Oregon Hikers

(I was on a hike in this area Sunday, trip report soon, but we saw all the emergency vehicles near Horse Thief and feared the worse - very tragic):

The Dalles Chronicle
April 6, 2009

Two climbers killed at Horsethief Park Sunday

A Gresham police detective and his sister-in-law both died after a climbing accident on Horsethief Butte Sunday .
Washington State Parks spokesperson Virginia Painter said the accident happened at 12:57 p.m. Sunday.
article continues: http://www.thedalleschronicle.com/news/ ... 9-01.shtml

more info on the area: http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/ ... butte.html

Does anyone know how the accident happened? It seems strange that they'd be walking around close to the edge without being anchored in (this is an assumption, since they fell...) Seems like there may have been some mistakes made that us climbers can learn from.

Terrible story

Not much further details yet, but here is the Oregonian's info:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ss ... s_fal.html