News from Burning Man

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Woman falls from tall, climbable Burning Man art
By Ashley Harrell, California Parks Contributing EditorUpdated Sep 2, 2024 12:21 p.m.

A woman who fell from a tall art installation at Burning Man on Aug. 31 required ambulance transport. 
Ashley Harrell/SFGATE

LATEST Sept. 2, 11:50 a.m. Rachael Gingery, the Burning Man attendee who fell from an art piece resembling a sinking ship, has reached out to SFGATE to provide an update on her condition. Just before 6 a.m. on Saturday, Gingery climbed the wooden planks suspended on steel cables to the installation’s tilting crow’s nest, which sat atop a slanting pole that festival attendees could slide down.

After losing her grip on the pole and falling, Gingery was transported by ambulance to Burning Man’s clinic, Rampart, where staff performed x-rays and ultrasounds, she wrote to SFGATE. (She later wrote on Facebook that the fall was about 20 feet.) After the clinic visit, advanced imaging was deemed necessary, so Gingery was then transported by ambulance to Reno, she continued. There, CT scans determined that she fractured her spine and a rib, and sustained bruises to a few internal organs. She is expected to make a full recovery.
Burners climb Naga & the Captainess, a popular Burning Man art installation on the playa this year.


“We do not blame the art or artists in any way,” wrote Gingery, who is based in San Francisco, according to her social media profiles. “We understand the risks we take at Burning Man and are grateful to the artists for bringing their art. We will 100% be out there again next year!”

Several Burners (including this reporter) watched as a medical team assisted the woman, who was lying beneath the crow’s nest feature of an art piece that appears to be a giant ship sinking into the desert. The woman was conscious but not moving much, and after performing an assessment, medics loaded her onto a gurney and into an ambulance.
Burning Man officials didn’t immediately return a request for a comment on the woman’s condition.
An unidentified man who said he worked on the art piece told SFGATE that the woman is the first person to fall from the tilting crow’s nest, which appeared to be about 40 feet high. Burners can reach the top on sets of wooden slats suspended from slanting steel cables, and can slide down a leaning pole in the center.
The art piece, called Naga & the Captainess, is one of the prized sculptures at this year’s event. Located in deep playa, it features not only the sinking parts of a ship but also a sea serpent and interactive treasure chests, cargo crates and wine barrels. Created by three female Bay Area artists and constructed by more than 150 volunteers, the piece was chosen for a 2024 Burning Man Honorarium Award, which helped fund 76 projects on the playa this year.
Every year, there are several art pieces designed for climbing, and falls are not uncommon. In 2018, one of the most popular installations — a 60-foot stack of seven junked cars topped with an RV trailer and flamethrowers — was closed following a fall. When injuries requiring urgent medical care occur, medevac provider Care Flight airlifts attendees off the playa.
Before the event began, Care Flight director of operations Vanessa Coyle estimated that between 30 and 40 Burners would likely require medical transports this year.

What a dumb way to go...