Michael Gardner Climber Obituary, Death: American alpinist Mike Gardner passed away after a mishap on Jannu East in the Himalayas while he was climbing with climbing partner Sam Hennessey. With over 150 Grand Teton ascents and at least a dozen Denali ascents under his belt, Gardner was a second-generation mountain guide.
Hennessey managed to descend alongside three other climbers, Benjamin Vedrines, Leo Billon, and Nicolas Jean, according to Alpine Mag. After turning around and heading back down, Vedrine’s team was rappelling when they saw Hennessey, who informed them that Gardner had fallen. Gardner was nowhere to be found.
For the Jannu East trek, Hennessey was awarded the American Alpine Club Cutting Edge Award earlier this year. Sam Henessey will get $4,500 to try the north face of Jannu East, an alpine large wall rising 2400 meters from schrund to peak, according to the award page. Only two attempts have been made (by Hennessey’s team), and there is no way to reach the summit.
Gardner and Hennessey accomplished numerous climbs together, including the second ascent of Light Traveler on Denali (VI M7 WI6, 3,000 meters) – you can read more about it here. In an Alpinist podcast, he said, “I don’t have a really clear, well-thought-out answer…why I go to the mountains when there’s so much hurt and tragedy there for me, but there’s also so much joy, and the answer lies somewhere in the middle of these paradoxes.”
