Sunday, September 7, 2008

One of the Best

Yesterday Paul and I both took moments to reflect the loss of a very good man. For those who knew him, or have met him, the tragedy stung. He was a skilled athlete, a doctor, and a great person. Every encounter we ever had with him was positive.

Here are some words he had posted:
"My Goal in life is to fill every minute of my available spare time with as many fun things outdoors as possible, during the time I have left on this Earth."

Here are the final words he wrote in the registers at the tops of the peaks he climbed the day of his death, as recounted by a lady up in the mountains:
My husband and I helped look for David Boyd the morning he was found. We were climbing Little Bear. We were asked to look for him after we crested the ridge of Little Bear. They told us we were the first ones up there and what we should do if we saw him. Unfortunately, we saw the Search and Rescue folks lowering him down by rope as we descended the peak. He did summit Little Bear on Sept. 3rd and wrote in the register "3rd peak today!". He summited Ellingwood that same day and wrote in the register "Hammer Time!". And, he summited Blanca too, on Sept. 3rd and wrote in the register "Cool Place!". We climbed all three of the mountains on Sept. 5th with such sadness and regret.

As he was alone in on the mountain, we will never know for sure what happened, but here is what we know:
They think that Dave fell twice, once and maybe broke a leg or ankle and sent the 8 signals, then tried to move and fell the 150-200 feet and what ultimately killed him was his rib punctured his lung.
Dave activated his distress signal o/a 9:18PM on Wednesday.
The search and rescue did not get notified until 9:30PM on Thursday, a full 24 hours later.
The rescue team found him ~ 10 hours after that.

In Memoriam: Dave Boyd These photos are just a small account of how tough he was...

Paul said it perfectly: We're so independent and sometimes under-appreciate the value of the buddy system.

Catherine, yesterday, found a cross and flowers and put it in his yard. The cross said "God Bless This Family."

What a great man, what a sad ending...
mer

3 comments:

LK said...

So very sorry to hear about this tragic accident. I have been on Blanca and Ellingwood. Little Bear was on my list the day I climbed, but the rock between Blanca peak isn't stable and the exposure and rockfall was high. I didn't want to risk the traverse across the ridge. I've done my share of solo climbs in the past and consider myself very fortunate. I never wanted to burden others with the risk I was taking on climbs and that is what prompted me to go solo. Nevertheless, it doesn't make it any easier on friends and loved ones when something like this occurs...

kelly said...

How sad, Mer. Did you know him?

meredith said...

I did know him! When we lived in Houston, we would see him more frequently as Paul did adventure racing, then. Some of my closer friends were very close to him, so it has been hard to hear how many are so very sad. m