It is a popular ice-climbing challenge because of its accessibility and moderate challenge.Ĭonrad told the Silverton Standard that Miller lived for the mountains and loved to teach. He also was a member of Ouray Mountain Rescue.įirst Gully is a massive, meandering cascade of ice about a half-mile past the mining ruins of Eureka, on the west side of the canyon, 9 miles north of Silverton on San Juan County Road 2. He was an instructor for Rigging for Rescue, a technical rope rescue organization, and a Ouray County EMT. Miller was a well-known member of the regional climbing community, guiding professionally for 20 years, and was employed by San Juan Mountain Guides, which has offices in Durango and Ouray. Miller’s clients found their way out, with some complications, then made contact with authorities.Ĭonrad told the Silverton Standard that Miller’s clients described a failure in a bulge of ice about four pitches up – or about 800 feet – on a section of ice Miller was climbing. The accident occurred sometime in mid-afternoon, and the call to dispatch came in about 6 p.m.
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“He was off rope about 7 feet to the left of the lead climber,” said San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad on Saturday morning. He was climbing off rope when he fell, according to statements his clients made to the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office. Mark Miller, 50, of Ouray, was guiding two European clients up a well-known route called First Gully during the final day of a four-day climbing course.
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File photo courtesy of San Juan Mountain GuidesĪn ice climber fell several hundred feet to his death on Friday in Silverton’s Eureka Canyon.