Experienced Climber Falls to His Death

Chester David Tollakson, who had scaled six of the seven highest mountain peaks in the world, died over the weekend before he could fulfill his dream of climbing the seventh peak, Mt. Everest.

But Tollakson’s wife, Lynn, said she will fulfill his dream by having his ashes scattered over Mt. Everest, the world’s highest peak, when the other members of his mountain-climbing group make the expedition next year.

“He died doing what he loves,” Lynn Tollakson said Monday. “I’m going to make sure that he reaches that peak.”

Tollakson, 58, of Studio City, and two friends were climbing Mt. San Jacinto in Riverside County on Saturday in training for next year’s expedition to Mt. Everest. The three were about 100 feet from the top of the 10,800-foot-high mountain, in poor weather that limited visibility to 5 to 10 feet, when Tollakson apparently lost his footing and fell several hundred feet down an ice chute to his death.

Steve Reneker, 38, of Riverside, who was climbing with Tollakson, said the three men had started climbing the vertical north side of the mountain at 5:30 that morning. The climbers were not roped at that time, Reneker said, because they felt that portion of the climb was not particularly dangerous.

“Everything was normal; the weather looked pretty good that morning,” Reneker said.

But as they climbed higher, Reneker said visibility dropped and the winds began gusting. About 7 p.m.--15 minutes before they would reach the top--he heard the third man in the group, Benjamin Chapman, 36, of Long Beach, yell that Tollakson had fallen.

Reneker said he followed a trail left by Tollakson’s tumbling body on the snow-covered mountainside. In the middle of a bowl, several hundred feet below, Reneker found Tollakson’s body. Reneker, a trained emergency medical technician, said Tollakson had suffered head injuries in the spill and was dead by the time he arrived.

Because of the poor visibility, neither man could seek help immediately. Reneker stayed with Tollakson’s body overnight until Chapman could seek help at daybreak.

The Riverside Mountain Rescue unit, along with a helicopter team from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, transported Reneker and Tollakson’s body from the mountainside. Neither Reneker nor Chapman were injured.

“Climbing all seven summits would have been the highlight of his life,” Reneker said on Monday. “It was a fluke. He was the best damn teacher around. He was always concerned about safety first.”

Paul Pfau, who in 1986 climbed Antarctica’s tallest peak--Vinson Massif--with Tollakson, said Tollakson’s death was a great shock to him because of Tollakson’s experience.

“He has taught generations of climbers with the National Ski Patrol,” Pfau said. “He was one tough, rugged mountaineer. But climbing is like walking across the street in that it carries its own set of risks. Dave was as good as they got in minimizing them.”

Although mountain-climbing can be dangerous, Lynn Tollakson said she never thought her husband--a retired Burbank junior high school teacher--was in any real danger because he was so safety-conscious.

“I never tried to discourage him because he loved it too much,” she said. “You can’t ask someone not to do something that might be dangerous just because it bothers you, because you deny them living life to the fullest.”