“Would you please elaborate on Luke’s accident?” My buddy Avery Shawler was seated across from me, her left eye patched and puffy from bandaging her body. I visited her to deliver her mail while she recuperated from a near-fatal fall on Devils Bedstead’s neighboring summit, an incredibly terrifying ordeal that she was fortunate to have avoided. My friend and climbing partner Luke Richardson had ascended the same peak and fallen in virtually the exact same position over a year ago today, but Luke hadn’t survived. Avery was interested in learning about Luke’s injury and how it differed from hers because I was one of the few people in town who knew them both. I had a special opportunity to try to comprehend
Luke and I initially connected when he put a partner-seeking ad on a local climbing Facebook page. He had recently relocated to my hometown of Ketchum, Idaho, an outdoor paradise, in order to pursue his passion for backcountry skiing, rock climbing, trail running, and hiking in 2015. Luke, originally from Vermont, had lived in New Hampshire for a few years, working for the Appalachian Mountain Club, and then moved to Utah for the winter to go skiing. He and I went rock climbing together that summer, making friends over crag beers and belays in different parts of the state. In the Pioneer Mountains, northeast of Ketchum, Luke hiked Devils Bedstead on his own on Saturday, September 12, 2015.
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