WEST GLACIER, Montana (
KSL.com
) — A Provo, Utah man died while attempting to descend a climbing route within Glacier National Park, park rangers say.
Emergency crews responded to a report of a fall at Mount Gould above the Highline Trail, toward the center of the park, shortly before 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Rangers say a man, identified as 42-year-old Brian Astle, was descending a “steep, off-trail climbing route” on the west face of the mountain when he fell.
Park rangers, along with Advanced Life-Support and Emergency Rescue Team and Two Bear Air, a pair of Flathead County, Montana, air rescue agencies, located Astle Wednesday evening, but he had already died. As a safety precaution, crews waited until Thursday morning before recovering his body.
His body was ultimately transferred to the Flathead County coroner. It wasn’t immediately clear how Astle fell or how far he fell. Park rangers declined to provide any additional information, adding that an investigation into the fall is “ongoing.”
Mount Gould is the highest point along the park’s Garden Wall at 9,557 feet.
