McNear Buried Soon, Fell-from 'Giant's Tooth'

The ashes of Graham McNear '50, Mountaineering Club secretary who feel 1500 feet to his death near Mt. Blanc this summers, will be interred in California some time this week, club officials announced yesterday.

McNear was killed instantly when he lost his balance climbing Dent du Geant --"The Giant's Tooth"--on August 18, six miles, from the famous French peak. His body, and the body of a companion he knocked over in his fall, were recovered and cremated in Italy later in the month.

How it Happened

The HMC also revealed for the first time yesterday the complete details of the accident. The explanation cleared up several mysteries about the death--such as how the climbing rope broke although McNear prided himself on perfect equipment.

McNear was climbing in France with Irving L. Fisk '50, James Sprek of Chicago, and a Dartmouth man. According to mountaineering practice, McNear and Sprek were tied together by a long rope, and only one man would climb at a time.

The party reached a shallow ledge on the almost-vertical face of Dent du Geant. While the other three waited below, McNear continued up the face and hammered a thin piton--a metal spike commonly used by mountain-climbers for support--into a crack in the granite rock. Then he fastened his rope to the piton and continued up the wall.

Suddenly he lost his balance. The force of the fall pulled the piton out of the crack. A vertical razor of rock, jutting up from the ledge, cut McNear's rope and he continued down.

A split second later he hit Sprek on the ledge and threw him 120 feet into the valley. McNear's own body cleared the rocks and hurtled another 1400 feet. He fell through space more than 10 seconds before landing.

The fatality is the second in HMC's 25-year history. In 1947. Club treasurer Charles Shiverick 11'48 was killed in an avalanche.