The text below appeared in the July 18, 1954 edition of the Daily Herald.
Provo Girl Killed on Timp Hike
Hit by Rock in Avalanche Over Glacier
Vera Mecham 19 dies in first accidental fatality on Timp Hike
The 43rd annual Timpanogos hike ended in tragedy Saturday with a 19-year-old Provo girl dead from a huge rock which struck her in the head as it crashed down in an avalanche from the ledge above the glacier
She was Vera Meacham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Meacham, who was making the hike in company with her sister and brother-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Van Washburn of Provo.
Witnesses said the rock one of several which crashed down through a group of hikers struck the girl in the back of the head. She never regained consciousness and died perhaps two hours later according to reports available Saturday afternoon.
The accident occurred between 11:30 AM and noon, reports said and Miss Meacham was pronounced dead by a Tooele doctor among the hikers who examined her at 2:30 PM. The doctor, W. R. Johnson, estimated she had been dead about an hour.
Carried to lake
The girl was carried from the point on the glacier where she was hit to Emerald Lake at the foot of the glacier she died there before help could reach her.
Authorities radioed for a helicopter which was on its way from Wendover when word was received the girl had died. The helicopter was then notified to return to its base. Only hope held for the girl before she died was to land a helicopter at Emerald Lake. It was known from the first she could not have survived a trip down the trail.
The girl’s body was brought by horseback from Emerald Lake down to Aspen Grove where an ambulance took it to Provo.
Deputy Sheriff Harold Hansen said there was no evidence that the avalanche was started directly by hikers. No one appeared to be in the vicinity of the source of the avalanche at the time it started. He said he was investigating reports of boys with rifle shooting in the vicinity earlier in the day he said however there apparently was no shooting when the avalanche began.
First fatal accident
It was the first accidental death in the 43-year history of the Timpanogos hike, according to the best memory of forest rangers long familiar with the event. Several years ago a hiker died on the mountain from a heart attack, and further back still, fatalities occurred on the road approaching Aspen Grove but no one until Saturday had ever been killed by an accident while participating in the actual organized hike.
The girl was near the top of the glacier when the tragedy occurred. Several people told officers they dodged a rock or rocks from the avalanche, which contained a number of boulders some of them weighing hundreds of pounds new line
First to reach the girl was Lloyd O. Ivie of Salina. Her sister and brother-in-law were close at hand also. Mr. Ivie said he found her unconscious from the blow of the rock in the back of her head and she never regained consciousness.
Keith Ottensen of Springville, an LDS chaplain for the National Guard, was among the first to reach her. He said it was difficult to tell from the first whether the girl was still alive. After hikers carried the girl to Emerald Lake Mr. Ottensen held a prayer circle and prayed for the girl’s life, with none of them sure whether she was alive or not. A nurse whose name was not available was among the hikers and was with her until she died. TYhe nurse said she was uncertain just when the pulse stopped and death occurred.
Partial failure of radio communications, caused by atmospheric conditions, prevented word of her death reaching Aspen Grove until late in the afternoon. First word was from a runner who said she was dead, followed in a short time by another who said she was still alive. Official word that she had died did not reach Aspen Grove until around 5:00 PM
One official said he questioned the nurse as to the girl’s chances if she had not been carried down to Emerald Lake but picked up by a helicopter perhaps, from where she fell. He said the nurse told him the injury a skull fracture, was so serious death was probably inevitable.
Vera Meacham was born November 16th, 1934, daughter of Lynn and Nellie Rowley Meacham.
She received her education in the Provo schools. A graduate of Provo High, she had attended Brigham Young University for one year. Miss Meacham was active in LDS church and school activities. She had planned to attend the forthcoming hill Cumorah pageant at Palmyra, NY.
Survivors include her parents and six brothers and sisters.
