LOCAL CLIMBER, 64, FEARED DEAD IN FALL AT KINGS CANYON.Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer A 64-year-old Agoura Hills climber who conquered some of the highest peaks on several continents fell from a summit in Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park, 461,901 acres (187,070 hectares), E central California. Largely wilderness, the park features summits of the High Sierras and two enormous canyons on the Kings River. this weekend and is presumed dead. The National Park Service, which was notified of the accident late Sunday by Ray David Dykeman's climbing partner, planned to use a Navy helicopter today to recover the body from an outcrop of a rock wall in the Devil's Crags area. Lenora Wills Dykeman recalled helping her husband pack his gear before he left his Agoura Hills home for the difficult climb. ``He was such a vigorous healthy man. I was so happy he was going,'' she said Tuesday. Lenora Wills Dykeman said her husband was an experienced mountaineer who had ascended mountains in Nepal Nepal contains part of the Himalaya, the highest mountain range in the world. Eight of the fourteen eight-thousanders are located in the country, either in whole or shared across a border with Tibet or India. and South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. and the volcanoes of Mexico. He never took risks, she said. ``He was extremely high up. He had summited and he was just on his way off the summit,'' she said. ``You can make decisions all along the line, but you can't do anything about rock sloughing off the mountain.'' Park Service officials had not determined how Dykeman fell from the rocky perch he reached with his climbing partner, a man also in his 60s who was not identified. The partner was descending with the aid of a rope and Dykeman was beginning his climb down when he fell. Dykeman's body landed nearly 1,000 feet below, said Jennifer Eisner, a Park Service spokeswoman. The partner hiked eight miles before he could reach a park ranger A park ranger is a person charged with protecting and preserving protected parklands, forests (then called a forest ranger), wilderness areas, as well as other natural resources and protected cultural resources. . ``A lot of our park is very steep, so it's in the difficult climbing range. The area has a lot of broken rock, so it's loose rock,'' Eisner said. Eisner said Dykeman's climbing partner reported the fall to a back-country ranger Sunday night Sunday Night, later named Michelob Presents Night Music, was an NBC late-night television show which aired for two seasons between 1988 and 1990 as a showcase for jazz and eclectic musical artists. . A search and rescue team was expected to reach the rugged site today and recover the body with assistance from a helicopter based at Lemoore Naval Air Station A Naval Air Station is an airbase of the United States Navy. Such bases are used to house Naval Aviation squadrons and support commands. List of Functioning US Naval Air Stations
``It's very remote. It's also midslope and it's very steep above and below,'' she said of the area where Dykeman's body lies. Lenora Wills Dykeman said her husband was familiar with the Devil's Crags area and was equipped with ropes needed for the rock walls. ``There isn't any place on the mountain where you don't have to use some ropes,'' she noted. ``It was just one of these things "These Things" is an EP by She Wants Revenge, released in 2005 by Perfect Kiss, a subsidiary of Geffen Records. Music Video The music video stars Shirley Manson, lead singer of the band Garbage. Track Listing 1. "These Things [Radio Edit]" - 3:17 2. that nobody is going to be able to understand, and that's what makes us all realize over and over again how dangerous the mountains can be.'' While there might never be an explanation for how her husband fell to his death, Lenora Wills Dykeman said she knows the Rocketdyne engineer died doing something he loved - pursuing yet another rocky peak Rocky Peak is the name of the 3rd highest point in the Santa Susana Mountains, which overlook both Chatsworth and Simi Valley, in Southern California. The peak, which is 2,714 feet above sea level, sits on the Los Angeles County/Ventura County line. . ``He had several goals. The only people who understand are mountaineers,'' she explained. |
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