Milwaukee: Two men from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are presumed to have died while climbing an Argentinian peak last week, their families said.
Jarod VonRueden, 22, of Clyman, Wis, and Frank Keenan, 28, of Clarks Summit, Pa, were climbing Mount Aconcagua on New Year`s Eve. The 23,000-foot peak is the highest in North and South America.
The US Air Force told VonRueden`s family on Dec 31 that VonRueden`s rescue beacon had been activated, said his cousin, Julie Feldman. VonRueden`s parents said Feldman would act as the family spokeswoman.
Feldman yesterday said the family wasn`t immediately sure how to interpret the news. Relatives speculated on different scenarios, from the possibility it was pressed in error to "something majorly wrong," she said.
Daily weather updates provided by the US Embassy proved disheartening. Strong gales, bitter cold and stormy weather combined to make rescue efforts treacherous, they were told, and while relatives hoped for the best they began preparing for the worst.
By Sunday, the embassy told them rescue workers in a helicopter had spotted the climbers` bodies about 200 yards down in a fissure of rock and ice. Feldman was told the climbers were presumed dead and that it could take several days to recover the bodies.
Officials speculate the climbers fell, Feldman told The Associated Press.
Keenan`s mother, Diane Lozinger, said she had been told the two climbers reached the summit but had an accident on the way down and fell into a crevice. The deaths were difficult to grasp, she said, because Keenan had trained daily for years and focused specifically on rescues from crevices and survival techniques. A student at Johns Hopkins University, he hoped to someday work as a guide for international mountain climbers.
But Keenan also recognised the dangers in climbing, his mother said. She recalled stopping him for a kiss as he rushed out the door for this trip. He knew she was frightened.
"He said, `If anything happens, just remember, I died doing what I loved," Lozinger said.
VonRueden was just beginning a career as an emergency medical technician, Feldman said. He always seemed to have an adventuresome spirit, but he developed a real passion for travelling after he finished high school in nearby Watertown, she said.
