A 66-year-old man fell at least 800 feet to his death while hiking on Washington’s Sauk Mountain over the weekend, authorities said. His death came just one day after another hiker was found dead on the same mountain.
Gary Idleburg of Olympia may have fallen as far as 1,000 feet after going over the edge of a switchback trail, according to the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses notified authorities that the fall occurred at about 3:30 p.m. local time Saturday.
Other hikers found Idleburg and directed emergency responders to his location, the sheriff’s office said. Medics tried to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Because he had fallen into a remote area marked by “difficult terrain,” crews did not complete the recovery until about 8 p.m.
Idleburg’s death followed the discovery of another hiker, Peter Kalapaca, 78, who was found unresponsive in a steep section of the Sauk Mountain Trail on Friday night. The sheriff’s office announced his death Saturday.
Kalapaca had been reported missing on the mountain Thursday. A helicopter crew located him and determined that he had died, but his body was in an area inaccessible to ground search teams. A second helicopter later recovered his remains.
The sheriff’s office expressed its condolences to Kalapaca’s family.
“While nothing can lessen the loss of a loved one, we are grateful for the extraordinary effort made by everyone involved, which allows some measure of closure for the family,” the office said in a statement.
Sauk Mountain reaches 5,500 feet and features a popular hiking route in northwestern Washington that spans slightly more than 4 miles roundtrip, according to the Washington Trails Association. The organization warns that several people have died after falling on the trail, which is “steep and narrow” and has sections eroded by hikers cutting across switchbacks.