This story has depressed me all weekend. A tragic death, yes, but if this had been his 50th, he would be a legend. As it is, he missed his 50, and 48 too. I think a big cover story tribute in the newsletter is in order.
from NPS Morning Report
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Denali National Park & Preserve (AK)
Second Fatal Collapse In Three Days On Mt. McKinley
For the second time in a week, a mountaineer has collapsed and died while climbing Mt. McKinley. Pungkas Tri Baruno, 20, of Jakarta, Indonesia, was descending the West Buttress route on the night of July 7th when he collapsed about a quarter mile from the 17,200-foot high camp. Baruno’s guides began CPR and immediately called for assistance from another guided team at the high camp via family band radio. CPR was performed for over one hour, but efforts to revive Baruno were unsuccessful. Baruno was a client on a Mountain Trip expedition that began a West Buttress ascent on June 22nd. The team’s three clients were all members of a scouting group from Indonesia. Baruno, one of his teammates, and their two guides had reached the summit late in the afternoon of July 7th. The cause of death is unknown at this time. Baruno’s remains are currently in a protected and generally flat area outside of the 17,200-foot high camp. The National Park Service plans to recover the remains with the high altitude Lama helicopter when weather permits. [Submitted by Maureen McLaughlin, Information Officer]
I was up in Alaska last week, The Anchorage newspaper said the autopsy on the 20 year old Indosesian climber was inconclusive as to the cause of death.
By the way, the moosedropping festival is getting way to big. the parade spectaotors are one to two deep. Long lines at the food vendors. The worst part was all the partying kids at the camp ground driving quads around with open beer. I'll not go back to Talkeetna anytime soon. The best part was meeting a man named Pete outside Tom Waites Denali Dry goods store. He painte the Welcome to Talkeetna sign and said it was a joke at the time. He lived in the cabin there on the corner for 16 years. I proclaimed him the Grand Marshal of the parade. He road in Tom's Denali overland Checker limo.
George
(CNN) -- Eleven climbers died on Pakistan's K2 mountain after an ice avalanche knocked down a fixed rope climbers were using to reach the summit, a mountaineer at their base camp said Sunday.
Among the dead was a sherpa who had gone up K2 -- the world's second tallest mountain -- to help in rescue efforts, said mountaineer Fredrik Strang, who also assisted in the rescue attempts.
The deaths happened after 17 climbers, in different expeditions from around the world, had come together to make it to K2's peak on Friday, said Pat Falvey, a climber in Ireland who was in touch with some of the 17.
As the 17 were descending early Saturday, a "moving river of ice broke loose ... like an iceberg breaking loose from a glacier," knocking down the fixed rope the group had been using to move from higher reaches to a camp at a lower altitude, Falvey said.
Woman hiking in Washington fatally shot by boy hunting bear
August 3 2008, 5:44 PM
ROCKPORT, WA - A woman hiking on Sauk Mountain near Rockport was shot and killed Saturday morning by a boy who was hunting for a bear, Skagit County deputies said.
The 54-year-old woman, of Oso, Snohomish County, was hiking with a friend and stopped on the trail to put something in her backpack. The boy, who lives near Concrete, mistook the woman for a bear and fired one shot, according to the Skagit County Sheriff's Office.
After being alerted at about 10:30 a.m., search-and-rescue teams found the woman's body in steep terrain. The boy was accompanied by at least one adult, deputies said.
The Skagit County Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife are investigating.
Elkton, Maryland, Woman Dies In North Cascades Tragedy
August 7 2008, 10:11 AM
Dale Smith and Justin Mayo had driven only a couple of miles down the mountain last Monday when they heard a man's cries for help.
Through the darkness, they saw him poke his head out of a trail-side latrine. He was naked except for the toilet paper he had wrapped around his head and neck.
It was a bizarre chance encounter, and over the next few hours, Smith, Mayo and Seattle, Wash., police Officer Rob Brown, who had just finished a climb in the North Cascades, learned the man's tragic tale: A couple of days earlier, his wife had fallen 35 feet near Klawatti Peak. She died 24 hours later as a storm raged outside the tent her husband had pitched on top of a glacier. When the weather cleared, he went for help — and nearly drowned crossing the Cascade River.
CHAMONIX, France (AP) -- An avalanche swept down a major summit in the Mont Blanc range before dawn Sunday, leaving eight climbers missing and presumed dead along a trail often used to reach western Europe's highest peak.
RSS Feed For This Forum