Printable View
At least he died doing something he enjoyed, instead of dying at work...then again, if he wasn't retired or involuntarily out of work, maybe he had a job he loved. Hard to say.
The guy's daughter lives in my neighborhood. I feel sorry for them with it being Father's Day and all.
Hiker dies on Mount Olympus
By Lindsay Whitehurst
The Salt Lake Tribune
06/19/2010
A hiker died of a likely heart attack on Mount Olympus Saturday despite the efforts of several strangers to help him, according to police.
Witnesses saw Paul Butterworth, 58, of South Jordan struggling to breathe about 11:30 a.m. on a steep part of the trail close to the top of the mountain, said Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder.
A woman called 911 as three other hikers in the area stopped to help. Directed by dispatchers, they performed CPR for 90 minutes as rescue crews tried to reach the man by helicopter. High winds kept the copter from landing and crews were sent up the mountain.
About 1 p.m., medics on the phone with the hikers asked them to take the man's vital signs, and confirmed he had died. A crew brought his body down the mountain on a one-wheeled stretcher, said Unified Police Department Lt. Don Hutson.
I hiked Mt. Olympus with a friend from back east who had never been hiking before. When we were at the peak, we noticed the life flight helicopter flying around near the trail head so we thought a climber had fallen or something along those lines. We didn't think too much about it, enjoyed the view from the peak and headed down. As we were about 1/4 mile down the trail from the ridge, we ran into a small group of people with him. They said they had tried CPR for about 30 minutes and were waiting for SAR to hike up. The location we were at was covered well by the trees so I think the helicopter was trying to locate the group with the victim. My friend and I were with the group for a few minutes before a person came up the trail and around the corner to see to their surprise a deceased man on the trail with a group of people at his side. We decide to head down to turn around any hikers coming up, mainly because there we several groups with children and that is a shock for anyone hiking to stumble upon and he deserved more respect than to be a sight to see / obstacle to the peak. We alerted several groups before about midway down meeting the first SAR team headed up, we told them what we knew and headed down to the trail head. We saw life flight drop off 3 more SAR members just above the climbing rock as we were near the trail head. Once at the trail head we told the sheriffs what we knew.
I was surprised to see Wasatch Blvd completely closed and used as a landing pad.
Wow, that hike is a tough one. I wonder if he knew he was having problems before the hike, or did it just suddenly happen. I guess that's why they say before beginning an exercise program, consult your doctor and have a physical. Then again, some people who appear perfectly healthy, just drop dead of heart attacks. I remember Jim Fixx whose book "The Complete Book of Running" kicked off the running craze of the 70s--well he was out running one day and just keeled over and died.
and he was like in his early 30's?Quote:
Originally Posted by Wasatch Rebel
If I remember right, he was about 45.Quote:
Originally Posted by denaliguide