KC/Challenger Accident

Please, no analysis or debate in this sub-forum. This is for memorial threads only.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
Navigaiter
Posts: 88
Joined: 8/10/2012
14ers: 46 
13ers: 49
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Missing Person

Post by Navigaiter »

This is very sad news. Positive thoughts and sincere condolences to Mike's family and friends. RIP.
User avatar
Duffus Kentucky Climber
Posts: 964
Joined: 8/23/2006
14ers: 34 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Missing Person

Post by Duffus Kentucky Climber »

I am so very, very sorry and hope that your grief can be assuaged by your personal memories of Mike.
It looks like the ridge is just right up there!
John Cormier
Posts: 5
Joined: 7/22/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Missing Person

Post by John Cormier »

MountainHiker wrote:Mike contacted me last year after seeing a Nova Scotia flag in one of my pictures. I’m from Lunenburg and had never done a fourteener with someone else from Nova Scotia before. So it was a first when my wife Dorthe and & I summited Quandary with Mike on Jan 14, 2012. Mike was really passionate about the mountains and liked to discuss a lot of topics. He talked about his sons and his family in Antigonish. We met again on Quandary Jan 19 of this year.

John, Joseph, Colin, Steve & Matthew and the Cormier family. I am so sorry for your loss. I don’t have any words to soften this blow. About the only thing I can relate is the mountains are like sea. Growing up by the coast I knew people, including my brother, for whom the sea was in their blood. When a ship was lost, we felt it as a community. Even if we didn't personally know someone on board, we knew someone who did. The fourteeners are like that. These past few years have been especially rough for our community. We will think of Mike when we climb. Our condolences to your family and friends.

Image

Image

Image
This is incredibly touching, thank you. Your pictures are a blessing to us. Very thoughtful, thanks again.
User avatar
OutdoorEsprit
Posts: 10
Joined: 7/24/2012
14ers: 18 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Missing Person

Post by OutdoorEsprit »

Here's a shot of Mike on our way up to Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle, July 2012. His enthusiasm and love of the mountains was a tangible thing. After just about every weekend during the summer, and a couple during the winter, we would spend a bit of time chatting about the peaks we had climbed over the weekend and which Fourteeners we were planning on climbing the next weekend. And he always had the biggest smile on his face after coming back from a Fourteeners trip. He will be greatly missed.

Image
"The mountains are calling and I must go."
-John Muir
User avatar
smrcka
Posts: 127
Joined: 8/8/2011
14ers: 58  2 
13ers: 116
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by smrcka »

RIP Mike. Very sad - condolences to his family and friends...
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. - Mahatma Gandhi

To be aware is to be alive!
ColinCorm
Posts: 1
Joined: 7/24/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by ColinCorm »

I'm Colin, one of Mike's sons. I knew he always loved to get outside and to the mountains but reading all of the stories and seeing some of the pictures that have been posted really helps to give me some comfort that he absolutely was his happiest when he was hiking and I can take some comfort in knowing that he passed while doing something he was passionate about and loved doing. Thank you to everyone who took some time to share their stories and pictures, they have really helped me. And thanks to the SAR for all of their efforts. He's going to be really missed.
User avatar
Cookiehiker
Posts: 157
Joined: 6/27/2011
14ers: 58  2 
13ers: 8
Trip Reports (1)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by Cookiehiker »

I am so sad to hear the news of Mike's passing. I can't begin to express what a pleasure it was to make his acquaintance on the summit of Red Cloud last year. It was a true delight to be able to spend time talking to him and sharing some of my summit cookies with him as we took in the glory of the sun just shedding it's light over the red mountain. His passion for mountain climbing was very apparent. There are just some people that you meet that stick out in your mind....Mike was one of those....a true lover of the mountains! My sincere condolences to his family....my heart is with you.
C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me!
User avatar
ctlee
Posts: 86
Joined: 2/21/2011
14ers: 19  4 
13ers: 45 1
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by ctlee »

Colin, my condolences on the loss of your Dad-I'm so sorry.
Live as if you were to die tomorrow-learn as if you were to live forever-----Mahatma Gandhi
User avatar
fakejox
Posts: 42
Joined: 12/31/2012
14ers: 58  2  13 
13ers: 43 1 4
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by fakejox »

To Mike's family and friends, my sincerest condolences and deepest sympathy. It has been a difficult season, but it is heartening to see what a compassionate, tightly-knit community we have.

"No man is an Iland, intire of it self; every man is a peece of the continent, a part of the maine... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankinde..."
"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart." -- Camus
uwe
Posts: 482
Joined: 5/25/2008
14ers: 58 
13ers: 45
Trip Reports (0)
 
Contact:

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by uwe »

Rest in Peace, Mike.
User avatar
Frontrangeskier
Posts: 188
Joined: 12/30/2009
14ers: 54  8  1 
13ers: 83 16
Trip Reports (5)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by Frontrangeskier »

This sucks. Take care of everyone and stay safe.
Catchy saying from someone famous.
User avatar
Lamb
Posts: 41
Joined: 1/13/2012
14ers: 26  3 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: KC/Challenger Accident

Post by Lamb »

Sorry to hear.
Post Reply