My husband and I are far from athletic. Two book lovers obsessed with fantasy and respectively into video games and crafting, we had always thought our kids would be mini nerds like us. But my son was able to catch and throw a ball impressively by 2, and he was obsessed with baseball by 5. Since then, he’s shown a penchant for a myriad of sports, and I’m so excited he’s so passionate about something so positive. Although I lack the talent to keep up with him in that arena, I try — and more importantly, I support and encourage.
For Jeanine Girard-Moorman, supporting her adventurous and summit-loving son Balin Miller, 23, was a natural, too. Her entire world shattered, however, when she got the call that her young son fell to his death during an accident while scaling Yosemite National Park’s iconic El Capitan.
“It is with a heavy heart I have to tell you my incredible son Balin Miller died during a climbing accident today,” the devastated mom wrote on Facebook on October 2, 2025. “My heart is shattered in a million pieces. I don’t know how I will get through this… I love him so much. I want to wake up from this horrible nightmare.”
Miller, who made a name for himself in the climbing community, was reportedly the third person to die in the California park this year, according to CBS 13. The mountain is a popular one for climbers and sits as a scalable granite rock wall approximately 3,000 feet tall.
According to LADbible, photographer Tom Evans recounted that Miller was grabbing the rest of his gear when his bag became stuck. He went down his lead line to remove it, but his rope was too short to reach the bag by “many feet,” and he was unaware of that. On the way down, he rappelled off of his rope and ultimately plummeted to his death.
Despite being so young, Miller was already an accomplished climber. The Guardian noted that he had scaled some of the “world’s most formidable peaks,” including the West Buttress of Denali in Alaska, as well as Mount Hunter and Cerro Torre in Patagonia. He began climbing with his father when he was 3, and by 12, he had started ice climbing.
“For those of you who only knew him as a climber … he was so much more,” his heartbroken mother shared on Facebook.
“He had a heck of a personality, he could do physics with little effort, he was kind, loved animals, and was an incredible athlete,” she continued. “It was never about money for him, as he lived on a shoestring budget out of his silver Prius. He said how he felt most alive when he climbed.”
