8417' would be a little below Lewis Tarn.A Portland man died Tuesday while hiking up South Sister, Oregon's third-tallest peak, deputies said.
Hikers found Tom Shakespeare, 63, face down and unresponsive Tuesday morning, the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Deputies are investigating his death but said it doesn't appear to be suspicious.
Shakespeare was at about 8,417 feet, or roughly 1,941 feet from the mountain's summit. He was hiking to the summit by himself, as far as rescuers could tell, said Lt. Bryan Husband, the sheriff's office's search and rescue coordinator.
The hikers who found Shakespeare unresponsive called 911 and performed CPR but weren't able to revive him, deputies said. Sheriff's office personnel and search and rescue volunteers got Shakespeare's body to the Devils Lake trailhead around 9:30 p.m.
The hikers found him about 4-1/2 miles from the trailhead on the South Sister Climber Trail. People who have little technical climbing skill can summit South Sister using the popular route in the summer, according to outdoors website SummitPost.com.
It doesn't appear there's any evidence he was going up when it happened. A commenter said something like "I hope he summited and was coming down". Almost a petty distinction, but yeah, I agree. Of course, sometimes coming down can be the more demoralizing part, so maybe people are in higher spirits going up? YMMV.
Another commenter observed that the featured pic showed people who probably weren't headed to the summit, based on attire and gear, but that commenter seemed to miss the point that those hikers aren't even on South Sister. Anyway, I agree it was a weird pic to use.
Some commenters objected to the statement that SS's summit is accessible to moderately fit individuals with little technical skills, but I think the Oregonian got it right, and they also cited a source. Sure, it's not Angel's Rest, but it would be an exaggeration to say it requires special skills/training/equipment/fitness.
I kinda want to say that I hope my death makes the news and stimulates conversation...and yet I also kinda want to say I'd rather just fall into a crevasse and die in obscurity without any front-page exposure.
Morbid question, which always comes to mind in this kind of news story: Was he known here? Anybody recognize him?
source and full story:
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-north ... iking.html
