Mountain Rescue

FOUR DARTMOUTH men participated in the much-publicized, successful rescue of George Hopkins, Texas stunt flier, from the top of Wyoming's notorious 1,280-foot Devil's Tower early in October. Hopkins had been stranded there a week as the result of parachuting to the peak on a bet.

Jack Durrance '41, famed skier and second-year student in the Medical School, and a National Park Ranger who had scaled some of the loftiest Himalayas and Andes, were the first to reach the stunter and start helping him to descend. Other Dartmouth climbers, all members of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, who rallied to his aid were Merrill F. McLane '42 of Rockport, Mass., Chappell Cranmer '4O of Denver, Colo., and Henry W. Coulter Jr. '43 of Greensburg, Pa. Durrance and McLane were flown to Wyoming by plane from New York City.

Scaling the Tower was an old story for Jack Durrance who had made the climb first in 1938 in preparation for greater heights. In 1939, both he and Cranmer were members of the Second Karakoram Expedition that unsuccessfully attempted to conquer K2, the 38,200 foot giant of the Himalayas.