Göran Kropp died

[Mattias]

This is a sad time...
One fantastic and funny person is gone. I listened to his story about when he biked to everest in Umeå a few yers ago. I got really insperated. I can't belive that he is gone.  

[7summits]

Tuesday, October 01, 2002 - 02:05 p.m. Pacific
Adventurer Göran Kropp killed in rock-climbing accident in Grant County

By Dave Birkland
Seattle Times staff reporter
 
THE SEATTLE TIMES
A well-known Swedish adventurer, Göran Kropp, who has been living in Issaquah for the past six months, was killed yesterday in a rock-climbing accident in Grant County.
A companion with Kropp, Erden Sukru Eruc, 41, was injured. He was released after being treated at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, a spokeswoman said this morning.

Kropp, 38, was only five feet from the top of Sunshine Wall, a popular rock-climbing area six miles north and east of Vantage, Kittitas County, when he slipped and fell some 60 feet to a rock ledge before hitting the ground, according to Grant County Sheriff, Michael Shay. Kropp died at the scene.
Eruc, who was holding the rope for Kropp, suffered minor injuries, Shay said.

Kropp is most famous for an unusual adventure in 1995, when he rode a bicycle from his home in Jönköping, Sweden, to Kathmandu, in Nepal, where he climbed Mount Everest.
Kropp made the climb unaided by oxygen, then rode his bike back home. His experiences were detailed in a book he wrote: "Ultimate High: My Mount Everest Odyssey — From Sea Level to Summit.

In the book, Kropp details making the 8,000-mile bicycle journey towing 240 pounds of equipment, most everything he would need for the climb.
The bicycle trip took five months, and according to the book, Kropp narrowly missed being shot in Turkey, was stoned in Iran and nearly lynched in Pakistan.

From his own Web site, Kropp says he began his climbing adventures in 1988, and was the second person to reach the summit of K-2, the second highest mountain in the world.
In Spring of 2000, Kropp failed to reach the North Pole on skis with a countryman, Ola Skinnarmo. Kropp suffered frostbite on his thumb part of the trip. He was rescued by helicopter while Skinnarmo continued to the North Pole on skis, the first Swedish person to do so.

Kropp was planning yet another adventure, friends said. He wanted to sail by himself to Antarctica and ski across the ice fields to the South Pole. After reaching the pole, Kropp planned to retrace his route on skis, and then sail back home.
In a subsequent TV interview, Kropp said he might forgo sailing to Antarctica, and instead he was considering rowing from Sweden to Antarctica.

Kropp's girlfriend, Renata Chlumska, also an adventurer, received the news of Kropp's death while in Nepal. And she was returning to the Seattle area.

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
____________________________________________

An extended report about the acident and more background info about Goran can be found here on the Seattle Times site.

[7summits]

This is sad, people like Göran are meant to last forever, reading an article like this feels strange, untrue.

Göran and his great book has inspired me and my friend Romke to cycle from Amsterdam to Zermatt carrying all our gear.

I have seen his lecture as well, it was incredibly funny and inspiring. I chatted with this strong and funny person and felt overwhelmed by his life force.


Here we are struggling as he wanted to let everybody know his sponsor Helly Hansen made better clothing, but I voted The North Face...

Göran, we will miss you, we have lost a very special person. Our best wishes and strenght for his wife Renata.

Harry