American climber Balin Miller dies aged 23 while climbing El Capitan

Balin Miller climbs the "Croc’s Nose" route in Montana's Hyalite Canyon. (Dylan Miller/AP via CNN Newsource)

American climber Balin Miller has died at the age of 23 while climbing at Yosemite National Park, his mother confirmed on Thursday.

Miller was attempting to summit El Capitan, Yosemite’s iconic wall soaring 3,000 feet from the valley floor, via the “Sea of Dreams” route when the accident occurred, Jeanine Moorman – Miller’s mother – wrote in a blog post on the VIRR website, the family’s outdoor goods business.

“This is unthinkable,” Moorman wrote in tribute to her son. “At this time, we do not yet know all the details. What we do know is that the world has lost an extraordinary soul, and our hearts are shattered.”

Moorman went on to describe her son as having “a touch of Robin Williams’ wild energy. Strategic, curious, and endlessly playful, he brought light wherever he went.”

El Capitan is a popular destination for big-wall climbers, best known as the site of Alex Honnold’s Oscar-winning “Free Solo” documentary, during which Honnold scaled the rock face without ropes.

Miller had been hoping to lead a route at some point in Yosemite, Moorman said, having recently completed an ice and alpine climbing trip in his home state of Alaska.

A popular figure in the climbing community, Miller would live stream some of his climbs on TikTok and was affectionately known as “orange tent guy” due to his eye-catching camping equipment.

He would often wear silver glitter across his cheekbones during climbs, a look he likened to “a warrior putting makeup on before going into battle” in an interview with Climbing magazine earlier this year.

According to Moorman, Miller was introduced to rock climbing by his father at a young age. His early years in the sport were spent in the mountains of Alaska, before graduating to “cliffs and ranges across the world, living a nomadic life in pursuit of adventure,” Moorman said.

“Balin was full of life – a true wild card at heart,” she added. “He lived simply, often out of his silver Prius, scraping together a shoestring income to support his greatest passion: climbing.”

In June, Miller completed what is believed to be the first solo climb of the Slovak Direct route on Mount McKinley in Alaska, North America’s highest peak also known as Denali.

Miller’s death came on the first day of the federal government shutdown, with many national parks at risk of closing or having limited services available to visitors.

By George Ramsay, CNN