Geocaching Colorado

Denali41 informed me today that Carolyn Randall, one of my hiking partners and fellow cacher perished last week on the Matterhorn.    She was on the "Last Patrol" so some of you have hiked with her.  Carolyn will surely be missed by Corey myself and Denali41.

Cache on Carolyn

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/NEWS01/808120337

 

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I will hide and you will seek.

Sorry to hear about the loss of Carolyn.

 After reading the article in the Coloradoan, I am convinced that this was truly a passion for her.

 

 

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Qualiity. Not Quantity!

Tahosa:

Denali41 informed me today that Carolyn Randall, one of my hiking partners and fellow cacher perished last week on the Matterhorn.    She was on the "Last Patrol" so some of you have hiked with her.  Carolyn will surely be missed by Corey myself and Denali41.

Cache on Carolyn

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080812/NEWS01/808120337

 

That is sad news.  Thoughts and prayers go out to those close to her.

I was on the "Last Patrol" with her.

Did she go by 'Denali Queen'?

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As I find myself getting closer to the mountains, I find that the names of those who have perished, while pursuing that same love, are getting closer to me. I will hate that day when it is someone I have met or know pretty well, but I would never give up the serenity and peace I have found in the mountains... my most sincere condolences to all her friends and family...

"The influence of fine scenery, the presence of mountains, appeases our irritations and elevates our friendships." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

http://www.larimercountysar.org/inmemoriam.htm

I too was notifyed by Tahosa of this horrible news.  I just emailed the family with condolences and to ask when the services will be or if they have already happened.

Yes, Carolyn's geocaching name was Denali Queen.  She specialized in difficult mountain caches that required serious effort to approach and locate.  Over the past three years she had located many high difficulty/high terrain-rated caches.  While she did sign the cache logs, she did not log them on the cache pages as "finds"...she always expected to do so, after her intense period of climbing the world's high mountains became reduced to a more moderate pace!  I plan to obtain her password from Groundspeak administrators, so I can enter found logs for her impressive cache inventory.

 Many of you met Denali Queen at events, and some of you hiked with her on quests for mountain caches. Those who were on Tahosa's The Last Patrol on Crosier Mountain will recall her vividly. Thanks to Team Laxson for posting the photo of her in this thread.  In addition to having found all of the geocaches on Crosier Mountain, she had also hiked up or climbed the four ranked peaks of the Crosier complex.  And she shared her knowledge of Crosier with others, with considerable enthusiasm.

Her fondness for Tahosa and Corey was significant, and I am so very pleased that the two of them have named a cache in Carolyn's memory (Carolyn's Cache).  It's a difficult cache (a 5X5) that prior to the name change had been found by very, very few cachers (in terms of the final cache box at its current location). So go after it and find it in Denali Queen's memory! You will always remember the experience.

I finished reading "Savage Summit" by Jennifer Jordan not long ago. It's about women who climbed (or attempted to climb) k2.  I had no idea how much training AND $$$$$ goes intot he sport of climing (I climb fourteeners frequently, and the cost is minimal), as well as the prestige of climbing a challenging/ technical mountain.

"Denali Queen" was well-known and loved by fellow climbers and cachers. 

She passed following her passion. It's tragic and beautiful at the same time.







I plan to attempt the cache in her name either before or after the snow flies this winter. It can't be worse than my recent attmept at FRMT