Three men climbing in Montana’s Glacier National Park have been reported dead this week, including an elderly man and two local expert climbers.

The bodies of mountaineers Brian McKenzie Kennedy and Jack Dewayne Beard, both 67, were found Monday following an accident on Dusty Star Mountain, the National Park Service said in a release. They were reported missing on July 24 after setting out for a climbing trip on the 21st.

“According to park staff who knew the men personally, Kennedy and Beard were considered expert climbers and have been summitting [sic] mountain peaks in Glacier National Park for decades,” read the release. “As long-time members, both men contributed greatly to the Glacier Mountaineering Society and were well-known in the Flathead Valley community. … Park staff would like to express their deepest condolences to the families.”

A 79-year-old Florida man, who was not publicly identified, “fell to his death while attempting to ascend a steep off-trail slope with a group of friends,” on Rising Wolf Mountain, several hundred feet above the Two Medicine Campground, NPS said in a release Tuesday.

Though NPS employees responded to the calls for help heard by those camping, and the then-unconscious man was transported by Two Bear Air to Two Medicine Ranger Station, he was declared dead by those working with ALERT.

Officials in the release said they “would also like to express their deepest condolences to the family and ask that the public respect the family’s privacy.”



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