September 1, 1956
Banks Caywood and his party were descending Little Bear after completing the traverse from Blanca Peak. They descended via the West Ridge when Caywood fell an estmated 500 feet to his death.Source: Accidents in North American Mountaineering, 1957
August 5, 1967
Harold Affsprung and his party were ascending a route to the West of the summit up a gash on increasingly difficult terrain when Affsprung left the group to scout ahead. The party heard rockfall and saw Affsprung hurtling past in a gully next to them, apparently already dead or unconscious.Source: Accidents in North American Mountaineering, 1968
August 11, 1990
"There was a fatality on Little Bear on 8/11/90. I don't know all the details, but based on what the rescue team told us at the time, the climber got separated from the rest of his party while descending the west ridge in a nasty thunderstorm. They found his body below the cliffs on the west ridge somewhere to the east of the gully to get to the crest of the ridge. They airlifted the rescue team in and out by Army Chinook helicopter."Source: "Rijaca" - Fourteenerworld Forum
September 8, 1993
Gary Nassif was rappelling down steep snow when rockfall caused his death.Source: Rocky Mountain News
September 5, 1998
A 43-year-old male with the last name Coil was killed from rockfall.Source: colomtnclimb.freehosting.net
August 16, 2000
Ray Sullivan and his party had successfully climbed the peak and were descending when Sullivan lost his grip and fell 130 feet down the Bowling Alley. He was rescued and found to have fractured his neck, and suffered many cuts and a sprained ankle.Source: home.attbi.com/~rsullivan116
Unknown Date - Recent
"A friend of mine was hiking with an engaged couple and I believe one other person... they made it to the top alright. The husband-to-be made it down the hourglass and was positioned to take a picture of his fiancee coming down. My friend Steve had just finished roping in the girl when someone knocked rocks off from above... Steve managed to dive under a rock shelf and avoid serious injury... the girl was beaten pretty bad, but managed to avoid death... her fiancee was killed instantly and they had to hike in the next day with rangers to recover his body."Source: Erin Burr - Fourteenerworld Forum
July 14, 2001
Richard Kelly was hit with rockfall in the Bowling Alley and tumbled 200 feet before coming to rest. His brother went for help and rescuers carried him out the next day.Source: www.zwire.com
August 18, 2001
Mason Mitchell was hit by rockfall in the Bowling Alley while ascending, injuring his lung and spleen.Source: Pueblo Chieftan
August 2, 2003
John Boyles had summited with his son and was descending a gully off-route at the 13,000' level in a lightning and rain storm late in the afternoon. He slipped on loose rock and fell a fatal 500 feet at 5:00 p.m..Source: The Gazette - Colorado Springs
July 2, 2006
"A climber was killed from a fall taken from the upper headwall (just below the Blanca-Little Bear ridge) of the Northwest Face route on Little Bear yesterday. He was an experienced climber. The party had been using gear prior to the accident. They were not tied in at the time. He tried to move on a large rock that appeared to be solid. It came off on top of him. The initial fall was about 20ft, but he continued to tumble down for about 300-400ft. He died during the fall/tumble from multiple head contusions (in spite of the Petzl Ecrin Rock helmet he was wearing), severe internal injuries, and severely broken extremities. It occurred about 10 AM. The rescue-turned-recovery operation began almost immediately due to radio communications available in the area. His partners reached him about 20 minutes before assistance arrived. A nurse and an experienced SAR member concurred that he had deceased. The recovery operation began immediately. The body was lowered 700-800 ft. to the scree field below the lower headwall where the county SAR team took over from the climbers. Sleet & rain hampered the operation, in particular over the waterfall in the gully north of the "black hand". The body was then driven out by one of the SAR team members. The operation was wrapped up at about 10pm. His partners were uninjured."Source: Mountainproject.com
Little Bear Peak from the southwest