Alaska climb turns tragic as two vanish

ANCHORAGE -- John Griber was inching his way down a 45-degree ice face on Mount St. Elias, choosing his route to avoid almost certain death if he fell, when he heard the swishing.

About 40 feet away, fellow climber Aaron Martin was off his skis and on his side, sliding with no way to stop.

"All I heard was Gore-Tex on ice," Griber said. "He was sliding on his right hip."

There was no scream, no flailing.

"I can't tell you why he was so calm," Griber said.

Griber watched for 30 seconds as Martin slid hundreds of feet and out of sight. Then he yelled for a second skier in the party, Reid Sanders. His calls were met with silence.

Martin, 32, of Lake Tahoe, Calif., and Sanders, of West Yellowstone, Mont., were presumed killed in falls on the Tyndall Glacier. A searcher in an airplane Friday spotted a body and gear about 3,000 feet below the peak and planned to return to assess if a recovery could be attempted, said National Park Service spokeswoman Jane Tranel.

Griber and another surviving climber, Greg Von Doersten, both of Jackson, Wyo., were picked up in a daring helicopter rescue by the National Guard on Wednesday, two days after the tragedy.

In a telephone interview on Friday, Griber, his voice at times cracking, said the party of four intended to climb to the summit of the 18,008-foot Mount St. Elias, the second tallest peak in the United States, and be the first to ski or snowboard to sea level from that height.

All four were experienced mountain skiers. Martin and another team had attempted the descent last year but were turned back by a snowstorm at about 15,000 feet. This year, the weather was sunny and calm, Griber said.

Paul Claus, owner of Ultima Thule Outfitters, the pilot who spotted the body Friday, dropped the climbers off April 4 at Hayden Col, a ridge just above 10,000 feet.