Darwin Awards

[spaminator]

Calgary woman killed by fall after parachute fails to open

By Damien Wood, Calgary Sun

First posted: Saturday, May 14, 2016 11:07 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, May 15, 2016 12:03 AM EDT

The county coroner out of Twin Falls, Idaho, has identified a woman who killed in a BASE jumping accident as a Calgarian.

Kristin Renee Czyz, 34, died Friday evening, when her parachute failed to open in a jump off the Perrine Bridge.

Blunt force trauma from the fall is likely what killed her, county coroner Gene Turley told the Twin Falls Times-News, and he's not planning on an autopsy, though toxicology testing will be done.

According to the Times-News, Czyz was pulled from the Snake River below by bystanders in boats.

CPR was attempted and 911 was called but emergency responders declared Czyz dead when they met with the good samaritans attempting to save her.

County Sheriff Tom Carter said that jump from the bridge was the fifth for the victim that day.

Carter said to the Times-News what exactly went wrong with the parachute is being investigated by an expert BASE jumper.

Czyz had about 40 BASE jumps under her belt, the sheriff said, calling that relatively inexperienced.

The death was the first BASE jump fatality at the Perrine Bridge this year.

Last spring, a 73-year-old BASE jumper died after he intentionally set his parachute on fire and leaped from the bridge.

A Canadian man was killed two months earlier when his chute failed to open.

-The Associated Press, with files from the Twin Falls Times-News

Calgary woman killed by fall after parachute fails to open | Canada | News | Tor

 

[spaminator]

Calgary woman who died in BASE jump accident had hole in parachute
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Sunday, May 22, 2016 05:02 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, May 22, 2016 05:08 PM EDT
TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- A Canadian BASE jumper's death has been ruled an accident, and investigators say they found a hole in her pilot chute.
The Times-News reports 34-year-old Kristin Renee Czyz of Calgary packed her own parachute before she jumped from Perrine Bridge on May 13.
Investigators found a hole in her pilot chute, which is supposed to pull the main parachute from its pack. They also found a broken zipper on her harness.
Boaters pulled her body from the Snake River, attempted CPR and met up with emergency responders.
Czyz was pronounced dead at the Centennial Waterfront Park docks.
Twin Falls County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Lori Stewart said investigators determined the death was an accident.
Facebook photo of Kristin Renee Czyz who died while BASE jumping off the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Calgary woman who died in BASE jump accident had hole in parachute | Canada | Ne

Woman dies while climbing down Mount Everest
REUTERS
First posted: Sunday, May 22, 2016 12:05 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, May 22, 2016 12:22 PM EDT
KATHMANDU/MELBOURNE - A 34-year-old Australian woman has died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest, local officials in Kathmandu said on Sunday, the second death on the world's highest mountain in as many days.
The death of Maria Strydom on Saturday was also confirmed by Monash University in Melbourne, where she worked as a lecturer. Officials in Nepal said efforts were being made to take her body down from the mountain.
Two Indian climbers went missing on the mountain on Saturday in the high slopes known as "death zone," said Wangchu Sherpa of the Trekking Camp Nepal company.
"They are out of contact for more than 30 hours now and it is not clear if they had climbed the peak," Sherpa said, adding that two other Indians were being escorted by sherpa guides to lower camps with injuries and frost bite. More details were not available because of poor communication with the team, he said.
The death of the Australian woman was the second on Everest this year and could hit mountaineering in Nepal, where a massive earthquake last year killed at least 18 people at Everest Base Camp.
On Friday, Dutch climber Eric Ary Arnold died after reaching the summit of 8,850-metre (29,035 feet) Everest.
Strydom, part of the same group as Arnold, developed altitude sickness while descending from Camp Four, located at about 8,000 metres (26,250 feet), the Kathmandu-based company that organized her expedition said.
"We are waiting for the expedition leader and other climbers of the group to come down to base camp," said Pasang Phurba of the Seven Summits Treks.
"We will then discuss (retrieving) her body. It cannot be left to lie as it is there," he told Reuters.
Dozens of climbers were rescued from the mountain with frost bite and injuries in the past two days, hiking officials said, without giving details.
Last year's earthquake forced hundreds of climbers to abandon their expeditions. The worst quake in Nepal's recorded history killed nearly 9,000 people across the Himalayan nation.
More than 350 climbers have reached the top of Everest this month from the Nepali side of the mountain while several people have climbed from Tibet.
Among them was 19-year-old Alyssa Azar, who on Saturday became the youngest Australian to summit Everest, and Lhakpa Sherpa, who notched a new record for woman climbers with her seventh ascent.
In this Nov. 12, 2015, file photo, Mount Everest is seen from the way to Kalapatthar in Nepal. (AP Photo/Tashi Sherpa, File)

Woman dies while climbing down Mount Everest | World | News | Toronto Sun

 

[EagleSmack]

Everest climbers... millionaires paying tens of thousands to guides, a pittance to sherpas who carry most of the gear, and leaving the mountain littered with trash and sometimes their own bodies.

 

[taxslave]

At least they are improving the gene pool.

 

[spaminator]

Everest safety under scrutiny as third climber dies in as many days
Gopal Sharma and Jane Wardell, Reuters
First posted: Monday, May 23, 2016 10:04 AM EDT | Updated: Monday, May 23, 2016 10:10 AM EDT
KATHMANDU/SYDNEY - A 43-year-old Indian mountaineer has died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest, in the third fatality on the world's tallest mountain in as many days since climbing resumed after last year's avalanche tragedy at Base Camp.
Subash Paul, who climbed the 8,850 metre (29,035 feet) on Saturday, perished the next day due to exhaustion, Wangchu Sherpa of the Trekking Camp Nepal company said on Monday.
An Australian woman and a Dutch national have also died since Friday due to altitude sickness in the notorious 'death zone' where the air is so thin that only the fittest can survive without supplementary oxygen.
Hiking officials and climbing veterans say the deaths raise questions about the preparations and safety standards of some climbing operators, with cut-price local companies competing for business as international outfits scale back operations.
This year's Everest campaign has been hit by high winds on some days when climbers had been counting on the weather 'window' to open to make their summit bids before the monsoon sweeps in next month.
Queues have formed on the final stretch to the summit, which is often secured by a single rope line, leading veterans to complain that slow and inexperienced climbers were holding up others and putting them at undue risk.
"Many climbers without any experience crowd Everest every year, and companies often use poor quality equipment... offering cheap packages to clients who are exposed to security risks," Nepal Mountaineering Association Chief Ang Tshering Sherpa said.
"Climbers with well-managed companies employing experienced guides are safe."
Hiking officials blame the government, which charges $11,000 for each Everest permit, for failing to spend any money on safety measures. The government collected $3.1 million from 289 climbers as permit fees so far this year.
But officials blame inadequate preparation on the part of climbers.
"The deaths were not due to accident or the crowd," Tourism Department official Sudarshan Dhakal said. "Energy loss and altitude sickness mean that they were not well prepared."
RETRIEVING BODIES
Expedition organisers were assembling a rescue team on Monday to retrieve the bodies of Australian university lecturer Maria Strydom and Dutch climber Eric Ary Arnold. Strydom died before reaching the summit on Saturday, one day after Arnold perished after attaining the peak.
Apart from the three deaths, two other Indian climbers have been missing on Everest since Saturday, and hiking officials said chances of finding them alive were slim.
Another Indian woman who fell sick was being escorted to lower camps and will be evacuated by a helicopter, an agency official said.
While fatalities are not unusual, there are fears the latest casualties could again hit mountaineering in Nepal.
At least 18 people died a year ago when an earthquake sent a massive snow slide careening into Base Camp, while an avalanche in the treacherous Khumbu Icefall killed 16 guides in 2014. The back-to-back tragedies had halted climbing on Everest.
"It is a difficult and challenging climb and many people have died," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Brisbane, adding that the government was assisting with the repatriation of Strydom's body.
Arnold Coster, the owner of Arnold Coster Expeditions which led the group containing both Strydom and Eric Ary Arnold, said both climbers became ill very quickly on the descent.
The Dutch climber was assisted down to the South Col camp, the final camp before the summit, where he was given oxygen and medicine but "unexpectedly passed away that evening in his tent," Coster said in a Facebook post.
Strydom decided to turned back from her attempt to reach the summit and was assisted down to the South Col by her husband, veterinarian Robert Gropel. After spending the night there, she walked out of her tent to continue the descent, only to collapse on the Geneva Spur, two hours from Camp 3 where helicopter evacuations are possible.
The expedition leader said Gropel, who himself suffered high altitude pulmonary oedema on the descent, tried unsuccessfully to carry his wife's body down the mountain. He was evacuated by helicopter to Kathmandu on Monday.
May is one of the most popular months to scale Everest before the peak is shrouded by rain, cold and cloud brought on by the monsoon in June.
Good weather over the past two weeks has allowed more than 350 climbers to reach the summit this month from the Nepali side of Everest. Several people have climbed from Tibet.
Among them was 19-year-old Alyssa Azar, who on Saturday became the youngest Australian to reach the summit, and Lhakpa Sherpa, who notched a new record for female climbers with her seventh ascent.
Everest safety under scrutiny as third climber dies in as many days | World | Ne

 

[EagleSmack]

I believe the count is four dead on Everest now.

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

I believe the count is four dead on Everest now.

"Ever rest." Get it? Ha ha.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I believe the count is four dead on Everest now.

This day, week, year? Everest has killed a lot of people over the years. Nothing new.

 

[EagleSmack]

This day, week, year? Everest has killed a lot of people over the years. Nothing new.

In recent days. I think there is about 200 bodies still on the mountain. People can barely make it down themselves never mind drag corpes with them.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

In recent days. I think there is about 200 bodies still on the mountain. People can barely make it down themselves never mind drag corpes with them.

At that elevation I imagine they are almost perfectly preserved.

 

[JLM]

At that elevation I imagine they are almost perfectly preserved.

Might be a potential there for some good transplant material!

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Might be a potential there for some good transplant material!

Sure. Let's just get an ambulance right up there.

 

[JLM]

Sure. Let's just get an ambulance right up there.

No need, just strap them to a snow board!

 

[EagleSmack]

At that elevation I imagine they are almost perfectly preserved.

Some are. You can google and see them. There are so many that some are used as trail markers and have nicknames.

 

[JLM]

Some are. You can google and see them. There are so many that some are used as trail makers and have nicknames.

Maybe trail markers too!

 

[PoliticalNick]

Everest has one of the highest summit success rates of all the 8000m peaks and one of the lowest death rates. About 50% make The summit and 3.5% die. The worst is K2 with a summit rate of less than 7% and a death rate over 33%.

Recovering bodies above 7000m is next to impossible which is why there are so many up there. It is a struggle to keep yourself alive and moving even at 6500m let alone exert the extra energy to move a dead body.

I looked into going to Everest about 10 years ago. Most good guide companies cost $45-60k and require you to have done 2 or 3 of the 8000m peaks with them prior to Everest. Since the highest I have been is McKinley (now Denali) at 6190m and St Elias at 5489m it just was too cost prohibitive to even try.

 

[spaminator]

Calgary man killed in K-Country avalanche
By Colette Derworiz, Postmedia
First posted: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 02:20 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 07:15 PM EDT
CANMORE — A scrambler from Calgary has died after triggering an avalanche on Mount Lawson.

Early Tuesday morning, Kananaskis Country Public Safety responded to the area in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park after getting a report of the overdue scrambler, which is basically an experienced hiker who heads into high terrain, from a day earlier.

"It started as a rescue," said Mike Koppang, public safety specialist with Kananaskis Country Public Safety.

"We were able to locate the vehicle at the area where people park for Mount Lawson.

"We went for a flight on the mountain to see if we could locate the individual on the mountain."

When they went up in the rescue helicopter, Koppang said they weren't able to find the man but they did see some avalanche debris and footsteps going down a gully.

"The steps were taken out by avalanche debris and there were no tracks leading out," he said.

They believe the man had summited Mount Lawson and triggered the avalanche on the way back down.

"The subject had made the summit and while on descent triggered a size 2.0 loose wet avalanche and was critically buried in a terrain trap," added a report on the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides blog.

"The avalanche was triggered on a (northeast) aspect at approximately 2,500 metres.

"The avalanche was quite narrow, but travelled over 500 metres vertical distance and funnelled into a prominent gully feature lower on the mountain."

Koppang said the scrambler is a man from Calgary, but noted any further details would be released by the RCMP.

No one from the RCMP returned calls, but a spokeswoman emailed a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

"The Calgary medical examiner will be conducting an autopsy later today," it said. "The name of the deceased male will not be released."

Officials noted that cold and wet weather deposited up to 40 cm of snow in the alpine throughout Kananaskis during the May long weekend.

"Numerous loose wet avalanches were observed today during the recovery operation and avalanche control work to protect the accident site produced several size 2 loose, wet avalanches that ran a very long distance," wrote public safety specialist and mountain guide Jeremy Mackenzie.

"This recent snow will take several days to stabilize.

"A very cautious and conservative approach to avalanche terrain is advised."

cderworiz@postmedia.com
Calgary man killed in K-Country avalanche | Canada | News | Toronto Sun

'When you find my body, please call my husband';
Missing hiker found dead last year kept journal
Geraldine Largay resigned herself to idea she was going to die
David Sharp, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 08:53 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, May 25, 2016 09:34 PM EDT
AUGUSTA, Maine -- An Appalachian Trail hiker whose remains were discovered last year survived at least 26 days after getting lost, kept a journal of her ordeal and ultimately resigned herself to the idea she was going to die and it could be years before her remains were located, according to investigatory documents.
Geraldine Largay, who was from Brentwood, Tennessee, hiked to higher ground in a failed attempt to get a cellphone signal, and text messages sent to her husband went undelivered, the documents show.
"When you find my body, please call my husband George ... and my daughter Kerry," Largay, who was 66 years old, wrote in a page that was torn out of her journal. "It will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead where you found me -- no matter how many years from now."
The Maine Warden Service on Wednesday released more than 1,500 pages of documents related to the search for Largay in response to Freedom of Access Act requests by several media organizations.
Largay, who went by the nickname Inchworm, got lost after leaving the trail on July 22, 2013, to relieve herself and set up her final camp the next day, wardens said. Her texts to her husband warning that she'd become lost were never delivered but were retrieved from her phone after her body was found.
"in somm trouble," she texted on July 22, 2013, the day she left the trail. "Got off trail to go to br. now lost. can you call AMC to c if a trail maintainer can help me. somewhere north of woods road."
A day later, she again pleaded for help: "lost since yesterday. off trail 3 or 4 miles. call police for what to do pls."
After she missed a rendezvous with her husband, he reported her missing on July 24, 2013, setting off a massive search by the Maine Warden Service and other agencies. Documents indicate they interviewed dozens of witnesses and conducted several searches over two years.
The last entry in Largay's journal was on Aug. 18, 2013.
Her husband, George Largay, told wardens that the Appalachian Trail journey from Georgia to Maine's Mount Katahdin was a bucket list item for her. She had started with a travelling companion, but the other hiker left the trail because of a family emergency.
It wasn't until more than two years after she went missing, in October 2015, that her remains were found about half a mile from the trail by a contractor conducting a forestry survey on property owned by the U.S. Navy in Redington Township.
The property where Largay's body was recovered is part of a Navy survival skills training facility. The Navy uses the area for its Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program.
Largay's tent was collapsed, and her body was inside. The medical examiner determined she died of starvation and exposure.
The items found with her included trail staples such as toothpaste, baby powder, a first aid kit, cord twine, a pencil and pen and a paper trail map. The battery on her cellphone was dead, but investigators were able to retrieve the data.
This photo released by the Maine Warden Service shows Geraldine Largay on July 20, 2013. (Courtesy of the Maine Warden Service)

'When you find my body, please call my husband'; Missing hiker found dead last y

 

[Tecumsehsbones]

'When you find my body, please call my husband';

"Tell him there's leftover pot roast in the fridge, the sewer payment is due, get his feet off the coffee table, and if he marries that bitch Stacy with her fake boobs I'll come back and haunt him!"

 

[spaminator]

Missing Canadian hiker's body found on Mount Washington
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Sunday, May 29, 2016 10:29 AM EDT | Updated: Sunday, May 29, 2016 02:31 PM EDT
PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. -- New Hampshire Fish and Game officials say they have found the body of a Canadian hiker who had been missing for weeks.
Lt. Wayne Saunders says hikers found the body of 47-year-old Francois Carrier of Drummondville, Quebec, off the Tuckerman Ravine trail on Mount Washington Saturday.
Carrier was reported missing on May 12, when he did not return home from a hiking trip to the Mount Washington area.
Searchers combed the Pinkham Notch area utilizing dogs and helicopters for five days, but found no clues to Carrier's location.
Saunders said about 25 rescuers from multiple search and rescue operations transported Carrier's body down the mountain from an elevation of 5,300 feet. The body was taken to the Medical Examiner's office in Concord for an autopsy to determine cause of death.
Missing Canadian hiker's body found on Mount Washington | Canada | News | Toront

Woman fails to save friend from jaws of crocodile in Australia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Sunday, May 29, 2016 08:03 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, May 30, 2016 12:47 AM EDT
BRISBANE, Australia -- A woman struggled in vain to drag her friend from a crocodile's jaws off a northeast Australian beach, police said on Monday.
The pair were in shallow water at Thornton Beach in the World Heritage-listed Daintree National Park in Queensland state when the 46-year-old woman was taken by the crocodile late Sunday, Police Senior Constable Russell Parker said.
"Her 47-year-old friend tried to grab her and drag her to safety but she just wasn't able to do that," Parker told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Police said the women were swimming in waist-deep water, while paramedics reported they were wading in knee-deep water when the crocodile struck.
A rescue helicopter fitted with thermal imaging equipment failed to find any trace of the missing woman Sunday night, Parker said, with the search resuming Monday with a helicopter, boat and land-based search teams.
The missing woman is from Lithgow in New South Wales state.
The survivor from Cairns, 93 kilometres (58 miles) south of Thornton Beach, was taken to a hospital in Mossman suffering from shock and a graze to her arm inflicted as the crocodile brushed against her, Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Neil Noble said.
"The report that we have from the surviving woman is that they felt a nudge and her partner started to scream and then was dragged into the water," Noble told ABC.
The two women might not have been aware that the area was well known as a crocodile habitat, Parker said.
But Warren Enstch, who represents the area in the Australian Parliament, said the beach was beside a creek where tourism operators run crocodile-spotting tours. Enstch said the two tourists had to have seen plentiful crocodile warning signs in the region.
"You can't legislate against human stupidity," Entsch said. "If you go in swimming at 10 o'clock at night, you're going to get consumed."
The attack occurred near where a 5-year-old boy was taken and killed by a 4.3-meter (14-foot) crocodile from a swamp in 2009 and a 43-year-old woman was killed by a 5-meter (16-foot) croc while swimming in a creek in 1985.
Darwin-based crocodile expert Grahame Webb said while most crocodiles were found in rivers, swamps and other protected waterways, open beaches in northern Australia were not safe.
"There've been quite a lot of attacks off beaches and off coral reefs where people are snorkeling," Webb said.
Crocodile numbers have boomed across Australia's northern tropics since they became a protected species under federal law in 1971, and they pose an increasing threat to humans.
Woman fails to save friend from jaws of crocodile in Australia | Australia | Wor

 

[spaminator]

Man riding on roof of moving car dies in B.C. rollover
THE CANADIAN PRESS
First posted: Wednesday, June 01, 2016 11:00 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, June 01, 2016 11:11 PM EDT
VERNON, B.C. -- Police say a 27-year-old man is dead after the car he was riding on top of rolled over in Vernon, B.C.
RCMP say they received a report of a single vehicle collision early Wednesday morning, and arrived to find a man dead at the scene.
Investigators determined the man had been "roof surfing," or riding on top of the 2007 Dodge Caliber as it travelled down the road before it rolled over.
Police say the a 35-year-old man, a 40-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman were inside the car when it crashed, but the two men walked away from the scene.
One of the men went to the Vernon RCMP detachment later in the day and was released without being charged.
RCMP and the BC Coroners Service are investigating.
Man riding on roof of moving car dies in B.C. rollover | Canada | News | Toronto