(DailyDig.com) – A man from Montana lost his life last weekend after plunging during an icy climbing adventure in the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
Kyle Allen Rott, 36, a native of South Dakota, was described in an obituary published in KBZK as an individual who was not afraid to follow his own path and fully embrace his independence.
In the forest of approximately 2 million acres, north of Yellowstone National Park, Rott had a serious fall near Grotto Falls on the afternoon of November 25. According to a statement from the Search and Rescue team from the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, rescue personnel were alerted to the incident after they received 911 calls from onlookers and a signal from a GPS unit close to his climbing spot in Big Sky, Montana.
Rott was looked for by two helicopters and five search teams, some of whom were volunteers. After being discovered injured on the isolated trailhead, he was taken by one of the helicopters to Bozeman, about twenty miles north from where he was found, for medical treatment. Rott died while he was hospitalized. Coroners from the sheriff’s office determined that the victim died of blunt force injuries sustained in the fall, ruling it an accidental cause of death.
In 2005, after finishing up at the University of Montana, Rott embarked on a life of adventure and self-sufficiency by performing a variety of outdoor jobs and touring the American West. He worked as a climbing guide in Yosemite and several other places, helped make an ice climbing movie, and spent a year at a refuge for wolves outside the city of Missoula.
Among Rott’s mountainous journeys were those in Alaska and the western American states, according to his obituary. Montana’s Hyalite Canyon, South Dakota’s Black Hills, California’s Yosemite Valley, and Devil’s Tower in the state of Wyoming were among his favorite climbing spots.
Rott formed close friendships with people who shared his values and adventures at each of these locations, and they were like family to him.
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