Visits: 2
Multiple bodies were recovered this week after accidents in Glacier National Park.
On Monday morning, a 79-year-old Florida man fell to his death while attempting to ascend a steep off-trail slope with a group of friends.
The incident occurred several hundred feet above the Two Medicine Campground on Rising Wolf Mountain near East Glacier.
The friends descended to his location, yelling for help and calling 911.
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Glacier County Dispatch then diverted the call to Glacier National Park.
A Two Bear Air Rescue crew diverted from a separate incident and transported the unconscious patient to Two Medicine Ranger Station where emergency air transport service ALERT was standing by for patient care.
The man was declared deceased by ALERT personnel.
On the same day, the bodies of two local men killed in a climbing accident were recovered by Two Bear Air in the Dusty Star Mountain area.
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The climbers were identified by the National Park Service as 67-year-old Brian McKenzie Kennedy, from Columbia Falls, Montana, and 67-year-old Jack Dewayne Beard from Kalispell.
According to park staff, who knew the men personally, Kennedy and Beard were considered expert climbers who had been summiting peaks in the park for decades.
The men were climbing the mountain and planned to hike out on July 22.
The pair were reported missing on July 24 and park rangers located their vehicle at the trailhead on the same day.
An air search began on Sunday on the east side route of approach, with Two Bear Air flying on July 24 in daylight and darkness.
“Minuteman Aviation took over the air search with NPS spotters on board on the morning of July 25 and located the bodies of the climbers,” the NPS said in a release. “The bodies were recovered on the same day by Two Bear Air.”