Tragic accident. RIP.

[phxphotog]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A well-known marathon runner and mountain climber from Castro Valley is dead after a fall from a mountain peak in the Sierra.

The family of Charles Duerig says he fell to his death over the weekend while climbing Mount Hamilton, a 14,000-foot peak near Mount Whitney.

The 50-year-old Duerig was climbing the mountain with a friend Sunday when the two became separated.

After the friend reported Duerig missing, searchers found his body at the bottom of a canyon at the 12,500-foot level.

Authorities believe he fell 100 feet after trying to anchor himself to a rock, and probably died immediately.

Duerig was an avid climber who had led numerous rock climbs in Yosemite and elsewhere in the Sierra, as well as in Canada and on mountains in Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia

Was just reading the California wires and came across this. My condolences to his family and friends.

[ridgeline]

This report says he was either on or heading to Mt Russell.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/30/BAT1RRKU3.DTL

[Scott Fulton]

I'm sorry to hear about this. I don't know him, but I know that I had seen his name in the results of the Skyline 50K race that I ran a few weeks ago. Pretty fast guy, finishing the 31 miles in just over 5 hours. He must have been a strong athlete. Seems that in the past year, there have been a bunch of trail runners who have died in the mountains.

[TacoDelRio]

RIP.

2007 has been a deadly year for most of us, it seems.

[josephgdawson]

The story in the SF Comical does not make sense to me. If the partners were separated at a lake, why was Duerig building an anchor somewhere? Soloing a route with gear?

The weather down in Lone Pine was pretty nasty last Sunday. I wonder if they were bailing off a route and something went wrong.

[Eric O]

[Misha]

[ridgeline]

INYO SAR sometimes posts the missions on their website. It seems odd that the SF story says he got off route, his partner had turned around and went back and he fell from a failed anchor. Its very sad, especially for his family.

[Luciano136]

Sorry to hear this . Condolences to his family and friends...

[rickford]

Very sad to hear about this. Sounds like a pretty remarkable fellow. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

[Eric O]

[wingding]

Very unfortunate for his family and friends - I'm sure they will miss him greatly.

There's really not enough info provided in the article to know which way they were headed up Russell. I don't think he'd be building an anchor along the East Ridge.

[RArdesch]

I heard about this early in the week. Our helicopter picked up the body and I was told that some members had to rappel off of the mountain to retrieve it on a scree slope. We were very busy last week, but I'll hear more when I head back to work and fill you all in.

[Duerig]

I'm a brother of the fallen climber. I want to thank everybody who posted, for their kind concern.

Charlie was trying to summit Mt. Russell, and as some of the posts guessed, he was off-route, at the end of the box canyon up from Upper Boy Scout Lake. At the end of the canyon, realizing that the correct trail lay to his right, he and his partner climbed what I am told is a difficult talus slope at the right end of the box canyon.

His partner turned back somewhere on the talus slope, and Charlie continued on, and fell (about a hundred feet) somewhere in-between the box canyon and the correct route, within the next 24 hours. As some of the posts guessed, Charlie was in incredible shape, and would not easily wait for mere mortals to catch up. Especially when ascending a Fourtneener - when an abort would be a serious disappointment.

But at this point what happened makes little sense to me and maybe experienced climbers can help me understand. My climbing experience is limited to one-pitch top-roping, bouldering, and indoor rock gyms. I have no experience in anything like this. Ironically enough, I was to have my first multi-pitch climb with him, in a few weeks after his death, on a Half Dome route called Snake Dike.

Anyway, he fell with a 1 inch wide strip of webbing, total length about 20 feet wrapped around his wrist and at the other end of the webbing, firmly tied, was a cam (see picture) (I do not know where on the webbing his wrist was). What can’t be seen from the picture
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeoasmk/prdshared/
(http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeoasmk/prdshared/), is that the cam faces were very worn (essentially smooth), and one small corner of one cam was ground or “lopped” off.

Can anyone make any sense of this? Let me add, that Charlie was not one to panic, nor was he inexperienced. Although he was enthusiastic, he was not an idiot. He had a helmet on. His unzipped pack contained technical climbing shoes, a bivouac kit, a space blanket, and food and water. (the pack was found a number of yards from his body, presumably due to the fall). He also had several other cams, all in notably better shape than this one, in the pack. He had lead many, many climbs before. The other picture on the site (http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeoasmk/prdshared/) shows him after having led Mt Whitney East face. He had been forced to bivouac before. He had lost the route before, and had turned back because of this. Undoubtedly he was cheap, but he had money and knew to spend money on the things that held your life in their hands, and had told me of times where he was forced to leave pieces on the face before.

It’s difficult for me to think of this without seeing climbing in a different light. It will be a while before my hand touches rock face again, I can tell you that.

[Misha]

Hmmm... A theory:
He got himself into a difficult spot where he could not easily continue or downclimb. He stuck this cam in with the intentions of leaving it behind (since it was his oldest/most worn out piece). He used a long sling to lower himself past a difficult spot. Somehow the cam got loose (either placed incorrectly or due to a loose rock) and resulted in his fatal fall...

Please accept my condolences! RIP, Charlie