One person dies from fall on Mt. Cutler
- Details
- Created on Monday, 26 July 2010 03:31
- Written by Nathan
By JAKOB RODGERS, THE GAZETTE
A hiker who died in a fall Sunday on Mount Cutler was identified by a friend as 20-year-old Robert Doyle.
Talon Sorenson, a resident of Fountain, who graduated in 2009 with Doyle from Cheyenne Mountain High School confirmed the identity of the victim. Sorenson called Doyle "one of my best friends," adding that he was an avid hiker.
"He did anything outdoors," Sorenson said. "That was the least possible way I would have expected him to go."
Rescue crews helped an injured hiker down from Mount Cutler and removed the body of Doyle who fell and died Sunday afternoon.
The name of the injured hiker has not been released.
Firefighters started receiving multiple calls about 5 p.m. Sunday about someone falling on Mount Cutler near Seven Falls at Cheyenne Canyon Road and Mesa Avenue, according to Lt. Carl Miller, Colorado Springs Fire Department spokesman.
Rescuers, though, weren't able to get to the body for a couple hours because of the nearly vertical cliff where Doyle fell.
Standing at the trailhead of Mount Cutler more than an hour after the fall was reported, Christian Crookham, 20, said he did not see the fall. Rather, he started hearing screams shortly after he and a group of four other people had reached the top of Mount Cutler.
“We climbed up a bad way but decided instead of going down, since it was dangerous, we were going to take the trail,” Crookham said. “The other two decided they were going to try something else.
“Then all we heard was screaming.”
About eight rescuers with the Colorado Springs Fire Department tried finding the fallen person from the Mount Cutler trailhead in Cheyenne Canyon. Using dirt bikes, they were able to get to where they could hear the injured person yelling below.
Another crew of rescuers from the El Paso County Search and Rescue team worked up from near Seven Falls, eventually reaching the injured hiker. The other person was dead when rescuers arrived.
Search and Rescue spokesperson Steve Sperry said the hikers fell between 150 and 300 feet, adding that the nature of the terrain, what he called "Pikes Peak crumbly granite, made the area especially dangerous.
"If you get up close to the edge and the stuff starts crumbling, it's like standing on ball bearings," Sperry said.
About 7:50 p.m., a young man, also in his teens, emerged along with rescuers from the green shrubs lining Mesa Avenue, favoring his left ankle and using two hiking poles. Slowly, the man — wearing jeans, tennis shoes, a t-shirt and white ball cap — walked across the street and to a group of roughly 15 people standing about 20 feet away.
Halfway across, he hugged a young woman while most everyone else stood quietly behind her, weeping.
Gazette writer Matt Steiner contributed to this report
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