HikeArizona.COM

Via rwstorm, social media and meetup, I've learned that long-time HAZ member from Alamogordo, "imike" has died from a fall while on a hike. This occurred about Dec 12. On social media he was known as Michal Ja.

From what I can learn it may have been on a hike called Bishop's Cap, although Randy may be able to find out more via his meetup memberships.

Mike had lived in Tucson for a while as well, and knew a lot of hikers there.

I went to his place in Alamogordo one time to buy a vintage Kevlar kayak he had stored under his house. He was a friendly person. Randy and Jim_H both had hiked with him.

Rest in peace, Mike!

Very Tough to hear... My Heart and Thoughts go out to his Family and Friends....

Oh my

Shocking. I am shocked. I suspect I will post more later. Something weird about this one. I feel kinda sick about it. I think this is 3 or 4 hiking people I have known or hiking partners who died on the trail.

Liz, can you PM me some links to the meetup and of FB stuff? how did you learn of it?

Randy contacted me. I don't have my laptop here in North Carolina, so copying and pasting links will not be easy for me. I can try.

I loved his triplogs...100+mph 24/7.

So sorry to hear about Mike. I loved seeing his photos and reading his triplogs. Looked like he was always having fun and his enthusiasm was contagious. So sad.

Too sad for words.

Yes.

Sorry to hear.
I enjoyed the NM canyoneering photos with that fun and adventurous group.

After seeing the name "Michal Ja" on this thread, I recognized it as what would translate from Western Slavic to English as: Michael I (Nominative "I").
Its pronounced something like: "Mee-how Yah".
Anyhow, this sheds some light on his nickname "imike".

@air
Interesting! Not his real name, though.

It turns out that Mike passed away from a massive heart attack while on a meetup hike, not from a fall. (I guess the meetup groups got busy with false rumors about him falling, and passed them around.) But I had a message from a woman who was with him when it happened. Anyway, it's very sad. From what I can gather, he had a lot of hiking friends in New Mexico, and they very much enjoyed the hikes he led.

azbackpackr wrote: ↑Dec 31 2017 4:41 am It turns out that Mike passed away from a massive heart attack while on a meetup hike, not from a fall.

That makes more sense to me. The Bishop's Hat is an unlikely place for someone like him to have a serious fall, although as I've discovered, anybody can fall anywhere. I'm sorry he's gone.

@big_load
Turns out it wasn't Bishop's Hat, but the three of us who are trying to sleuth this out (Randy, Jim and me) have not found out which trail it was. It was a meetup, on Dec. 12th. I have been in touch with a woman who was present when it happened, and told me they did CPR, although they knew it would be to no avail. We got a lot of wrong info at first, because the meetup groups were slinging rumors around. That is where we came up with Bishop's Hat, and the wrong info that he had fallen.

@big_load
The December 12th hike was posted on the Jornada meetup site (Las Cruces) as: Alamo: Ortega North to Dry Canyon Traverse, with Michal as event host. Looks like 6 attended. Very sad.

Thanks for the info, Randy.

@azbackpackr

Thanks, I don't know why understanding the circumstances accurately is important to me, but it is somehow.

There is a frustrating tendency among those who were there to not want to give details about what happened. The information I received was useful to state they did CPR, but the person was very adamant that they would provide no other information, but did say things which might be personal in nature otherwise. I am most interested in the events of the day leading up to the incident, specifically if there were warning signs, and then S/S at the time, and what happened. People don't seem to want to say things like that. It's always the same, "very sad", "I'm devastated", and so forth. I get that, but losing your head and having one's emotions won't bring back the person. If anything, telling the details of what happened might help some body.

Mike was known for certain types of writing and logs as well as over the top hike event posts. Things like his Ortega Double last month. He didn't do it, and if you read his logs, he talked frequently about his energy being off. Mike wrote about being diabetic in a log a year or so ago. https://hikearizona.com/x.php?x=136414 I lost a hiking partner in Tucson right after I moved to Phoenix in 2015. I suspect an MI. His wife responded to an email of mine informing me of my friends death, but basically just said, "stop emailing me and take his address out of your rolodex". Clearly, information would not be forth coming.

I do look for the details of this event as I think things like this are better shared, because as anyone who has knowledge of heart attacks knows, warning signs are usually present for days before, sometimes much longer than that.

May have had a low grade fever? Was sweating even hiking down the hill.

From his November 26th A Trail log. If he was doing that, he may very likely have been ignoring warning signs for quite a while.

Sounds to me that a lot of incorrect information was posted about Mike's death and those involved would probably appreciate this traumatic and personal situation to not be made a speculative public forum topic. I think this discussion is bordering on bad taste.