned seriously the wisdom of doing this. However, my daughter talked me through it and I did this 4 times before I was done. But, the initial time scared me pretty bad until I realized I actually still had the coordination and skill to do this kind of move without dying at age 68.
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http://www.ksbw.com/article/woman-dies-after-misstep-at-grand-canyon/1297597
Woman dies after misstep at Grand Canyon
Updated: 1:09 PM PDT Jul 12, 2016
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A few hours before she died, Colleen Burns uploaded this photo on Instagram of herself at the Grand Canyon.
SOURCE: Colleen Burns / Instagram
Officials say 35-year-old Colleen Burns of Orlando fell at Ooh Aah Point on Friday, about a mile down the popular South Kaibab Trail.
Park rangers found her body 400 feet below.
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Jessica Roman, who was vacationing with Burns and another friend, said they had just taken a photo at Ooh Aah Point and were switching out with another group when Burns fell.
"She was stepping out of the way for another gentleman to kind of squeeze in, and unfortunately, Colleen kind of got tripped up on her own feet and fell backwards, fell into the canyon," Roman said. "That was the longest, strangest, craziest two seconds of my life."
Burns uploaded a photo on Instagram of herself sitting on a cliff's edge while gazing at the Grand Canyon a few hours before she fell.
The National Park Service and the Coconino County medical examiner are conducting the investigation into her death.
Burns died two weeks after a California man, 23-year-old Jamison Whittaker, fell to his death at the national park. Whittaker fell several hundred feet from Mather Point.
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