Hiker dies of heart attack in High Peaks

49-year-old hiker dies of heart attack in High Peaks

August 10, 2011

By CHRIS KNIGHT - Senior Staff Writer, Adirondack Daily Enterprise

LAKE PLACID - Paul Gervais hiked nearly 14 miles and climbed one of the most rugged peaks in the Adirondacks before he collapsed and died of a heart attack less than a quarter-mile from the trailhead.

Gervais, 49, of Endicott, died Monday night on the Van Hoevenburg Trail, about 150 yards from the Adirondack Mountain Club's High Peaks Information Center, the starting point of some of the most popular climbs in the High Peaks.

State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Ranger James Giglinto said Gervais and his family members were on their way back to their car after hiking 4,714-foot Mount Colden, the 11th-highest peak in the Adirondacks.

Full Story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise

And another one:

Hiker, 59, dies on Algonquin Peak

August 15, 2011

By CHRIS KNIGHT - Senior Staff Writer, Adirondack Daily Enterprise

LAKE PLACID - A hiker collapsed and died of a heart attack on top of the state's second highest mountain Friday, the second such fatality in the Adirondack High Peaks in less than a week.

Alexander Kazimirov, 59, lived in Dryden and was a staff scientist at Cornell University. He collapsed near the summit of 5,114-foot Algonquin Peak around 2:45 p.m. Friday. The state Department of Environmental Conservation got word of the incident from the Algonquin Summit Steward, according to a statement from DEC spokesman David Winchell.

The steward and a hiker who happened to be an off-duty paramedic provided cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Kazimirov, and an assistant forest ranger on patrol in the McIntyre Brook area responded to assist with CPR. Three forest rangers responded to the Lake Placid Airport, met a state police helicopter with a medic on board and flew to the mountain's summit. At 3:43 p.m., the medic stopped CPR, determining it was too late to save Kazimirov, Winchell said.

http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/526061/Hiker--59--dies-on-Algonquin-Peak.html

I was in Lake Placid Friday afternoon and saw a helicopter flying low over Lake Placid towards the airport, right around 3:30 or so. I was wondering if something was going on, because I haven't often see helicopters up there.

Boy ... two in one week, that's really sad.

It's going to give me some pause next year when I do my annual spring hike with my hiking buddy. I guess when you think about it, it's somewhat surprising that this doesn't happen more often. Climbing some of those peaks is a real workout.

Face4Me wrote

 I guess when you think about it, it's somewhat surprising that this doesn't happen more often.

Agreed. Especially with the sedentary lives we lead as a Nation. Then, as we get older, some of us overlook the fact we're not teenagers anymore.

Maybe there are some who think those hikes as just like a long walk around the hood.

Snowballs wrote

...some of us overlook the fact we're not teenagers anymore.

Guilty as charged.

+1!!!