Three of the world's most elite mountain climbers presumed dead after avalanche in the Canadian Rock [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

Morning Mix
Three of the world’s most elite mountain climbers presumed dead after avalanche in the Canadian Rockies

By Meagan Flynn, Morning Mix reporter
April 19 at 6:27 AM

Three of the world’s most venerated alpine climbers are believed to have perished in Canada’s Rocky Mountains after an avalanche cascaded down the mountain they were scaling amid a daring expedition, Canadian officials said Thursday.

The apparent loss has left the global climbing community devastated as the likelihood they are still alive has slowly diminished. The missing climbers, who were ascending Howse Peak in Banff National Park, have been identified as 36-year-old Jess Roskelley, from Spokane, Wash., the son of legendary mountaineer John Roskelley; and David Lama, 28, and Hansjörg Auer, 35, both of Austria. All three were part of the North Face Global Athlete Team, the outdoor apparel company said.

“Based on the assessment of the scene, all three members of the party are presumed to be deceased,” Parks Canada, the country’s national parks department, said in a statement Thursday. ... Authorities have not been able to launch a recovery mission, however, “due to additional avalanches and dangerous conditions at the scene.” ... John Roskelley told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that he does not believe his son and his fellow climbers could have survived. (1)

The trio of elite alpinists were climbing a harrowing, icy route on the east face of Canada’s Howse Peak, a route that Parks Canada described as “remote and an exceptionally difficult objective, with mixed rock and ice routes requiring advanced alpine mountaineering skills.” The first climbers to ascend this route in 1999 named it “M16? because of its “difficulty and seriousness,” as well as the experience of feeling “under the gun,” of being pelted relentlessly with mounds of falling snow, one of the climbers wrote in the American Alpine Journal in 2000. (2)
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Meagan Flynn is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She was previously a reporter at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Press. Follow https://twitter.com/Meagan_Flynn

(1) http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/apr/18/climbers-jess-roskelley-david-lama-hansjorg-auer-f/

(2) http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12200023200/North-America-Canada-Northwest-and-Yukon-Territories-Canadian-Rockies-Howse-Peak-East-Face-M-16

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/19/three-worlds-most-elite-mountain-climbers-presumed-dead-after-avalanche-canadian-rockies/