Posted on 09/05/2022 3:42:39 PM PDT by BenLurkin
First responders received a call just before 8 a.m. from a man who was part of a hiking party that saw the woman fall what he believed was 1,500 to 2,000 feet from below the summit into Pierre Lakes Basin, the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office said.
The witness said that the woman had fallen after a rock she was trying to hold onto gave way, according to the sheriff’s office.
Officials described the area as "treacherous," with "loose, rotting terrain" that can create unstable and dangerous conditions that can lead to serious injury or death.
Rescuers learned of the woman’s location and estimated she had fallen about 900 feet into Pierre Lakes Basin from the route that connects the knife edge to the Capitol Peak summit.
Her body was airlifted from the area...
The woman, who witnesses say was solo hiking, was from Denver, the sheriff’s office said. Her name was not immediately released pending the notification of her next of kin...
Capitol Peak has an elevation of 14,137 feet and is considered one of the state’s most challenging mountains to climb due to its extreme conditions.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
smart choice...
Looking at the photo in #14, I don’t think it was a 900-foot free fall without touching anything. Likely tumbling/rolling, which would be even worse, I think. RIP.
Amen
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I once fell 30 over the side of a cliff.
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I fell from a 40 foot ladder. Not to worry though, I was only on the first rung.
But you did take that step.
.
Climbing alone is beyond stupid
My son and a group of his friends used to camp out together and hike some of the lesser peaks- like Holy Cross but one year they were hiking near Crestone Peak (not trying to climb it) when they came across a guy who had fallen several hundred feet when his feet slipped on a patch of ice. My son said he had never seen a person so broken. They gave him CPR for hours until the helicopter arrived to take him out. He was dead before they got him in the helicopter.
Now my son and his friends just go out to dinner together or something. It was a gut punch to all of them (especially thinking of their wives and children at home)
“She apparently was holding a rock that gave way,”
The stuff of nightmares, right there.
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