Carolyn Randall’s passion was climbing, and it took her life as she descended the Matterhorn Thursday, her 57th birthday.
A service is planned for later.
Randall, of Fort Collins, had climbed several of the world’s most famous peaks. She died on the mountain along the Switzerland-Italy border with another climber, the Rev. Vince Bousselaire, 55, of Arvada. Kevin Willey, 46, of Fort Collins, who was climbing with the pair, survived.
Randall and Bousselaire died when they went over a precipice.
“She always said climbing was risky,” said her son-in-law, Reginald Coler of Riverside, Calif. “She said that if she died before her time, she wanted it to be when she was mountain climbing.”
Randall “was very careful, well-trained and always measured up,” said her husband, Harold Randall. “I never knew anyone with such inner strength.”
The three climbers made up one of two teams from the Boulder-Fort Collins area climbing the Matterhorn. The other, a six- member group, already had descended.
Carolyn Randall and her companions were descending when an electrical storm started. They decided to speed up their descent to escape the lightning.
While on a snow field, they were unconnected to one another, though each was wearing a rope harness.
As the three traversed the snow field, Bousselaire started slipping.
Randall and Willey yelled at Bousselaire to “self arrest,” which means sticking a climbing axe or pole into the snow to get a foothold, said Erica Coler, Randall’s daughter.
Bousselaire tried but couldn’t stop and began tumbling.
His rope became entangled with Randall’s, and they fell over the precipice, said Coler, who lives in Riverside, Calif.
They both fell several stories, Coler said. “We’ll probably never know all of what happened.”
“She was a very strong, determined and focused person,” said Steve Martin of Wellington, who had planned to climb the Matterhorn with the second group but had been injured.
Martin, who had been Randall’s climbing partner for several years, said Randall was “in total ecstasy” when she reached the summit of the Matterhorn, which he called “one of the most dangerous mountains” to climb.
Carolyn Ricca was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 7, 1951.
She married Harold Randall on Feb. 14, 1979.
A registered nurse, Randall also had a master’s degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. She lived for a while in Africa, where she worked with HIV/AIDS patients and in maternal and child health care before moving to Colorado.
When she got to Colorado, she went climbing and “she took off,” said her daughter. “When she got the bug about something, she went full bore.”
Randall was a search professional with the Larimer County Search and Rescue Team, a senior mountaineering instructor with the Colorado Mountain Club and a certified wilderness EMT.
In addition to her husband and daughter, Randall is survived by her son, Ben Randall of Bend, Ore.; three grandchildren; two sisters, Cindy Ricca of Orlando, Fla., and Tina Ricca of Chicago; and two brothers, Brooks Ricca Jr. of Palm Beach, Fla., and Bruce Ricca of Tallahassee, Fla.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
