Colorado, Colorado National Monument

Publication Year: 1950.

Colorado: Colorado National Monument. On 29 May 1949 Otto Schied, a German exchange student and high school senior, plunged 300 feet to his death. A companion, Kenneth Hesler, grabbed at Schied’s tumbling body and fell 30 feet himself, but escaped serious injury because he landed on a ledge. Details of this accident are lacking, but it appears that the youths were scaling a sheer cliff to reach a vantage point to take pictures.

Source of information: newspaper accounts.

Analysis. All that needs to be stated here is again that there was apparently no experience and no rope. It seems that Schied put his weight on a rock that loosened.