A 19-year-old Lakewood man wandered out of the backcountry near Aspen on a broken leg Tuesday following a Monday climbing accident in which his father was killed.
Jordan Cole White, 19, broke his leg in a 400-foot fall during a mountain thunderstorm and suffered contusions and a blow to the head that knocked him unconscious, authorities said.
When White came to, he climbed down to his father about 40 feet below. After determining his father was dead, he took shelter in some trees, where he spent the night.
At dawn Tuesday, he hiked to his vehicle at the Maroon Bells Wilderness Area parking lot, 3 miles below Crater Lake, and drove himself to Aspen Valley Hospital.
Searchers retrieved the body of 49-year-old Kip Ryan White on Tuesday afternoon.
Family members were unavailable for comment.
In a statement to searchers, Jordan White said his father fell while belaying him on a technical climb at 13,360 feet. The two experienced climbers had turned back because of the weather and were roped together when the accident occurred at the popular climbing area, said Ann Stephenson, a spokeswoman for the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.
Stephenson said the younger White did not know how long he lay unconscious on the mountainside.
Searchers used a plane, horses and 11 mountain rescue personnel to locate Kip White’s body Tuesday.
The cause of his death will be determined by the Pitkin County coroner’s office. Stephenson said Jordan White reported that he and his father were experienced climbers who have climbed many fourteeners.
A website registered to Kip White said he is a singer, songwriter and guitar player who roamed “the high plains of Texas around our small farm outside of Amarillo.”
He said he enjoyed wintertime climbing with his son “to take advantage of the solace and quiet to be found there.”
Stephenson said there have been about 10 deaths and 25 rescue missions in that area during the past 20 years.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at nlofholm@denverpost.com or 970-256- 1957.
