Monika Johnson missing near alpental....

Heartfelt sympathy to her family and numerous friends

Ivo

When our dear friend, Susan McKnight, was killed in an avalanche in 2002, we were all devastated and had to cope with the loss in different ways.  Susan was Monika's very close friend, and I can't imagine how painful it was for her to carry on.  Here is a quote from a PI article:

---

Monika Peters, a friend and fellow wilderness skier, said Susan McKnight was an inspiration to her and others.

"She was an amazing, totally unbelievable, Amazonian grandmother," Peters said. "She could outclimb and outski a lot of guys younger than her."

Wow...

After reading Kenji's post, I just realized something which is completely shocking to me -- that I probably knew and skied with "Kitty" -- with Susan McKnight, whose death in that 2002 avalanche accident inspired Monika to carry Kitty with her on all her trips, in memory of Susan. Yet until this moment, I never realized that they were one and the same person.

I'm almost certain that I skied with Susan and 4 others in 1998 from the summit of Mt Hood, on a Mountaineers trip -- back when the Mountaineers still did real ski mountaineering trips, back when skiing the 50-degree slopes off the summit of Hood through the Pearly Gates was a major challenge, and back when summiting and skiing Mt Hood was a huge accomplishment for me at that stage of my development as a budding ski mountaineer.

Can anyone please confirm that the woman beside me (I'm wearing the OR sun hat) in this summit photo on Mount Hood (April 30, 1998) is Susan McKnight?


Sadly, the next person over to the right in that photo (wearing the blue jacket and hood) is Paul Kulhanek -- who also died in 2002, but of natural causes while still quite young ( very old TAY thread ). Paul was a mentor to me in my first year of ski mountaineering, as one of the seasoned instructors when I took the Mountaineers ski mountaineering and glacier skiing courses in early 1997.

It's so strange how the circle of friends can close and link and intertwine sometimes in such mysterious ways.

Godspeed, Monika.  You will be missed by many.

Seattle Times story:

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...151086_skier07m.html

Now that Monika's name has been released in the press, I wonder if it would be good to change the title of this thread to include her name. That would help people coming here from the newspaper story and make it easier to find these memories in the future.

Done, Lowell. Good idea.

www.kirotv.com/news/26761828/detail.html

Interview with her brother in this article, from last night I believe.  He's holding up well but it must be terribly difficult times.

I'm bringing several old "cuddly toys" to the vertfest if anyone would like one, some are as old as me so nudging 40yrs!  PM if you'd like one.