A third fatality on Longs Peak this summer makes this one of the deadliest years for the mountain.
John M. Regan, a 57-year-old from Wichita, Kan, died on Saturday after falling about 300 feet from The Ledges on the Keyhole Route of Longs Peak. As summer conditions continue to fade, Rocky Mountain National Park on Sunday changed the rating of that path to technical, making it a climbing route -- not for hikers -- where safety equipment is needed.
Longs Peak is considered one of the more dangerous 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado because of its long approach, high winds and narrow ledges.
Jim Detterline, who worked as a ranger on Longs Peak for 20 years and has summitted the mountain 359 times, said there's no one reason why there have been so many deaths this year. But in general, he said, accidents can result from underestimating the difficulty of the climb, wearing the wrong footwear or simply having bad luck.
"Longs Peak is a very serious mountain," said Detterline, 54, of Estes Park. "It does have some inherent hazards. People have died on Longs Peak who were at the top of their game in mountaineering. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He also noted that September's weather has extended the season, allowing more people to tackle the mountain. But in the past few days, he said, the conditions have changed thanks to snow above treeline, which melts and then freezes into black ice.
"It's a different season up there," he said.He said he knows of two other fatal accidents that also happened on The Ledges, a very narrow stretch where the rock has been worn smooth, making it slick.
Only two other years appear to have as many fatalities as this one, Detterline said.In 1999, three people died on Longs Peak, all from falls. In 2000, two died from falls and one was killed by a lightning strike. On average, one person is killed on Longs Peak each year. Most of the deaths are from falls.
This year, the first person to die was a 29-year-old Rhode Island man, whose body was discovered in July by another hiker along the Keyhole Route. The man, Jeffrey R. Rosinski was thought to have fallen between 250 and 300 feet.In August, 26-year-old University of Colorado student Benjamin Russell Hebb fell 800 feet while climbing along the Broadway Ledge of the Longs Peak Diamond. Hebb, who lived in Broomfield, was an experienced climber.
Dray Bullard, who works at Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder and last climbed the Longs Peak Diamond several years ago, said the mountain can be dangerous, depending on the route and weather. It's steep, windy and has spots were there's lots of loose rock, he said."Every time I've been up there, there always has been at least one close call," he said.But, Bullard said the risks are worth taking. "It's really awesome climbing," he said.
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