Three of the world's most elite mountain climbers presumed dead after avalanche in the Canadian Rock
Source: Washington Post
Morning Mix
Three of the worlds most elite mountain climbers presumed dead after avalanche in the Canadian Rockies
By Meagan Flynn, Morning Mix reporter
April 19 at 6:27 AM
Three of the worlds most venerated alpine climbers are believed to have perished in Canadas Rocky Mountains after an avalanche cascaded down the mountain they were scaling amid a daring expedition, Canadian officials said Thursday.
The apparent loss has left the global climbing community devastated as the likelihood they are still alive has slowly diminished. The missing climbers, who were ascending Howse Peak in Banff National Park, have been identified as 36-year-old Jess Roskelley, from Spokane, Wash., the son of legendary mountaineer John Roskelley; and David Lama, 28, and Hansjörg Auer, 35, both of Austria. All three were part of the North Face Global Athlete Team, the outdoor apparel company said.
Based on the assessment of the scene, all three members of the party are presumed to be deceased, Parks Canada, the countrys national parks department, said in a statement Thursday. ... Authorities have not been able to launch a recovery mission, however, due to additional avalanches and dangerous conditions at the scene. ... John Roskelley told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that he does not believe his son and his fellow climbers could have survived. (1)
The trio of elite alpinists were climbing a harrowing, icy route on the east face of Canadas Howse Peak, a route that Parks Canada described as remote and an exceptionally difficult objective, with mixed rock and ice routes requiring advanced alpine mountaineering skills. The first climbers to ascend this route in 1999 named it M16″ because of its difficulty and seriousness, as well as the experience of feeling under the gun, of being pelted relentlessly with mounds of falling snow, one of the climbers wrote in the American Alpine Journal in 2000. (2)
....
Meagan Flynn is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She was previously a reporter at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Press. Follow https://twitter.com/Meagan_Flynn
(1) http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/apr/18/climbers-jess-roskelley-david-lama-hansjorg-auer-f/
(2) http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200023200/North-America-Canada-Northwest-and-Yukon-Territories-Canadian-Rockies-Howse-Peak-East-Face-M-16
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/19/three-worlds-most-elite-mountain-climbers-presumed-dead-after-avalanche-canadian-rockies/
redwitch
(14,944 posts)My friend lost her 17 year old grandson last month on a ski/climbing trek in the French Alps. I dont think it was an avalanche though. Its a really dangerous sport. After reading Jon Krakauer's book about that ill fated Everest expedition I became not a fan of the sport.
samnsara
(17,622 posts)..its something I would never do but I find it fascinating. The danger is so high! I have a friend who went to base camp last October..she said it was beautiful but she had to cross over several swinging bridges with YAKS! nope!
im sorry for your friends loss..so terrible.
redwitch
(14,944 posts)I do love the way he writes. I just thought when I read it that the dying climber talking on the phone to his pregnant wife back in Australia was a selfish bastard.
shanny
(6,709 posts)was a selfish bastard? Because he called his wife?
redwitch
(14,944 posts)And died doing it. I wept when I read it.And yeah, I put myself in her shoes and got pissed at him.
shanny
(6,709 posts)and didn't go because of her pregnancy. Rob had previously summited Everest 5 times so "crazy, stupid" is a mischaracterization in his case.
The expedition was both their passion and their business.
And the phone call--which was initiated by Hall's support team--was a last ditch effort to motivate him to get up, to get moving, to get down to where he could be helped.
Unfortunately he was in the Dead Zone--an elevation where the body is actually dying from insufficient oxygen. In that zone it is all but impossible* to help someone else--to survive he had to come down on his own. But he had run out of oxygen, his brain was not functioning correctly, he wouldn't or couldn't get up and he died.
Jan continued climbing.
* I do know of one instance.
redwitch
(14,944 posts)I guess I just dont get it.
Are you a climber? That kind of risk taking is just unimaginable to me but I know others get a high from it.
shanny
(6,709 posts)Hubby is(was) and so are many friends. One of them--Steve McKinney--is the only person I ever heard of who DID carry someone down from the dead zone...and that person was, ironically, John Roskelley.
Stevie was killed by a drunk driver.
I just watched Dawn Wall and Free Solo. Dawn Wall was inspirational. Free Solo left me scratching my head. Climbing without ropes is just silly. It doesnt change the aesthetic of climbing, but just leaves you dead if youre human and make a mistake. Ice climbing is another sport I just dont get. I lost a friend years ago in an ice climbing accident. He was a skilled mountaineer who summited Everest multiple times and worked as a professional ski patroller at a big CO resort. It really sucked. He left behind a wife and young infant. Im all about Adrenalin sports, but there are some risks that neednt be taken.
Hekate
(90,694 posts)JMHO. YMMV.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,191 posts)with a pregnant wife back home.
Brother Buzz
(36,437 posts)I don't believe I truly warmed up until spring.
applegrove
(118,664 posts)applegrove
(118,664 posts)climbing. The day I arrived in June they were flying out somebody's body by helicopter from the climbing mountains further in. Recovery is a slow process in the mountains.
Brother Buzz
(36,437 posts)My cousin disappeared on Mt Hood sixteen years ago, presumably swallowed by a snowfield above Timberline Lodge.
applegrove
(118,664 posts)samnsara
(17,622 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,459 posts)The story actually broke yesterday, so maybe the thread will get locked. The article ran in the Washington Post and Virginia papers today.
Hansjörg Auer, David Lama and Jess Roskelley were attempting a route that has only been climbed once
Robson Fletcher · CBC News · Posted: Apr 18, 2019 11:57 AM MT | Last Updated: April 18
Renowned alpinist Jess Roskelley is feared dead in a Canadian avalanche
April 18, 2019
LisaM
(27,812 posts)He was a very skilled skier, took unnecessary chances (there were something like 17 BC avalanche deaths that year and the Canadian authorities were begging people not to do spring skiing in the back country, but people went out anyway). He had two little girls, aged 7 and 4.
I guess the adrenalin rush people get must make it seem worth it, but I have flashback memories to his horrible funeral - and his devastated wife, who was so grief stricken she literally had black veils over her face so she couldn't be seen - every time I hear a story like this. There's a sort of selfishness involved that I have trouble understanding. Was it worth it to ruin the life of his family? His wife couldn't even function; she had to go back home to her parents for a while.
applegrove
(118,664 posts)Last edited Fri Apr 19, 2019, 07:12 PM - Edit history (3)
and trekking into a lodge. Came across two dudes who knew my brother and who had gone in for the night but not to the lodge like us. They had a small l shovel on their packs. They built a snow cave and slept in that. Those mountain people are a breed apart. These people feel awe every adventure and are doing what they love. Sorry for your loss. I don't understand it either. I lived in a tea house one summer above Lake Louise, Alberta. There was an easy hiking trail up to the 'beehive lookout' next door (tea house is on lake agnes right beside the beehive). I never went to the big beehive. I was afraid of heights. I went into Banff town on my days off. See picture below. Everyone else i worked with went hiking on their days off. There is a purpose for people like me too I'm sure. But these mountaun climbers are the people who would have been explorers in another time. Anyone who took their family and left their village in the last 300,000 years to find something better is one of them. Astronaughts and test pilots too. We would be nowhere without their desire for challenge and fearlessness. But yes their families suffered for their fearlessness.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/qgX3HvUxR8vu71R77
https://hikebiketravel.com/the-lake-agnes-teahouse-little-beehive-hike-near-lake-louise/
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)Or so good it won't happen to them. They take more chances.
In the Alaska Bush they have a saying.
"There are old Bush pilots, and there are old bush pilots. There are NO old and bold bush pilots."
It happens on farms, with livestock, firearms, electricity, etc. It's human nature I suspect.
In fact, I see it every morning driving to work on the freeway. Women putting on makeup, people texting, eating, lighting cigarettes, blasting the radio and singing along.
I work in health and safety to an extent, so I am reminded daily.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)I can't imagine risking my life for an adrenaline rush, even if an adrenaline rush is pleasurable (which it is not, to me anyway).