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Updated: Fall From Grinnell Glacier Trail Kills Hiker In Glacier National Park

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By Kurt Repanshek - July 19th, 2011

Editor's note: This updates with the identification of the hiker.

The dangers of snowfields, perhaps unexpected at mid-summer, played out in Glacier National Park when a hiker died from injuries sustained in a slide down a snow-covered slope off the Grinnell Glacier Trail.

Nicholas Ryan, 30, from Omaha, Nebraska, was hiking with two friends Monday morning when he slid 50-100 feet down a snowfield along the trail, park officials said Tuesday.
An interpretive ranger was leading a hike elsewhere on the trail Monday morning when a report was received just before noon that a male hiker had slid down a snowfield.

Park rangers and personnel from the Kalispell Regional Medical Center’s ALERT helicopter and Minuteman Aviation responded to the incident in the Many Glacier Valley. 

Medical personnel pronounced Mr. Ryan dead at approximately 1:53 p.m.  The Glacier County Coroner’s Office is establishing the cause of death.

Comments

Submitted by admin on July 25, 2011 - 5:39pm.

Sorry, I wasn't very specific...about 2 miles from where the boat dock on Josephine Lake.


Submitted by admin on July 28, 2011 - 11:43am.

We hiked the trail a couple of days before this accident and there was a warning sign in place. It was the first time I'd done that hike and I'm guessing it was about a mile from the end.


Submitted by admin on July 29, 2011 - 8:29am.

We were going to hike the trail a week earlier, but told by a ranger that we needed technical ice climbing gear if we wanted to continue past the ropes.


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