Pete Absolon Killed in Accident

[Ryan Jordan]

Pete Absolon was killed in a climbing accident this weekend in the Wind River Range.

Pete was the new director at NOLS Rocky Mountain. He is survived by his wife, Molly, and 7-year old daughter, Avery.

Pete was climbing a new route in the Leg Lake region of the winds, not far out of Lander, when a hiker dislodged (or threw, the details are sketchy and the incident is being investigated by the county Sheriff) a rock down from the ridge, which struck and killed Pete. He was wearing a helmet.

Ryan

[Rick Dreher]

It now appears the rock was thrown, making his death both tragic and completely preventable. How sad.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2003837589_webclimberdeath15.html

[Al Shaver]

While visiting my old Boy Scout Council's Camp Lodge in the Sierra I saw a report of this accident posted entitled "Why We Don't Throw Rocks".

I'm sure it would be small comfort to Molly and Avery, but this tragedy is being used by the Boy Scouts to help prevent such events from occuring again.

[Franco Darioli]

At the age of seven or eight, me and my brother were throwing stones from the edge of a moraine into it when we noticed some climbers coming up towards us. I never thrown another stone after that except for the occasional stone skipping competition.
Franco

[Russell Swanson]

Here's a brief article in the Charleston Gazette following up on these events. Not much information but some might be interested:

http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200803010431

There's also an article in Outside magazine written about the accident:

http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200801/pete-absolon-1.html

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