That's awful! I wonder if rain was a factor.
.... So much for Half Dome permits making the cables safer.
My understanding is that it was indeed raining at the time. There was also a comment by a person on the cables at the time that "a girl" threw her hands up due to a static shock from the cables. He didn't say that she was the one to fall though. There was also lighting at the time.
I don't know the physics but it seems to me that an active cell that might not produce a lighting strike when the distance to a valley floor is 5000' might readily discharge when passing near Half Dome or Clouds Rest. Mt. Whitney too.
