Seattle Geologist Dies In Nepal

KATMANDU, Nepal - A 38-year-old Seattle geologist was killed when he slipped into a crevasse on a Himalayan peak, and his body had to be left on the mountain.

Kurt Eliot Schmierer died Dec. 5 on Mount Dorje Lakpa after high winds forced a joint Nepalese-American expedition to abandon its attempt to scale the 22,987-foot mountain.

"Schmierer's crampon came off his boot and he slipped," said fellow team member Gregory Collum, 39, of Seattle.