FREMONT COUNTY, Wyo. — A hiker succumbed to injuries after suffering a major fall off of Gannett Peak on Sunday, Aug. 27, according to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO).
FCSO received an emergency call around 9 a.m. on Sunday from a hiker who said that his hiking partner had apparently fallen from Gannett Peak in the Wind River Range, Wyoming’s tallest peak. He reported hearing falling rocks and then being unable to communicate with his partner.
Weather prevented the aerial search from beginning until 2 p.m. that day, which yielded no results. The surviving hiking partner was airlifted off the mountain.
The following day, Tip Top Search and Rescue members located the fallen climber on a glacier “several hundred feet below where he had fallen,” according to a press release.
Grand Teton National Park’s specialized climbing crew, the Jenny Lake Climbing Rangers, flew into the area and recovered the body from the glacier.
The fallen climber was later identified as Jason Graves, a 24-year-old Colorado resident who had previously worked for Teton Science Schools.
“Jason was a cautious, experienced and accomplished mountain climber, having summited 30-plus 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado, all of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, and Mt. Hood in Oregon,” according to Graves’ obituary in Lee’s Summit Tribune.
