Gil Weiss and Ben Horne were American mountain climbers who scaled the peak of Peru’s Mount Palcaraju in the middle part of July. Unfortunately, they ran into trouble on the way down, falling off a ridge for some 1000 feet or so. Both were killed in the fall and have now been found dead. The CNN news video of this terrible accident was added to their website on July 30, 2012.
Palcaraju is in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range. The mountain was 20,000 feet high and capped by a glacier. These elements combined for a very difficult hiking challenge.
Ted Alexander coordinated the rescue effort. He said their climbing and hiking equipment was strewn about, suggesting a rough fall.
The speculation is that one man fell first about 65 feet. But Weiss and Horne were tethered together, causing the other man to fall a longer distance. That eventually caused both of them to die as the fall became worse. Ironically, being tethered together may have caused them to die even though the tethering was done for safety purposes.