| Magnusons and the
Hoovers did it some years ago and these couples did most, but not every, SPS
peak together. Vic and Sue met on Kofa on Thanksgiving 1981 on a trip led by
Gene Olsen. Vic wasn't the only single peakbagging male (SPM) that had noticed
Sue; I well remember the sensation she created when she started showing up on
hikes. SPF's that actually enjoy DPS trips being relatively scarce, then and
now. Vic later moved back to the East Coast but after a few months of missing
Sue he showed up unexpectedly on a Babo trip in May 83 with all his belongings
in his vehicle and the rest is history!
Vi Grasso
1930-1994 Vi Grasso
died while descending alone from HPS peak Ken Point on Saturday October 15. Her
register sign in remarked that it was windy and raining. On Tuesday her boss
became concerned and called some of her climbing friends. It was widely known
that Vi was working on finishing the HPS list but it was unclear which of the
remaining HPS peaks she was planning on doing that weekend. A list of about 20
roadheads was produced by Bob Hicks and by Wednesday at 10 AM Jon Inskeep had
activated search and rescue in five counties. At 2 PM Wednesday her car was
found where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses Highway 74. Her body was found by
search and rescue at 7 AM the next day, a quarter of a mile from the summit of
Ken Point, which is eight miles from the road head. Jon Inskeep was at the
scene and reports that her down parka, nylon windbreaker and flannel shirt were
on the ground nearby, and that she only was wearing a blouse, shorts and
polypro leggings. Jon feels that Vi's gear was inadequate for the weather
situation on the 15th and that the evidence at the scene indicated that she was
overcome by hypothermia. Since progressive hypothermia is often difficult for
its victim to ascertain, Jon feels a companion might have noticed her
deteriorating condition and warned her.
The Riverside County coroner
noted that Vi was suffering from clinical hypertension (high blood pressure)
and that her left anterior descending coronary artery was 95% occluded. This
artery is one of the main supplies of blood to the heart. With such a limited
blood flow any trauma (such as fear, cold, or a fall) could trigger a heart
attack. Neither hypothermia nor a sudden fatal massive heart attack can be
determined directly by an autopsy. These two causes of death are determined by
ruling out all other causes. The coroner ruled that |
her death was caused by
atherosclerotic coronary artery disease.
Originally Vi planned on
hiking with a friend that day. but the friend had to cancel because of other
commitments. Because Vi decided to hike alone that day we'll never know for
sure what precipitated her death. It's likely that multiple factors were
involved. We do know, however, that Vi had a real sense of living life as an
adventure, and that running risks is part, of such a life. - Editor
Remembrance
by Duane McRuer
The sudden shock wave character of Vi's passing has been very difficult for
many of us to accept. For several of us lucky ones Vi has been family, and her
not being here is only very gradually being accommodated. On the positive side,
she felt, and often expressed, that she had had a very full and wonderful life.
She traveled the world, emphasizing those places where she could climb
something or expand her knowledge of other cultures, loved opera, especially
Verdi, had a great passion for climbing and skiing, here and in Europe, got
great pleasure from cooking and entertaining her friends in many different
guises (belly dancer to Tina Turner look-alike) and surroundings - outside and
inside, and enjoyed her own company as well as that of many close friends and
buddies. For years she expressed the opinion that she'd had such a wonderful
life that anything else would be gravy! So, she. was mentally content, and
finishing on a climb was a pretty good way to go. However, we can say with
absolute certainty that she would really squawk that dying on the way down from
Ken Point was lousy timing! I can hear her now with her complaint about that
thing -- it would be something like "Mac, it was a really cruddy peak, dumb
road, almost as bad as Santa Rosa!" I also know that she would grumble about
not quite completing her current goal to finish the BPS list with three of her
buddies.
She had a great love for the Sierra Nevada and our desert
ranges. In the mountains she was a marvelous thing to behold - I particularly
recall many activities, such as her scampering about on Starr King, oblivious
to the exposure, charging the final stretches on her Sierra peaks list
finisher, gamely chugging back from Needle with a broken ankle, dozens of other
instances, mostly joyful. Vi had finished both the SPS and DPS lists. She had
also climbed |