By Michael Roberts

October 1, 2002 Renowned Swedish adventurer Göran Kropp died Monday afternoon after falling 75 feet while climbing near Vantage, Washington. He was 35.

Kropp, an expert skier, elite mountaineer, and expedition cyclist, achieved legendary status in 1996 when he cycled from Stockholm to Nepal's Khumbu Valley, reached the summit of Everest with out porters or supplemental oxygen, and then rode home.

According to Kropp's public relations manager, Ryan Hayter, Kropp was on Air Guitar, a sport-climbing route on Sunshine Wall in the popular Frenchmen Coulee climbing area, when the accident occurred. Erden Eruc, a friend of Kropp's from Seattle who was belaying him at the time, wrote in a report on the incident that Kropp was leading the route and about 65 feet up, close to the exit point of the climb, when he fell.

Eruc wrote that each piece of protection Kropp had had placed in the crack had pulled out sequentially, save one. He attempted to resuscitate Kropp with CPR but had "no doubt" that he died on impact.

Marcus Hysert, who along with Richard Murphy, had been climbing with Kropp and Eruc, raced to the parking lot to make a call to 911.

Officials with the Grant County Sheriff's Office and Coroner's Office authorized the use of a helicopter to transport Kropp's body and Eruc, who suffered severe rope burn in an attempt to stop Kropp's fall, from the accident site. They were taken to Valley Memorial Hospital in Yakima.

A release from the Grant County Coroner's Office states that Kropp died of severe head injuries.

Kropp first took an interest in mountaineering and adventure in the 1980s when he was a paratrooper with the Swedish army. In the early 1990s he started taking on high-altitude peaks in Central Asia and in 1993 became the first Swede to summit 28,250-foot K2 in Pakistan, the world's second tallest peak.

In February 2000, Kropp attempted a 1,200-mile roundtrip, solo ski trek from Siberia to the North Pole. He was stalked by a polar bear en route—he eventually shot it—and abandoned the expedition half way due to severe frostbite.

An engaging personality, Kropp, who relocated to Issaquah, Washington, with his fiancée, climber Renata Chlumska, earlier this year, was admired by fellow adventures for his comedy and adored by fans who attended the more than a thousand lectures he's delivered in dramatic style since his 1996 Everest expedition. With writer David Lagercrantz, Kropp co-authored Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey detailing his Everest adventures. His 1997 documentary film, I Made It: Göran Kropp's Incredible Journey to the Top of the World won the distinguished Best of Banff Award at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

For 2003, Kropp and Chlumska, who became the first Swedish woman to scale Everest on a 1999 expedition with Kropp, were planning their Around America Adventure, a 10,850-mile circumnavigation of the lower 48 states by foot and foldable kayak. They were to leave from Seattle in July for the estimated 440-day journey. In 2006, Kropp planned to sail single-handedly from Seattle to Antarctica, ski 1,488 miles solo to the South Pole, and then make the return trip.

Chlumska was leading a trek to Everest Base Camp when the accident occurred. She was informed of Kropp's death about four hours later after a chain of phone calls initiated in Yakima ended with a satellite. She's now on her way back home to Seattle.

Goran is survived by Chlumska, his father Gerard, and mother Sigrun, both of Sweden.