BREAKING: Fifth climber dies on Capitol Peak this summer
Courtesy Kevin Berrigan
A 21-year-old man died Sunday on Capitol Peak, making it the fifth fatality of the summer on the 14,131-foot mountain.
The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Mountain Rescue Aspen was working on recovering the man’s body Sunday after his climbing partner called the sheriff’s office.
Early reports were that the man died in the same place an Aspen couple fell to their deaths a week ago; the bodies of Ryan Marcil, 26, and Carlin Brightwell, 27, were recovered Aug. 22.
“MRA is recovering another body from Capitol right now,” Glenwood Springs resident Chris Hagler wrote on the 14ers.com Facebook page. “This is another horrible sad story. Stay on the route and do not descend North Face! We are losing people scaling straight across K2 to Knife Edge instead of descending to stay on route then ascending back up to knife edge and also trying to descend North Face. Our last 3 climbers perished on North Face.”
Two other people died on Capitol Peak earlier this summer in separate incidents. Since 2003, nine people have died climbing the fourteener.
Jake Lord, 25, fell nearly 300 feet on July 15, and Jeremy Shull died Aug. 6 after falling from the Knife Edge area; both men were from Parker, Colorado.
Release of the climber’s name was pending notification of next of kin.
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