Rocky Mountain National Park: Climber's body to be retrieved

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK - Rescue crews have set out to retrieve the body of a climber who died on Saturday while ice climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park.


The U.S. National Park Service says the 42-year-old man was climbing the "All Mixed Up" ice climbing route on Saturday. Visitors reported the man's death around 2:30 p.m. via cell phone.

Rangers say the man was part of a two-person climbing team who was climbing the route above Mills Lake on Thatchtop Mountain, which is located between the Loch Vale and Glacier Gorge drainages. They say Mills Lake is 3 miles up the Glacier Gorge Trailhead, and the base of the "All Mixed Up" climb, located 1,200 feet above the lake on the mountain, is extremely difficult and dangerous terrain.

The rescue of the victim was delayed until Sunday due to the remote location, difficult terrain, limited daylight and weather conditions, rangers say.

The rescue effort began at about 5 a.m. on Sunday, and rangers say there are 25 people from the National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Rescue and Larimer County Search and Rescue involved in the retrieval of the victim.

Rangers say the winter storm conditions are making the retrieval of the victim even more challenging.

Authorities say the man is from Denver, but have not released his name. Rangers say the incident is under investigation and "All Mixed Up" is closed until the operation is complete.

www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=165038&catid=339

That really sucks. Condolences to any family...

Sorry to hear this. Hopefully we'll get a report on what happened.

Um I think the DENVER POST needs to retract this statement and issue an apology right way.

When does a PERSON become an "IT"

The victim was found at 10:15 a.m. this morning, but efforts by the 25-person rescue team were hampered by the terrain and winter snowstorm. They finally got it to the trailhead about 4 p.m.

Read more: Body of fallen climber retrieved after snowstorm-caused delay - The Denver Post www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16674029#ixzz15ydOIaBO
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Major condolences. I hate to see another climber down.
I watched a large avalanche sweep over AMU or maybe just right of it around 4:30p.m. yesterday from the road & was hoping nobody was on it at the time. Sounds like this happened earlier than that, but wonder if an avalanche played a role.
Man, this has really been a rough year for climbers in the park.

condolences to the family of the fallen climber ,this sucks AMU can
be a nasty climb at times.

I have been benighted on this route attempting the socalled walkoff that year 07 the ice was esp thin and detached in most places so much so that we skipped the last pitch the 80' phone pole of death and attempted to find the walk off route well there was 7 rapells from les than ideal anchors , we had spent the night at 11,000' in a clump of small pines on a rock ledge while it snowed the whole 14 hours of darkness and rapelled through avlanches to get down only to have to hike back to our packs left at the base of the climb the day before .

after we made it back to the parking lot that night my partner n I decided to rename the climb ALL FU***D UP!


I too am interested to know what happened

I've never been on the route, iceman, but the scenario of what happened to you sounds pretty nerve wracking. Glad you guys got down alright in '07.

My wife and I were climbing on Jewel Lake Saturday. On our way out we stood and watched the two climbers on AMU for about 10 minutes. The lead climber was about 100-150' above the belayer at that time. As we reached the north end of Mills Lake about 10 to 15 minutes later we heard two huge cries for help coming from that side. My wife yelled back several times but after about a half hour of scanning the mountain side we didn't hear anything again or see anything. We were really bummed to find out yesterday what happened.

Hopefully we'll hear more about it today?

I took this picture Sunday afternoon. Yesterday was a pretty harsh day up high with heavy snow and winds at times. At this time, the recovery team was a few hundred feet above Mills Lake.
The route was obscured in the morning by clouds. It looks to be in rather thin and unforgiving condition right now.

All Mixed Up on 11/21/10. Submitted By: Brad White on Nov 22, 2010

The fallen climber was a coworker I'd recently met and had quickly become friends with. Because they haven't released his name yet and I don't know if all of his family has been notified, I don't think it's appropriate for me to name him right now. But, I felt compelled to offer a few words to share a little about him.

He was truly passionate about the mountains and was very active with climbing advocacy organizations. He was an experienced alpinist with a resume that included guiding teams in Alaska and South America.

He was a few days away from a trip to Eastern Europe in which he'd hoped to scout out opportunities for new alpine routes. He was happy not to be managing the logistics for this trip. He wasn't sure exactly where they were headed and he enjoyed the sense of adventure that came with just heading over there and finding out. And, he said he would be just as happy if all he was able to do was get to know a little bit about a culture that was new to him.

He was the leader of a risk management team for the company. We'd joked about how non-climbers would likely think that was a complete contradiction of professional and personal lifestyles. And, we talked about how, in fact, there probably isn't a more appropriate profession for a climber. Climbing is risk management, he said.

When I spoke to him on Friday, we talked about our weekend plans. He was very excited about heading up to do AMU. I was jealous that he'd be heading up there and he was a bit jealous that I was going to be climbing in the sun at Shelf Road. We'd agreed to share trip reports this morning. And, the last thing he said was, "Be safe".

I hope more details become available to shed light on the accident so that we can learn from it. I have a feeling we'll find this is simply another reminder that we pursue risky goals and experiences. And, that tragedy can strike even those who are experienced and prepared.

Sincerest condolences to his family and climbing partner.

Sorry to hear about this CD. Please pass on everyone's condolences, including mine.

Horrible news...it's a reminder that the game we play is serious and not to be taken lightly.

Life is short...condolences to all his family and friends.

Thanks Crag Dweller. . . and sorry for the loss of a good friend.
Heavy stuff.
The best to you, his family, friends and coworkers.

Damn that sucks :( Condolences to his family, partner and friends.

And Trask you comment is pretty out of line unless you know something first hand about the climbers involved.

Condolences on the loss of your friend CD and also to friends, partners and family of the fallen man. Very sad.

Sorry to hear about your friend Crag Dweller.

I am in no way trying to steer the discussion away from offering condolences to the friends and family of the fallen climber, but I would like to hear details as they materialize. It would seem that because the belayer was okay, that this was perhaps a long lead fall? (lots of slabby stuff in between the steep on AMU).

sorry to seem outta line Chris, in no way was that a shot at the fallen, it was simply a call to all climbers since it seems like there has been a lot of accidents in the last few years, including a friend of mine, so again chris sorry if that seemed outta line

They've released his name. Unfortunately, no more details on what happened, though.

www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_16680719

Camera Staff and Wire Reports
Posted: 11/22/2010 02:27:18 PM MST


The 42-year-old man who died after falling on the ice climb "All Mixed Up" in Rocky Mountain National Park has been identified as Christian Pruchnic.

The ice route is above Mills Lake on Thatchtop Mountain. Pruchnic was climbing with a partner, who was not injured, according to the National Park Service.

Pruchnic is the sixth person to die while hiking or climbing in the park this year.

Three people have died this year after falling on 14,259-foot Longs Peak, the park's tallest mountain and the 15th highest in the state.

One person died on Taylor Glacier and another on a snow field near Cony Lake near the park's southern boundary. A seventh person committed suicide at one of the park's trailheads.

Understood. I wasn't sure you meant it like that but often family reads these posts and to me it read as a criticism of the fallen climbers judgement which this isn't the place for. I hate to see these accident posts :(

Tremendous loss. He was such a nice guy. Left skittles for me on the summit of Rainier. I will never forget that.

Chris Pruchnic

My sincere condolences to all who knew him.

From Chris' Facebook page:

The picture that Brad posted is exactly where they were at while we were watching them. They belayer was at the bottom of that pitch and the lead climber was just coming to the top of it. The weather down low was very nice but windy. It was very windy and nasty where they were up high on Thatchtop. A lot of spin drift and wind hitting the climb itself.

I wished we could have done more when we first heard the calls for help. Our sincere condolences to all who knew him as well.

My deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Pruchnic. Such an awful tragedy, c'est lavie. Seems Chris left us enjoying life to it's fullest, doing what he loved to do. In my book, that certainly means a lot.

I think I shall have,
A drink!
And a moment of silence,
For our fallen comrade!

Be careful out there!
-Z

There's no c'est la vie with Chris. He had more enthusiasm about life and opportunity than anyone I've met.

I just saw him on Thursday night. He was excited about being part of the AAC team heading to Iran in June. He'd also just run his first century in Boulder.

I can't tell you how much he will be missed. If anyone is available on Thanksgiving Day to hike in memory of him, please let me know. I know he'd appreciate it.

martha@marthaperantoni.com
303-709-1581

certainly a topic in the memorial section if someone could do it justice. thanks also to ROMO rangers, Larimer, & RMRG.

farewell Haliku