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Two Ledyard Men Die On Mountain Precipice

The New London Day, New London, CT

August 25, 1959

 

Recovery Of Bodies Is Delayed

 

Twenty-eight hours standing upright on a tiny mountain ledge from which they could not move to escape driving rain and cold doomed two Ledyard men yesterday.

 

Alfred P. (Freddy) Whipple, Jr., 20, and Sidney C. Crouch, Jr., 21, friends since boyhood and neighbors on Col. Ledyard Highway, died of exposure on a mountainside at Franconia, N. H., as rescuers reached them at 4:30 p. m.

 

This afternoon, another party of mountain climbers was still trying to return their Sidney Crouch and Freddy Whipple bodies to the base of Profile Mountain. Like those who tried to reach Mr. Whipple and Mr. Crouch alive, the climbers literally had to claw their way hand over hand 400 feet up the almost perpendicular side of the granite mountain.

 

Made Ascent Sunday

 

The Ledyard men made their ascent Sunday over a route shunned by climbers familiar with the area, just to the west of the storied Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation from which Profile Mountain takes its name. It is a spur of 4,060-foot Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains’ Franconia Notch.

 

Mr. Whipple and Mr. Crouch were clothed only in light cotton trousers and shirts.

 

Out of reach only ten feet away form [sic] their perch and hang- away from their perch and hang- of its straps was their knapsacks [sic]. It contained warm clothing which might have enabled them to better withstand the rigors on the cold, windy mountain.

 

Winds of 50 miles an hour drove heavy rain which at times was at the point of freezing. The winds apparently had blown the knapsack from Mr. Whipple and Mr. Crouch. The ledge on which they were marooned is only two feet wide and four feet long.

 

Forced to Stand

 

The[y] could neither sit nor lie down. Soon after their ordeal began Sunday night, they tied themselves together and spent the entire time on their feet.

 

Alfred’s father, Alfred P. Whipple, Sr., a contractor, and Sidney’s father, Sidney C. Crouch, Sr., a well driller, had hurried to the scene Sunday night. They stood at the base of the mountain with 1,000 curious [sic] who watched the tortured climb of the rescue party.

 

Both fathers were overcome when word was radioed down that their sons were dead.

 

In Ledyard, the men’s mothers and other family members waited anxiously for word. But they had hoped a rescue would be made. The realities of the rigors the men faced were almost impossible to realize without actually being up on the mountain, one of the rescue team members said.

 

Young Mr. Whipple was the only son of the Whipples, who have four daughters. His mother, Catherine, has been serving as a rural route carrier in southwestern Ledyard, including Gales Ferry.

 

Sidney C. Crouch, Jr., was the oldest of seven Crouch children. The young men went to Ledyard Center School together and both were classmates at Norwich Free Academy in 1957. Mr. Crouch was a student at the Export (Pa.) Bible College. Mr. Whipple was planning to return next month to enter his sophomore year at Brown University in Providence.

 

An eight-man rescue team, seven hours en route, was within 25 feet of the ledge when its lead man heard a feeble cry:

 

“For God’s sake hurry. We can’t hold out much longer.”

 

In the few minutes it took to reach the pair, one appeared to be dead and the other was delirious. The latter expired a few minutes later.

 

Special tackle was required to get the bodies down. The rescue team, lacking the necessary implements, was forced to leave the bodies there and returned to the base of the mountain, exhausted.

 

Mr. Whipple and Mr. Crouch, although they were used to roughing it, had little experience in mountain or rock climbing. They had fashioned their own tools and apparently learned from books what they knew about the sport.

 

No one in the Franconia area could recall any previous attempts to scale Profile Mountain at the point where the Ledyard men made their ascent.

 

The first quarter-mile, from Rt. 3, is relatively easy to traverse, consisting mainly of light timber. The second quarter mile is shale which has fallen from the granite cliffs above over the centuries. It is slippery and treacherous when wet.

 

‘Technical Rock’

 

The final 400 feet up a rock wall to the ledge where the two were trapped is what mountain climbers call “technical rock” and demands special skills and equipment.

 

Their    plight            was discovered just before dusk Sunday. At first, it was believed a helicopter might be used to get them off but it was later considered impossible. Then, members of the Appalachian Mountain Club, who last year developed a rescue plan after two young people died on Mt. Washington under circumstances similar to those on Sunday, were called in. They organized three teams and began ascending at 7 a.m. yesterday, using climbing ropes tied to pitons--iron spikes driven into rock crevices.

 

John E. Taylor, 29, of Princeton, Mass., who led the team that climbed to the ledge, said they found one man slumped over, either dead or dying. The other was incoherent.

 

“He could not understand what I was saying. He yelled at me. It appeared to be a monotonous ‘hurry up.’

 

“I don’t know which one it was.  It might have been the older one  (Mr. Crouch). When I got within 25 feet of him, his head was bobbing. He was standing erect with his eyes closed.”

 

Cold Is ‘Ferocious’

 

Taylor said that by the time he got near the marooned pair “I would have to grip a rock, then loosen one hand with the other to move up.” He described the cold as ferocious.

 

David Sanderson of Portsmouth, N. H., climbed to the ledge and lowered the youth still on his feet to Robert Collins of Brookline, Mass. standing 25 feet below. Collins dressed him in warm clothing. But at that point he died.

 

Even with special equipment, the team’s climb was at the rate of only 100 feet an hour. They descended along the piton trail they had left in two hours. The pitons were left in for those who are trying to recover the bodies today.

 

Mr. Whipple and Mr. Crouch were ruggedly-built youths. They drove to New Hampshire in Mr. Whipple’s car Friday night. A camper saw them climbing Sunday afternoon. Just before darkness Sunday night, he saw them waving their shirts and the rescue operation was set in motion. Climbers from as far distant as Boston came to the scene to help.

 

Mr. Whipple had been elected president of three of his four classes at Norwich Free Academy, was a National Scholastic Honor Society member and a co-captain of the NFA football team, with which he played for three years.

 

Was Brown Student

 

In September, 1957, he entered Brown but did not return last year, preferring to get practical experience with his father in the construction field. He planned to pursue a course leading to a degree in business administration at Brown next month.

 

Mr. Whipple was born in New Egypt, N. J., Jan. 28, 1939. Besides his parents he leaves four sisters, Mrs. Calvin Fish of Bolton, Mrs. David Newman of New London, Sandra Lee, an NFA student, and Christine, who attends Ledyard Center School; his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Alfred Whipple of Ledyard, and his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Christine Beebe, West Palm Beach, Fla.

 

The Whipple family attends Groton Heights Baptist Church.

 

Mr. Crouch was born in Houston, Texas, July 30, 1938, the son of Sidney C. and Blanche Phillips Crouch. In addition to his parents, he leaves   four sisters, Fern, Emily, Gail and Edna; two brothers, Fred and Paul, and his paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey Crouch of Gales Ferry.

 

The Crouch family attends the Quakertown Church.

 

The Whipple and Crouch homes are located within a mile of each other on Colonel Ledyard Highway. The families moved there when the boys were young and they went to school together.

 

Funeral arrangements will be completed by the Byles Memorial Home.

 

 


 

Brown Student, Friend, Trapped on N.H. Cliff, Die as Rescuers Arrive

Providence Journal, Providence, RI

August 25, 1959 (pp. 1, 2)

 

Two youths, one a sophomore at Brown University, perished on the gale-swept face of an almost perpendicular 1,000-foot cliff at Franconia, N. H., yesterday, minutes after a rescue team of expert mountain climbers had reached them.

 

The victims, Alfred Whipple Jr., 20, of Gales Ferry, Conn., the Brown student, and Sidney Crouch Jr., 21, of Ledyard Conn., a student at the Export, Pa., Bible Institute, had been trapped on a narrow ledge on Profile Mountain since Sunday.

 

The finale to the tragedy was dramatic. Late yesterday National Guard troops began moving in antiaircraft searchlights. A rescue crew, hammering iron pitons into the rock and lashing themselves to the mountain wall, inched upward and reached the youths.

 

Then came the radio messages.

 

The boys had been found--they were far gone--they were delirious--and, finally, they were dead.

 

Bodies of the two were left on the ledge until today when they will be brought down.

 

The two friends had undertaken to climb Profile Mountain, an arm of 4,060-foot Cannon Mountain, by a route long shunned by experienced mountaineers.

 

Late Sunday it was discovered that they were trapped halfway up the great granite wall that towers above the trees and heaped boulders. Efforts were begun at once to reach them.


AP photo of Cannon Mountain

 

They were at a spot where no helicopter could approach them, for they were clinging to a ledge or outcrop of a mountain wall rising at an 85 to 90 degree angle.

 

Workers at Cannon Mountain aerial tramway, who had noticed lights being flashed by the stranded climbers, called George T. Hamilton, manager of the Appalachian Mountain Club huts at Pinkham Notch, for expert assistance. Mrs. Robert L. M. Underhill, a member of the AMC Mountain Leadership and Safety Committee, rounded up a rescue squad.

 

They started up the mountain at 3:30 yesterday morning under conditions described as “awful”--driving rain, 38 degrees and high wind. They reached the young men yesterday afternoon, and death came within minutes.

 

John E. Taylor, 29, of Princeton, Mass., who led the seven-man group of climbers up the trail the Connecticut pair had left--nearly straight up--talked with one of them before he died. Mr. Taylor was not sure which one.

 

He said both were dressed inadequately in light cotton trousers and shirts. He said one of them was just able to speak, but the other was slumped over and either was already dead or died shortly afterward. They had lashed themselves to the rocks.

 

Mr. Whipple was considered a fine student and an excellent athlete. He was president of his high school class at Norwich Free Academy for three years and was co-captain of the football team in his senior year. He was to return to Brown next month for his sophomore year, after having dropped out for one year to work in his father’s construction business.

 

Mr. Crouch left high school after his third year and went into his father’s well-drilling business. He had just completed his first year at the Bible institute.

 

This Account of the attempt to rescue the two climbers was told last night to the Associated Press by Mr. Taylor.

 

“The face of the mountain was a torrent. It was pouring and the face was filled with innumerable gullies through which streams dropped. The wind was blowing about 30 miles an hour and the spray was like it would be under a waterfall.

 

“On the way up--we started at 7:30 this morning--our primary concern was to stay alive and solve the problem of getting to the boys. We tried to joke and sing when we could. Dave Sanderson and Spencer Wright were with me.

 

“We were about 60 feet from the boys when I spoke to one of them. I yelled to him but he couldn’t comprehend what I said. He hollered back. It was a monotonous, incoherent yell that sounded like ‘Hurry up.’

 

“I don’t know which one of them it was, it might have been the older one. He couldn’t focus his eyes on me. He was standing erect and the other fellow was right beside him, tied to him. We were surprised to find them so far gone.

 

“It took us three-quarters of an hour to get up the next 35 feet. By that time the one who had been speaking no longer could do so. He was standing erect with his eyes closed and his head was bobbing.

 

“Dave Sanderson climbed up the remaining 25 feet, tied up one of them, and lowered him down.  It was too late. We were exhausted and we began our retreat down the mountain. It took us two hours to get down.”

 

 


 

Bodies of Ledyard Youths Recovered from Mountain

The New London Day, New London, CT

August 26, 1959

 

Friends through much of their boyhood days, Alfred P. (Freddy) Whipple, Jr., 20, and Sidney C. Crouch, Jr., 21, the Ledyard men who perished Monday on a tiny mountain ledge, will have funerals together at 2 p. m. tomorrow in Groton Heights Baptist Church.

 

Their bodies were recovered at 4 p. m. yesterday from the sheer granite cliff on Profile Mountain, near Franconia Notch, N. H., where they had been marooned at the mercy of 50-mile an hour wind and heavy rains for 28 hours before they died as rescuers reached them.

 

Bodies Brought Here

 

The bodies were brought last night to the Byles Memorial Home in New London, where friends may visit from 7 to 9 o’clock tonight. After tomorrow’s service, Mr. Whipple will be buried in Elm Grove Cemetery, Mystic, and Mr. Crouch will be buried in Ledyard Union Cemetery.

 

Why did the two men attempt the climb in cotton clothing, improper footgear and homemade pitons, the spikes which climbers hammer into rock as they work their way up mountains?

 

William Putnam of Springfield, Mass., leader of the six-man crew which recovered the bodies yesterday, thinks they might have gotten the idea from a book. He said they were on the so-called Old Trail.

 

He wondered whether they learned of it in their reading in preparation for the climb.

 

“I’m sure they must have had some idea, because they were right on it,” he said.

 

Putnam’s mention of the Old Trail gave a new view of the collegians’ climb. The Old Man of the Mountain Previously mountaineers had suggested they tackled a particularly tough piece of climbing through inexperience.

 

Mr. Whipple and Mr. Crouch died of exposure, a New Hampshire medical referee said. They had become stranded on a ledge halfway up the 1,000-foot cliff--a ledge little wider than their bodies.

 

Mr. Whipple was the son of a contractor. Mr. Crouch’s father is a well-driller. They lived within a mile of each other on Col. Ledyard Highway.

 

On Friday, the men left in Mr. Whipple’s car for New Hampshire to pursue their new hobby of mountain climbing--they’d climbed only one mountain previously. They began scaling Profile Mountain--named for the ageless rock formation known as The Old Man of the Mountain--Sunday afternoon.        

 

That night they became marooned. They waved a shirt to attract attention. Then they tied themselves together to keep from falling. Throughout the ordeal, they were forced to stand as wind and rain whipped at them in temperatures down to the thirties.

 

The medical referee said their vigil was complicated by the lack of food, the apparent hopelessness of their situation and fright.

 

In contrast to the cold, rainy weather of Monday, it was warm yesterday as the bodies were lowered.

 

The rescue crew took seven hours to climb the mountain and bring the bodies down. They ran a second rope line to one side of  a rope which had been fastened to the face of the cliff on Monday.

 

Each body, supported by a line from above, was guided slowly down the mountain by a member of the rescue party. Stops were made from time to time on outcrops from the face of the mountain.

 

The descent was made in three stages, two of 220 feet, and one of 240 feet. One rescuer with the first body at the base of the cliff while another guided down the second body.

 

Gov. Wesley Powell of New Hampshire watched the difficult operation and shook hands with each of the rescue crew.

 

Working with Putnam, 34-year old TV station owner, were Carl Vermiyea, 21, of Newton, Mass.; David Belanger, 21, of Whatley, Mass.; Sgt. Donald Jennings, 30, of Northfield, Vt.; Master Sgt. Leslie Hurley, 48, also of Northfield, and Roger Damon of St. Johnsbury, Vt.

 

Vermiyea, Belanger, Jennings and Hurley are members of the Norwich University Mountain Rescue Team. Jennings teaches at the university and Hurley is a veteran mountain climber.

 

Belanger and Vermiyea said the area they ascended offered the worst climbing conditions in New Hampshire. The rock was wet and much of it rotten, coming off by handfuls.

 

Putnam said all the drudgery had been performed by rescue crews Monday after the bodies were located.

 

Gives Account of Effort

 

Vermiyea gave this account of his experience:

 

“I stood on a fence looking off into space, my back against the rock wall and my foot on a boulder. Right in front of me was a drop of 475 feet.

 

“I had a half turn of rope around my body. On the other end of the rope was the body of one of the boys. As I released the rope in a movement known as the belaying method, the body went down. Each body was accompanied by one man, who went right down next to it to prevent it from hitting rocks or snagging.

 

“My reaction when I first saw the man I supported was I felt sorry for him. He was my own age...

 

“The bodies were 20 to 40 feet apart. Putnam climbed to the body nearest and took him down. Putnam was one belayer and I was the other... Sergeant Jennings and Belanger accompanied the bodies down... Sergeant Hurley and Damon were down the mountain observing and making sure everything was in order--keeping in touch with the belayer and the men descending. 

 

“When we reached the bottom we were pleased to find forest rangers had brought up chow for us. We were hungry, for we had climbed the mountain without breakfast...

 

“On the way home we wondered if anything could be done to make climbers pass a test.”

 

 

 


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