Altitude Sickness Leads to Mt. Shasta Climber’s Death
Last week, an Oakland climber named Tom Bennet died while descending from the summit of Mt Shasta. My condolences to friends and family.
Via the AP and NY Times:
A rescue team on Thursday recovered the body of a missing climber who was stranded near the summit of Mount Shasta in Northern California. Rangers found the body of 26-year-old Thomas Bennett of Oakland in a snow cave where his friend had left him before going for help, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said.
I read this news with particular interest because by preliminary reports, it seemed that he was struck suddenly with a severe case of altitude sickness. That seemed odd given Shasta’s relatively moderate altitude of 14,179 feet. Today that diagnosis was confirmed by an autopsy concluding that Tom died of High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE).
Via Mercury News:
A preliminary autopsy report of the Oakland climber found dead on Mt. Shasta reveals high altitude sickness as the cause of death, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s office said Wednesday. The cause of death was high altitude cerebral edema due to acute high altitude sickness, according to the sheriff’s office.
Having been up and down that mountiain a few times myself, I find it quite disconcerting that a strong climber at such modest altitudes could so quickly become incapacitated by HACE. I’ve never considered altitudes below 15,000 feet to be dangerous in any way – beyond the occasional headache.
I wonder if there are statistics somewhere that record the number of HACE/HAPE deaths and the respective altitudes at which the occurred. Is it possible that 12-15,000 feet is more dangerous than we all think?
Being a Shasta resident, I was also very surprised this could happen.
My neighbor is a rescuer, and was on the Chinook search and rescue helicopter that flew up to recover Tom Bennett.
He says that 14,000 feet can be dangerous, but it’s normally not a problem because nobody spends the night or an extended time on the summit during a weekend trip like those guys did.
They came from the Bay Area at sea level, so trying to acclimate from 100 to 14,000 ft within 3-4 days is indeed too much for some. Lots of Shasta climbers are affected by HA sickness, but most are able to descend so fatalities are very rare.
I came across this page in a google search – quite by accident. As Tom is my son, I am interested in communicating with those who have written in this chain.
My feelings are not so different from those expressed by Matthew DiPietro – cannot quite fathom how one so healthy as Tom, and who worked at altitude much of the time, could die in this way.
It is something I will live with for the rest of my life.
In an attempt to bring life out of my son’s death, I have been working with alpinists and other folks to produce a winter climbing booklet – hopefully to save other mothers from getting that phone call that I got last year. We are also working on a scholarship in Tommy’s memory, as I write this.
So, anybody who has written in this chain, please fell free to email me at goodfriendmarketing@gmail.com
I would be interested in all you have to say about what happened, and in updating you on the efforts mentioned above.
Mary Kenny
Hello Mary. I’m so sry for your loss. I’d be more than happy to help with your efforts in any way I can. I can help promote your winter climbing booklet and Tommy’s scholarship. You can email me anytime at editor@sierrajournal.com…