In what has been a horrific week in the Canadian mountains after freeskier Dave Treadway perished in a crevasse fall, world-class climbers David Lama, Jess Roskelley and Hansjörg Auer are feared dead after air search and rescue teams spotted avalanche debris, climbing gear and a partially buried body in an area the three were climbing.
According to a report in the Spokesman-Review, a Spokane, Washington paper where Roskelley was from, Roskelley was supposed to check in with his father, John Roskelley, Tuesday night. The phone call never came. John then notified Parks Canada Wednesday, which sent out an aerial search team.
Parks Canada distributed a press release stating it had assumed the climbers had perished after it found “signs of multiple avalanches and debris containing climbing equipment.”
The three climbers, all sponsored by North Face, were attempting a route on Howse Peak near the British Columbia provincial line in Banff National Park and had apparently been climbing in the area for some time, according to Lama’s Instagram page, below. Jess’s father was also an accomplished alpinist. They climbed Everest together when Jess was just 20.
“When you’re climbing mountains, danger is not too far away,” John said. “It’s terrible for my wife and I. But it’s even worse for his wife (Allison). I think it’s really important to say that he was just totally in love with his wife.”
Lama had finished some impressive climbs in the last few years and was perhaps on his way to becoming another climbing star in an era when climbing is experiencing an unprecedented run of mainstream visibility. He was with Conrad Anker in 2016 when Anker suffered a heart attack in the Himalayas on an attempt on Lunag Ri. He eventually finished the first ascent of the peak, solo, and the subsequent video went viral.
Both Lama and Auer hail from Austria. Aside from being an accomplished alpinist, Auer was a mathematics teacher who quit teaching in 2009 to concentrate on his climbing career. He has numerous first ascents to his name.
