Hiker falls over 800 feet to his death after another found dead on same mountain

A man plummeted at least 800 feet to his death while hiking on Washington state’s Sauk Mountain over the weekend, authorities said, just a day after another person was found dead on the same mountain.

Gary Idleburg, 66, of Olympia, may have fallen as much as 1,000 feet after going over the edge of a switchback trail, according to the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office. Witnesses who reported Idleburg’s fall told the sheriff’s office that it happened at around 3:30 p.m. local time on Saturday. 

Other hikers on the mountain initially located Idleburg and guided emergency responders to him, the office said. Although responders attempted to save his life once there, he was pronounced dead at the scene. The recovery operation wasn’t completed until about 8 p.m. because Idleburg had fallen in a remote spot surrounded by “difficult terrain,” according to the sheriff.

Idleburg’s death came just one day after another hiker was found dead on the same mountain. Peter Kalapaca, 78, was discovered unresponsive in a steep section of the Sauk Mountain Trail on Friday night, the sheriff’s office announced Saturday.

A helicopter flight crew located Kalapaca after he was reported missing on the mountain Thursday and determined he was dead. His body was identified in an area that ground search crews couldn’t access, according to the sheriff, but a different helicopter was eventually able to recover his remains.

The sheriff’s office shared condolences to Kalapaca’s family in a statement.

“While nothing can lessen the loss of a loved one, we are grateful for the extraordinary effort made by everyone involved, which allows some measure of closure for the family,” the statement said.

With a peak altitude of 5,500 feet, Sauk Mountain offers a popular hiking trail in northwestern Washington that covers just over 4 miles roundtrip, according to the Washington Trails Association. In a description of the mountain on its website, the association notes that multiple people have fallen to their deaths while navigating the trail, which, it says, “is steep and narrow, and in some places eroded from hikers cutting the switchbacks.”