2 Die, 12 Injured as Climbing-Class Beginners Fall Down Mountain

ANCHORAGE — Members of a mountain-climbing class for beginners slipped in the snow, tumbled into their fellow students and dragged all of them 1,000 feet down a mountainside strewn with rocks. Two people were killed and 12 injured.

The accident took place Sunday evening as students in the Mountaineering I class at the University of Alaska-Anchorage made their way down from the summit of 5,000-foot Ptarmigan Peak while roped together in groups of twos and threes for safety.

One team slipped and swept the others down the 60-degree slope to a field of boulders.

“The top group lost it,” said climber Mona Eben, 43, of Anchorage. “They kept sliding and eventually they slid into me and we all got tangled in each other’s ropes.”

She added: “We hit a boulder and kept on sliding and then we hit another boulder.”

Eben suffered a broken leg and bruises.

Those killed were students Mary E. Fogarty, 40, of Anchorage and Steven M. Brown, 23, who had recently moved to Anchorage from Royal Oak, Mich.

One climber was in serious condition Monday, and 10 more were in fair condition.

The class had spent Saturday practicing techniques for ascending and descending in snow before starting for the summit of the rugged mountain Sunday morning. The peak is 16 miles southeast of downtown Anchorage.