Monika Johnson missing near alpental....

Amazing effort David, Oyvind, Ryan and all of the others in the group that located her, including the Alpental Bark folks.  I'm so sorry you had to be there for it, but she's out now.  My condolences to her friends and family and all the people she's touched in her life.

Suze here, married to TAYer SPrice. 20 years ago, almost to the day, my community lost a pair of skier/climbers -- optimistic, talented, charismatic Hope Barnes and Kathy Phibbs.

It helped the rest of us a great deal to create something in their honor. We published their photos and writings back in the day when you had to do so on paper, no forum like this existed. There are some of us who still sign summit registers as "Dr Barnes and Miss Dish".

When you are ready, make something Monika would have loved. It will help everyone.

Suze here, married to TAYer SPrice. 20 years ago, almost to the day, my community lost a pair of skier/climbers -- optimistic, talented, charismatic Hope Barnes and Kathy Phibbs.

It helped the rest of us a great deal to create something in their honor. We published their photos and writings back in the day when you had to do so on paper, no forum like this existed. There are some of us who still sign summit registers as "Dr Barnes and Miss Dish".

When you are ready, make something Monika would have loved. It will help everyone.

YES

I've thought of Hope and Kathy many times since the news about Monika emerged. When I started alpenglow.org over ten years ago, one of the first things I posted there was a remembrance of Hope and Kathy:

alpenglow.org/themes/subalpine/hope-kathy.html
alpenglow.org/themes/subalpine/enigma-range.html

It's important to keep those memories alive.

Some wonderful suggestions have been made to honor Monika at next weekend's Vertfest. That's just a start.

Like many of you my reaction to Monika’s plight affected me more profoundly than I ever expected it to.

Me too Ron, and  I hardly knew Monika. But I’ve realized that you don’t need to know someone for them to be your hero. She embodied courage, strength, skill, beauty, and modesty so fully. A hero is someone who inspires you to become a better person than you are. That is what she does and what she will continue to do.
I remember her generosity, staying way after the scheduled time at one of the glacier workshops. Most had already left while she patiently and carefully made sure that all her students had their rescue systems down. She obviously had the experience to know how important this was. I remember reading one of her trip reports in which she and Paul Russell rescued a snowmobiler from a crevasse. Her account of that day’s extraordinary events are so very modest.
My heart goes out to her family, her friends, to all those involved in the search, rescue and recovery, and most of all to Monika.

During our time living in the alps it was common folkloar that mountain people who past away were reincarnated as mountain birds. Whenever I am on peak and see a raven playing in the mountain breeze, I'm going to believe it is Monika.

Who's that [size=40pt]CHARGING![/size]?

Thanks, Monika.