Who: 31-year-old Elyse Colvin, a nurse from Portland
Where: Mt. Hood, Oregon
Her mistake: Just some bad luck.
What happened: A woman and her husband were climbing Mount Hood in the same area where another climber was hit by falling ice earlier this week.
When the couple reached the 10,000 foot mark on the mountain, a basketball-sized chunk of ice broke free and struck the woman in the face. She tumbled 400 feet down the mountainside. Other climbers who witnessed the accident immediately called 911 while the husband descended and began first aid. Unfortunately it was too late and realized his wife was dead.
The husband continued his descent and met with a search and rescue party. The husband was brought back to a lodge and declined medical attention. Recovery teams used a snow cat to recover his wife’s body.
Both the husband and wife were experienced climbers who moved to the area shortly before they were married in 2007.
Temperatures inversions are blamed for both ice accidents this week. Because of clear weather, temperatures on the mountain are warmer near the summit. The warming temps are causing ice to fall which injured both climbers this week.
Read the story here.
That is so sad.
That’s one of the more horrible stories you’ve posted.
Ditto HemlockMan. I was going to say the exact same thing. The thought of having to witness a spouse’s death is really horrible. He’ll live with those images for the rest of his life.
One of the questions about mountaineering is how dangerous is it? What are the chances one can get hurt? I think it’s fair to say in this case, with no desire to rub salt in the terrible wound this husband has received, that this ascent was riskier than others.
Mt. Hood claims many victims because it is so often climbed. Some accidents are influenced by strangers to the mountain unfamiliar with just how dangerous this relatively low peak can be. Some have to do with climbers tackling Hood’s more dangerous routes.
In this case the climbers were experienced and they were climbing one of the easiest routes to the summit. Accidents can happen any time, but this one happened just a couple of days after another very experienced local climber was injured after being hit by falling ice in the same spot (the chute caled the Pearly Gates, just below the summit). The conditions that caused unusually unstable ice continued after the first accident.
Bearing that in mind, perhaps these climbers should have waited until conditioned had changed.
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