Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park, Grand Teton. On 3 September a party of four had completed the ascent of the Grand Teton under good weather conditions. As the party was descending by the Owen Route Mr. Newcomb saw that the party was beginning to show signs of fatigue. At a point about halfway between the “Upper and Lower Saddles” he asked the members of the party to remain in position on a ledge while he looked for a spot where they could rest awhile and rope up for a short section of rather difficult rock they were coming to just below them. As no one saw Mrs. Rosenberg start to fall it has been supposed that she attempted to follow Newcomb and slipped or lost her balance while getting off the ledge. She slid down a short, almost vertical, section of rock and then across a gently sloping ledge about 5 feet wide. Then down about a 30 foot steep couloir onto a steep snowfield in the bottom of the main couloir

and she continued to fall and tumble for several hundred feet down the snowfield. The other members of the party descended to where she stopped and determined that she had been killed during the fall. The party then returned to the valley and reported the accident to the Park Service. A 10 man rescue team was dispatched at daylight the next morning to evacuate Mrs. Rosenberg’s body to the Lower Saddle where it was picked up by helicopter and brought to the valley.

Source: F. Douglas McLaren, District Ranger.

Analysis: It is believed that possibly Mrs. Rosenberg did not understand exactly what Mr. Newcomb had meant when he asked her to stay where they were or that she might not have heard him.

The area where the accident occurred is not exposed and nearly all the parties travel through it unroped, and normally only the guided parties rope up for the section below that has a slight amount of exposure.