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[pct-l] FW: Hiker killed on Whitney



The story is found at:

 http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/hiker19.htm

Rich

Here it is also for the archives as the links have a habit of going dead..

A fatal misstep on icy
                              Sierra peak

                              Adventurer died after scaling Mount Whitney

                              BY S.L. WYKES
                              Mercury News

                              Keira Maiden's faith in her father was so
strong she didn't
                              worry when he failed to return on time from a
solo climb on
                              his 50th birthday to the top of Mount
Whitney, the tallest
                              peak in the contiguous 48 states.

                              Glenn Maiden, after all, was an experienced
snow skier,
                              cold-water swimmer, high-altitude hiker and
veteran of
                              100-mile day trips on his bicycle. Even the
sporting-goods
                              store clerk in the Sierra town of Bishop,
where Maiden
                              rented climbing equipment, thought Maiden
could handle
                              the 10-degree temperatures on the mountain.
And Whitney,
                              while big, has a trail so reliable thousands
make it up and
                              back safely every year.

                              Sometimes, even for a man like Maiden, just
one more step
                              can be too far.

                              At first, Inyo County's search-and-rescue
team waited, thinking Maiden might have
                              hunkered down in his tent. A hard-blowing
snow storm with winds up to 50 mph
                              passed across the mountain a few hours after
his planned trek to Whitney's 14,494-foot
                              crest.

                              On Dec. 14, five teams of searchers hit the
mountain and soon found Maiden's tent
                              tumbled into a tangled ball a half mile from
the spiky peak. By midafternoon the next
                              day, they spotted the sole of his boot
sticking out amid boulders. Snow had already
                              drifted to cover his body.

                              Maiden, a telecommunications expert from
Santa Cruz, was the sixth climber in five
                              years to die on Whitney.

                              One small thing consoles his family. Forest
Service rangers found Maiden had made it to
                              the top on his birthday, Dec. 11, and had
written his name in the log book in the
                              granite-walled, tin roof shed at the summit.
There was something else, too -- a
                              disposable camera in his backpack. Maiden had
photographed himself with the Sierra
                              spread out behind him.

                              ``Accidents do happen,'' said Keira Maiden.
``As much as I don't want to believe that
                              right now, because my father was invincible,
this was just the wrong step.''

                              It may have been the first time Maiden ever
faltered. Keira, her sister Brenna and their
                              mother, Cathy, describe a fearless man so
well-read there seemed nothing he did not
                              know. He played the piano and guitar. He
cooked. He not only loved art, but knew
                              artists and their lives.

                              He was devoted to his daughters, and when he
and his wife divorced, Keira, then 11,
                              chose to live with him until high school.
Once he promised Keira she could have his old
                              Italian convertible if she could parallel
park it -- on a very steep street in San Francisco.

                              This trip to Whitney was a way of ``doing
something big for his 50th,'' Keira said.
                              ``That's a large landmark.'' He was busy at
work, a Scotts Valley start-up called Voxeo,
                              where Maiden directed business development.
``He didn't have a lot of time to get
                              away,'' she said. ``Whitney was perfect . . .
He could reflect on his life, on what the
                              future held.''

                              Keira didn't think twice about his decision
to scale the mountain. ``I figured if the trails
                              were open, it was all right. No one
considered it anything dangerous.'' Even if they had,
                              it would have been typical for Maiden to take
it on. ``He never thought that anything he
                              did was out of the ordinary,'' she said.

                              He created challenges

                              Above all, he challenged his body. As a
teenager, he hopped a freight train to Florida
                              and spent the summer peeling shrimp. One
winter, he rode an unheated train for days
                              from the Siberian port of Vladivostok over
5,000 miles to Moscow, Keira said.

                              Once, north of the Arctic Circle, he survived
the killing cold by digging a snow pit and
                              spending the night in it, she said. The next
morning, he began the return journey to
                              Stockholm, more than 500 miles south on
cross-country skis.

                              He made many of these journeys on his own,
but when others joined him, they found
                              him no cold-hearted commander, said his
younger daughter, Brenna. Instead, he
                              encouraged with gentle persistence and
reminders of what these trips were ultimately
                              about. Whether it was a spectacular vista or
a tiny wildflower, she said that he would
                              exclaim, ``Isn't this beautiful? You're so
lucky you're here!''

                              Two summers ago, Brenna, then 18, joined him
to hike to the summit of Mount
                              Whitney. She and her father had hiked many
times together, but this was her highest
                              mountain. ``He was like, `It's no big deal.
It'll be fun!' '' she said.

                              In December, he returned there. From marks
found on the trail, searchers believe Maiden
                              fell in a section of the trail called ``99
Switchbacks'' -- that's what it takes to negotiate
                              the 60-degree slopes in that portion of
Whitney's upper reaches.

                              Maiden hit his head and came to rest in a
cluster of car-sized boulders. Rescuers say he
                              fell more than 1,000 feet. Here, at well over
12,000 feet, the ice never disappears, even
                              in summer. The mountain's ice can be so hard
that even an ax might bounce off at the
                              first hit.

                              ``There are patches of snow and ice left over
from the previous year,'' said mountain
                              guide Todd Bogel. ``Step on it and you only
get one chance.''

                              Maiden had rented an ice ax, special boots
and metal prongs called crampons, which
                              attach to boots. He was wearing the crampons
when he was found, although one had
                              broken.

                              Maiden, Bogel said, ``might have recognized
the hazard, but not the danger.''

                              Uneasy feeling

                              Sgt. Randy Nixon also understands Whitney.
For seven years, he has coordinated the
                              searches and rescues for the injured or
missing. From the start of this search, he had an
                              uneasy feeling.

                              Maiden set out on the 11-mile trail two hours
after the mountain's previous climber had
                              returned. He was alone on the mountain. ``He
went up there by himself,'' Nixon said.
                              ``In our business, that's one of the bad
things -- solo -- because even a minor injury can
                              become fatal.''

                              Nixon also talked to the store clerk, who
told him of Maiden's rentals. ``I said, `It
                              sounds like he was all set. He's got the
experience he needs.' ''

                              ``I don't think so,'' said the clerk, who
thought Maiden had a lot of experience in cold
                              weather survival, but not in cold weather
mountaineering. The clerk said Maiden told
                              him he had never used an ice ax or crampons
before.

                              ``That was a red flag to me,'' Nixon said.

                              Still, he said, Whitney ``is a good mountain.
It's good rock. They talk about big
                              mountains being treacherous and being killers
and things changing at a moment's notice.
                              The storms here are really predictable. The
mountain does create its own weather but not
                              to the extreme like McKinley.''

                              That happens to be the mountain Maiden had
planned to climb in June. It's a
                              20,000-foot-plus Alaskan peak, the
continent's tallest, that even in summer can take as
                              much as a week to ascend.

                              Others have fallen from the same area from
which Maiden is believed to have fallen,
                              Nixon said. Rescuers recovered another hiker
who survived a slide down the
                              switchbacks this month.

                              Keira insisted on seeing her father after he
was taken off the mountain. ``I had to see his
                              body and to ask all the questions and to
replay the incident in my mind.'' She read a
                              study of people who had survived near-death
experiences and ``their mind shut off in the
                              first few seconds,'' she said.

                              As her father fell, she said, ``I don't think
he would have panicked. I don't think he ever
                              thought he was going to die.''


                              Contact S.L. Wykes at swykes@sjmercury.com or
(650) 688-7599. Fax (650)
                              688-7555.


At 11:20 PM -0000 1/24/01, Reynolds, WT wrote:
>Anyone know about this?
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Don Horst [mailto:donhorstyh@yahoo.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 2:32 PM
>To: Camping List; Tom Reynolds
>Subject: Hiker killed on Whitney
>
>
>Did anyone see the accounts of the hiker who fell on the Mt. Whitney trail
>in December?  Sort of
>strange.  He was supposedly very experienced in cold conditions, but not
>winter climbing.  He
>rented crampons and an ice axe in Bishop, but apparently had no training in
>using them.  He was
>hiking alone, and fell on the way down.  The article said it was on the
>switchbacks, but the map
>did not look right to me.   But I have never been there.  Did you see it,
>Tom?
>
>=====
>Don Horst
>
>Reynolds answered:
>
>I did not see the article. In general one does not use the switchbacks to
>climb Mt Whitney in snow. You climb the VERY steep slope above Consultation
>Lake to Trail Crest, the contour to the top. That slope is usually used as a
>glassade on the way down. Possibly he lost his axe.
>
>The store at Mt Whitney will NOT rent ice axes for this reason
>
>Tom
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