Rest in Peace, Terry Mathews

[Dancesatmoonrise]

Terry, you will indeed be missed.

My condolences to family, friends, and all of us, our beloved 14ers community, whom Terry expressly considered family.
And to you, Susan, for the terrible loss you must be feeling now. My heart goes out to you.
And especially to Terry's mom and dad. Know that Terry was so loved and cherished by many of us here.





September 17, 2010. Terry had just completed Crestone Peak, the Crestone Traverse, and Crestone Needle, in a single daytrip.
He is seen here enjoying some photography after his long day in the mountains.





March 19, 2011, winter gathering on Harvard. Kiefer, Greg, Steph, Steve, Dave, Terry, John.






October 29, 2011, Quandary, "Winter Welcomer." Terry was truly the life of the party: intelligent, creative, humorous. He will long be missed.




.

[hansolo35]

I've never met or climbed with anyone on this site, as I live in California and mostly climb alone. But I have to admit That when I first got on 14ers.com a few years ago, it was Terry Mathews trip reports that I read the most, merely to kill time while bored at work. I thought he was a little odd, and I found it especially amusing when he wrote his thank you speech to this forum when he completed the 14ers how he would keep it short (or something like that) and then proceeded to ramble on and on...but what he had to say was worth the time reading and actually endeared me to his life story. For the past year or so I was actuality wondering where his trip reports were...it was as if he had dropped off the face of the earth, and I found myself missing his narratives. Today logging on to 14ers to read another trip report or two, I was literally Stunned to hear that he was gone. Shocked in a very sad way. I feel a certain kinship to tmathews than anyone else on here, although I never knew him and despite the fact that I thought him a little strange. In light of all this, I feel an immense amount of personal sadness over his passing, and it feels nice to see all the people posting here expressing their thoughts and feelings regarding Terry. I wanted to add mine. He has obviously had a far-reaching positive impact on many people in the mountaineering community, both far and wide...including me. Rest in peace indeed tmathews. My loss that our paths never crossed....

[somethingrandom]

RIP Terry-

You were always so much faster than me so we never really 'hiked' together but I remember how cordial and upbeat you were at the Winter Welcomer some years back and thanks to Corey, I remember having fond memories of the hubub that surrounded this gathering too.

Rest in Peace Terry. We never had the chance to hike together, but I did know him through the 14er.com gatherings and thought he was a really nice and caring guy The last time I saw Terry hiking was when RJansen, Benfromtheast and I's climb of Redcloud and Sunshine. He had climbed some other route and beat us to the top of Sunshine (We thought we would be the first to summit that day). My thoughts rest with his family, may you all find peace.

- CB

You will surely be missed Terry.

[Bean]

Shitfuck. At least he's no longer suffering.

[ChrisinAZ]

Sad news...while I knew he had his struggles, I had hoped he was finally beginning to overcome them. I only hiked with Terry on his finisher trip to Chicago Basin, but there, at least--and probably on most of his journeys to the mountains--he was at his happiest. I hope he has found peace now, and give my condolences to his family and friends.

[CarpeDM]

I first met Terry on the Crags route on Pikes peak. We were both pretty new to 14ers. It was just a meeting in passing, but I remembered him and his enthusiasm. I met him in person only twice after that, but I came to know Terry a bit better through his posts and trip reports. Yes, he was a bit quirky. And I admit that I was not too happy with one thing that he did in relation to me personally a few years ago. But I also knew, then and now, that it sprang from a real concern he had for another member of the 14ers.com community. He was a gentle soul who cared deeply for other people.

I knew that he had disengaged from the 14ers.com community last year, but I didn't know why. Then, just several days ago, after I had commented on a thread here, out of the blue, he sent me a PM to provide some helpful information. I replied that it was good to hear from him. And I thought that the PM indicated that he might be re-joining the Forum. Little did I know the turmoil he was going through. I was stunned to hear about it. His premature death has hit me more than I could have imagined. I'm so sorry for all his friends and family. Rest in peace, Terry.

Susan, thank you for posting.

DaveM

[speth]

I hope Terry's parents are dealing with this as best they can... Sad news.

Ian, I remember being on Quandary for that hike in October where Terry was dressed up in the crazy outfit - I was chitchatting with him when he spotted you coming near, and I specifically remember him giving out a yelp of surprise and happiness when he spotted you and Dorthe and giving her a big hug.

I have the unfortunate honor of poisoning Terry with a cookie that had peanutbutter in it - a group of people met in Aspen last year for an avalanche awareness class, and Apple made a large batch of No Bake cookies for me to bring and share with everyone that I was planning to see there. When I started doling them out, Terry asked me specifically, "There's no peanuts in this, right?" I didn't think there was, so of course I said NO WAY and he ate one.

So of course, a minute later he started to get a terrible allergic reaction to the peanutbutter that was in the cookie and Jerry and I followed him up to the hospital to get it sorted out. Jerry kept trying to make me feel better, going, "No, no, I'm sure he's fine." I felt TERRIBLE, but he was okay and Terry kept saying, "Well, you didn't make them, so I shouldn't have taken your word for it on the ingredients..." and was really understanding about it being an awful mistake. I felt bad because I remember having a beer with him sometime before and when he ordered food, him being very insistent on whether the kitchen was dealing with peanuts or not, and I totally blew it. He even gave me a ride back to Aspen AFTER GETTING OUT OF THE HOSPITAL to meet up with Rob and Jeff so I could drive us back to our hotel. When I met up with them, I was kind of in shock and said like 10 times: "Oh my God, I almost killed Terry with a cookie..."

At one point, Terry was obsessed with getting 1% of all the posts on 14ers.com and he was posting CONSTANTLY on the site, some people were ticked off because he would respond to every topic in like a minute. It did get to be a little much sometimes, but it was really funny, too; he used to post on Facebook and Google Plus something like "Terry Mathews: .9994%" as he was getting closer to the goal, but it was ambiguous and never in context, and he never had a final "celebration" when he passed the 1% mark.

I know that he had his share of issues, but I'd ask that you look at him in his best light and best moments. I'm glad that he can be at peace, what solace that might be.

[Tatra]

Ufff, hate so much to see this tragic news. Met Terry during HH last year a few days before my final 14er trip. He gave me some tips on crossing Little Bear-Blanca traverse and told me that if I had done the Bells traverse, I should fine. He also mentioned that he was taking his friends to help them cross this traverse every year. I think he was more thinking about others than about himself. Hope he is in a better place now!

[--bb--]

Rest in peace, Terry. My condolences to his friends and family.

[SurfNTurf]

Terry battled his fair share of demons, and unfortunately I was directly exposed to several of them, but at his core he was one of the most selfless, generous, caring and genuinely helpful people in the climbing community. He will always be one of the giants of 14ers.com. It's not a stretch to say that he directly or indirectly influenced thousands of people, and his presence will be missed.

I hiked with Terry about a half-dozen times and bumped into him often at gatherings and group hikes. We exchanged hundreds upon hundreds of PMs and text messages, and though we'd grown apart in 2013 as he dealt with his issues, I always considered him a friend.

Two memories really stand out for me. Terry came along on my first hiking weekend after Rob Jansen's death last summer; obviously, I was an emotional wreck. Having Terry around was calming and reassuring. We spent nearly three hours on the summit of "East Crestone" reminiscing about Rob and fellow deceased climber Chris Gray, and he played a large role in my emotional recovery. Prior to that, last spring on San Luis, Terry found out pre-hike that I'd recently lost my camera on Mt. Hope. Without any hesitation, he lent me his (very nice) spare, which is something I guess a lot of people would do. Where Terry was different, however, was he also took the time to not only upload the photos, but edit them, add watermarks and create a separate online album for me to view and download. Terry always went above and beyond.

My friend, while I wish you'd made a different decision, I hope you've found peace. Thanks for everything.

Terry summits San Luis.

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Tony, Natalie, Jim, me and Terry on San Luis.

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Crestone Peak summit, with signs for Rob and Chris.

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[unclegar]

I was very sad to hear of Terry's passing. My heartfelt condolences to his parents, family and friends. I pray that you will have peace and comfort in this time of sorrow.

Terry was a major contributor here on 14ers and was always willing to share from his knowledge to answer questions anyone posted. I only hiked once with him but we periodically traded emails and PM's. Though Terry hadn't been posting on the forum recently, he still cared about it and read it. He sent me an email with a helpful answer to a question I had posted just a couple months ago. He will be missed.

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[14erFred]

Rest in peace, my mountain brother. Deepest sympathy to family and friends.