Death on Olympus

High over the blue reaches of Washington's Elk Lake, the cool snow fields of 7,954-ft. Mount Olympus loomed white and tempting. After a couple of days of working the lake, a group of fishermen decided that a little mountaineering might be a fine diversion. British-born Biochem ist Anthony Levy, 30, who had joined the fishing party at the last moment, had done a little snow climbing; two of the other three had no experience at all. University of Washington Medical Student Richard Neal Jr., 24, made the trek in smooth-soled shoes. Even so, all four of the amateur alpinists managed to claw their way to the icy summit of Middle Peak, second highest of the mountain's three.

On the trip down, as the afternoon wore on, the climbers looked for short cuts. Rashly they scrambled down a 250-ft. cliff to a wide and treacherous snow field. Suddenly Neal disappeared. "I was walking on some wet rock," he remembered later, "when I slipped and fell into a 75-ft. crevasse." Hastily the climbers lowered a rope. The end caught in a cranny beyond Neal's reach. Ice water trickled into Neal's upturned face. Three-quarters of an hour passed and still he could not reach the rope. Then Tony Levy told the others to lower him into the crevasse. He got a rope around Neal and the men above finally managed to haul Neal to the surface. He was covered with cuts and bruises and blind with pain.

Pulling Tony out was another proposition. Near the top he caught on a bulge in the snow wall; he could reach no foothold. He was soaked and cold and tired. Once they got him almost high enough to touch his pack, but when dark came, the men on top gave up. Their strength was gone, and Tony still hung in the crevasse. All they could do was keep on talking. They heard Tony's last words--which no one remembers--some time near midnight.

Next morning, with the aid of other climbers, Tony Levy's body was brought to the surface. In a Seattle hospital Dick Neal talked about the chance acquaintance who had saved his life: "He was a wonderful fellow. He said it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen; the kind of place he wouldn't mind dying in--if he had to die."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.