ASPEN | A Colorado woman died in a 900-foot fall while scaling a dangerous peak in the Rocky Mountains near Aspen, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office said.
The woman was hiking solo on Capitol Peak when a witness saw her fall into an area known as Pierre Lakes Basin on Saturday morning, according to the sheriff’s office. The witness said a rock handhold the victim had been using gave way.
The woman’s body was recovered by Mountain Rescue Aspen and flown out by helicopter.
Capitol Peak, located in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, at 14,137-feet high is one of Colorado’s most difficult mountains to climb because of the extreme exposure and loose, crumbling rock, the sheriff’s office said.
On Sunday, a distressed climber on Capitol Peak was rescued by helicopter after making a phone call requesting assistance. The man had been climbing off route, was dehydrated and out of food and not properly equipped for the terrain, the sheriff’s office said.
Should people be climbing solo? Shouldn’t they be tethered? Sad that this person’s choices led to her death.