Inspector Lee
Jul 16, 2004, 04:10 PM
I pulled this from the NPS Daily Report for July 15th. His obit mentions he used to work for Apple. I can't think of a worse way to go...
Yosemite National Park (CA)
Park dispatch received a 911 cell phone transfer from the California Highway Patrol on the afternoon of June 23rd. The caller reported that he was on the shoulder of Half Dome and that he’d been told by other hikers that someone had fallen off the top of Half Dome. Intern Mike Van Pelt from the Little Yosemite Valley backcountry station immediately started hiking up the Half Dome Trail. While on the trail, Van Pelt received additional reports of a man on the shoulder of Half Dome suffering from shortness of breath and chest pain. When Van Pelt reached the shoulder, park visitors directed him to the body of 48-year old Donald Anthony Cochrane of Saratoga, California, at the base of the rock. Witnesses said that Cochrane had been hiking down from Half Dome and was on the steps cut into the rock below the cables when he complained of chest pain and shortness of breath and asked passing hikers to get him help. Sometime after asking for assistance Cochrane fell, unwitnessed, from the steps. Others saw him slide and tumble approximately 300 feet down steep granite slabs. The park’s contract helicopter landed ranger/medics Dave Horne, Loren Fazio, and Keith Lober near the scene and they confirmed that Cochrane had no signs of life. Later that afternoon, Cochrane’s body was evacuated by long line under the helicopter to the Ahwahnee Meadow in Yosemite Valley.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2004/06/28/news/local/states/california/the_valley/9030060.htm?1c
Yosemite National Park (CA)
Park dispatch received a 911 cell phone transfer from the California Highway Patrol on the afternoon of June 23rd. The caller reported that he was on the shoulder of Half Dome and that he’d been told by other hikers that someone had fallen off the top of Half Dome. Intern Mike Van Pelt from the Little Yosemite Valley backcountry station immediately started hiking up the Half Dome Trail. While on the trail, Van Pelt received additional reports of a man on the shoulder of Half Dome suffering from shortness of breath and chest pain. When Van Pelt reached the shoulder, park visitors directed him to the body of 48-year old Donald Anthony Cochrane of Saratoga, California, at the base of the rock. Witnesses said that Cochrane had been hiking down from Half Dome and was on the steps cut into the rock below the cables when he complained of chest pain and shortness of breath and asked passing hikers to get him help. Sometime after asking for assistance Cochrane fell, unwitnessed, from the steps. Others saw him slide and tumble approximately 300 feet down steep granite slabs. The park’s contract helicopter landed ranger/medics Dave Horne, Loren Fazio, and Keith Lober near the scene and they confirmed that Cochrane had no signs of life. Later that afternoon, Cochrane’s body was evacuated by long line under the helicopter to the Ahwahnee Meadow in Yosemite Valley.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/2004/06/28/news/local/states/california/the_valley/9030060.htm?1c
