Robbi Mecus, 52, of Keene Valley, New York, died of injuries sustained in a fall Thursday while climbing a route on the southeast face of the 8,400-foot Mount Johnson in Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve, the park said.
A trailblazing New York State forest ranger and climber who fostered LGBTQIA+ community in her field has died after a 1,000-foot fall from an Alaskan mountain last week, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed.
Robbi Mecus, 52, of Keene Valley, New York, died of injuries sustained in a fall Thursday while climbing a route on the southeast face of the 8,400-foot Mount Johnson in Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve, the park said.
Her climbing partner, a 30-year-old woman from California, was seriously injured and was rescued Friday and flown to an Anchorage hospital, park officials said.
The fall was witnessed by another climbing party on the route, who alerted the Alaska Regional Communication Center at approximately 10:45 pm Thursday, National Park Service said.
The reporting party descended to the accident victims and confirmed one climber had died in the fall. The responders dug a snow cave and tended to the surviving climber’s injuries throughout the night, National Park Service added.
Mecus, who worked for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for 25 years, mostly in the Adirondacks, searched for and rescued lost and injured climbers facing hypothermia and other threats in the wilderness, the New York Times reported.
Just last month, she helped rescue a frostbitten hiker who was lost in the Adirondack Mountains overnight, the Times reported.
Eight years ago, she came out as transgender, she said in a 2019 interview with the New York City Trans Oral History project, according to The New York Times.
Mecus worked to foster a supportive community for the LGBTQIA+ community of climbers in the North Country of New York, New York Times reported.
Following Mecus’ passing, Sean Maher, the interim commissioner for New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to eulogize his trailblazing colleague, saying the faithfully departed “exemplified the Forest Rangers’ high standard of professional excellence.”
