Crews recover body of doctor from Mt. Hood
Dr. Gary Lee died on Mount Hood Sunday after being hit by falling rock. (Composite image by KVAL Web Staff. Photo credits: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives; Willamette Valley Cancer Center) By Adam Ghassemi and KATU Web StaffCOOPER SPUR SKI AREA, Mount Hood - Climbers on Monday afternoon were able to recover the body of a Eugene oncologist who died over the weekend after summiting Mount Hood. Word that crews had reached the body of 55-year-old Dr. Gary Lee filtered down to reporters about 4:25 p.m., and efforts were being made to bring the body off the mountain. Lee, who had climbed the mountain some 40 times, was with his son, Devin, Sunday afternoon when a rock dislodged from above and hit him at about 9,000 feet on the 11,239-foot peak, knocking him a thousand feet downhill into an area of rock and ice above Eliot Glacier.
"We started heading down, and suddenly he's gone," he said. "And I'm chasing after him, going down backwards after him, so I don't actually ever see where he goes." The son said he was able to get ahold of authorities on a cell phone to plead for help. "And that was probably the worst four hours of my life - that time between when we called search and rescue and when they said they may have found him," Devin Lee said. An Oregon National Guard helicopter crew spotted Gary Lee's body Sunday night but it was in an extremely difficult place for mountain rescue crews to reach - an area of vertical snow, ice and rock. Efforts to retrieve the body began Monday but were hampered in the morning after more rope was needed to reach the area. News of Gary Lee's death shook his friends. "I think everybody is still kind of in shock," said friend Tom Bauman. "It's going to take a little while to realize what a huge loss we've got." Lee's son said he will try to live like his father lived. "One of the mottoes that he instilled in me from a very young age, I still repeat to this day, is 'No fear,' and I hope to be able to continue like him for the rest of my life," Devin Lee said. |
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Devin Lee (pictured at right) described the horrifying experience to KATU News on Monday.
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