Two men died while climbing in the Wind River Range in western Wyoming on Friday afternoon, six days after a double climbing fatality in Grand Teton National Park, . The victims were identified by the Fremont County coroner’s office as Keith Murray Henderson (57) of Lander, Wyoming, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and Jonathan Peter MacDonald (23) of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Fremont County Undersheriff Ryan D. Lee told the AP another climber witnessed the two fall while rappelling down the 11,884-foot-tall Pingora Peak in the Cirque of Towers area. The bodies were transported by helicopter to Lander, Wyoming, on Friday afternoon.
Lee told the AP that the climbers were experienced and Fremont County Search and Rescue is inspecting their gear.
“We're looking at everything, whether it was technique, the way things were rigged up, or whether it was a failure in a piece of equipment,” Lee told the AP.
Less than a week earlier, two women fell approximately 200 feet to their deaths while climbing Teewinot Mountain in Grand Teton National Park.