December 23, 2009

Friends and family remember climbers

By Tim Fought
The Associated Press

     PORTLAND — One of Katie Nolan’s climbing partners marvels at her vigor on Northwest mountains, including the one where she is believed to be buried under snow and ice.
     At a memorial service Tuesday, friends and family members remembered the 29-year-old Portland woman as one who lived “a life filled with adventure and a life filled with compassion for others,” in the words of her climbing partner and teacher, Rita Hansen.
     The service was the third for members of a party that ran into deadly trouble on a Dec. 11 climb of Mount Hood.
     Nolan and Anthony Vietti of Longview, Wash., are missing and presumed dead. The body of Luke Gullberg of Des Moines, Wash., was found on a glacier the next day.
     Hansen described Nolan’s 2009 checklist to several hundred people at Portland Foursquare Church. It included climbs of the tallest of Northwest peaks: Rainier, Hood, Adams, Shasta, St. Helen’s and “all three Sisters in one day.”
     The last, describing three 10,000-foot Cascade Range peaks in Central Oregon, drew gasps and murmurs from the knowledgeable in the pews. Among those at the church were climbers and members of the search and rescue teams that sought Nolan and Vietti for five days until a winter storm ended hope.
     Nolan had worked with teenage mothers, at-risk girls and homeless women. She had done volunteer work for an organization fighting sex trafficking, and this fall she began work on a master’s degree in social work at Portland State University.
     Hansen drew a connection between Nolan’s service and her outdoor exploits.
“This was her way of recharging her batteries,” Hansen said. “... The more she pushed herself, the more she had to give to others.”
     Other friends and family members recalled her extensive travels, her struggles to overcome an eating disorder and her skill, in a digital age, at writing the personal letter.
     All referred to her faith — the three climbers were described as deeply religious. Her brother, Jason, read a 2004 letter that he described as “the cry of her heart.” In it, she described the longing of humankind to be united with God and her life “in search of this home ... where one feels wholly at peace.”
     She is survived by her parents, David and Darla, her brother and sisters Heidi, Sheri and Mindy.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.