*** Climber Dies at Smith Rocks, OR ***

Sun May 26 11:05:05 1996
Message : #1688787296    From: Scott B Crosson
Address : scrosson@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Group   : Usenet.rec.climbing
Length  : 248 words
Subject : Climber dies at Smith Rock 5/25
Org.  : University of Oregon

from an AP article in the 5/26 Eugene Register-Guard

COLLEGE STUDENT, 22, DIES AFTER FALL AT SMITH ROCK

BEND-A college student climbing with two friends at Smith Rock State Park
fell about 200 feet to his death on Saturday.

        Terry A. Mitchell, 22, of Stayton, and his friends were free
climbing , without the aid of ropes or safety devices, when the accident
occurred about 11 am, said Tim Moor, a paramedic from Redmond.

        Members of the Deschutes County search and rescue team were
called in to retrieve the body, Moor said. Mitchell and his climbing
partners, Mike Heald, 22, and Miri Marie Anderson were ascending a route
called Pioneer, according to Search and Rescue coordinator Caleb Cordell.

        Heald made it to a ledge and was waiting.  Mitchell was in the
middle and Anderson was just starting the climb.  Mitchell was within 30
feet of the ledge when he slipped or a handhold or foothold had crumbled,
searchers said.A climber from another party witnessed the accident and
called 911 with a cellular telephone.

        Mitchell, Heald, and Anderson were students at Willamette
University in Salem.  All three were experienced climbers. Mitchell and
Heald climbed at Smith Rock almost every weekend said Deputy Neil Mackey,
search and rescue coordinator.

        All three had climbed the same route with safety devices just a
month earlier. That experience had given them the confidence to try the
route without ropes, Mackey said.

                         -------------------------