Friends of an avid outdoorsman who died climbing Mt. Shasta remember his passion for California’s outdoor spaces and zest for introducing others to the state’s rivers and forests.
David “Davy” Albert Lopez of Campell was only 49 years old when he died of a heart attack on May 17 at Avalanche Gulch, according to his longtime college friend and climbing partner Garett McDermid of Sacramento.
The former Navy Seal called 911 and performed CPR for 45 minutes after Lopez collapsed on the mountain, he said. Climbing rangers also tried to revive him, but Lopez was gone, according to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.
“He died doing what he loved,” Lopez’s sister, Tina Engel of San Jose, said. “If I asked my brother, ‘How do you want to die,’ he’d say, ‘Quick, painless and on a mountain. It was just too soon.’”
Lopez had a family history of heart issues, McDermid said, but that didn’t stop him from living his life to the fullest.
Lopez spent 30 years taking friends on outdoor adventures in California
Lopez loved Mt. Shasta and other California recreation sites, and he shared his love of the outdoors with family, friends and strangers destined to become friends, those who knew him said.
One of his closest friends, Michael Kim of San Diego, credits Lopez for turning him — “a city boy” — onto outdoor recreation during their freshman year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1992. “The first time I slept in the great outdoors, I went camping with Davy,” he said.
The two friends became rafting guides and took climbing, hiking and caving trips together; joined by an ever-growing circle of college friends inspired by Lopez to come play outdoors, Kim said.
Lopez volunteered for the campus’ outdoor adventure organization, planning and researching trips for students as far away as Costa Rica, including some of the most challenging (level 5) whitewater rafting adventures, according to Engel.
“He included everyone else in his adventures, even complete strangers,” said McDermid, who also met Lopez at Cal Poly.
Lopez spent summer breaks working on a fishing boat in Alaska. His skills learned in extreme outdoor conditions made him indispensable. “He was the guy they sent in the ice cold ocean” to free nets caught on the boat, Engel said.
Even with good planning, the wilderness isn’t always predictable.
McDermid and Lopez joined a college kayaking and rafting trip down the Russian River, which flows south through Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Unusually high rough water flipped McDermid in his kayak, he said, and bucked a few people out of their rafts, prompting a visit from a helicopter search and rescue team.
“We made the front page of the Sacramento Bee,” McDermid said. “Davy’s mom still has” the clipping.”
Kim and Lopez graduated in 1999 after seven years of school and dozens of outdoor trips. “We took the slow route,” Kim said.
Lopez took a job as an electrician for Redwood City Group, working on projects all night so he could go camping or whitewater rafting during the day, Engel said.
“He tried taking me rock climbing at Castle Rock…near Saratoga Springs,” she said. It went well until they began to rappel down the rock face. About 12 feet down, Engel started crying in frustration.
Her brother reassured her and helped her down, but from that time on, the siblings went camping instead of climbing, she said.
Friends share adventure sliding down Yosemite’s Royal Arches
At monthly dinners, Lopez entertained his huge family ― he had 70 cousins ― and friends with his stories about his latest adventures, according to Engel.
Kim’s favorite memories of Lopez are trips where things went wrong, he said, laughing.
In their mid-40s, Kim and Lopez decided to recreate one of their college climbing adventures: An ascent of the 1,400-foot Royal Arches in Yosemite National Park. “It’s the ultimate beginner climb,” Kim said, but “this time we were much older, much fatter.”
While ascending, Kim said he did something he knew he shouldn’t. He tossed their water bag to Lopez, who missed it. “We never found that bag again,” Kim said.
The two men made it to the top “much slower” than they did in their 20s, arriving at nighttime thirsty and cold, dressed in shorts and T-shirts. Their muscles cramped from dehydration, but it was too late to descend. So they tried to sleep with their legs stuffed in their emptied backpacks, and they coiled the ropes around their upper bodies to stay warm.
“We ended up spooning each other for the rest of the night. Every time we laughed, our muscles would start cramping,” Kim said.
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When they descended the next morning, instead of rappelling, they slid down much of the slope to reduce muscle cramps. By the time they reached bottom, their own bottoms were visible, Kim said. “We had tattered shorts. We covered our butts with our harnesses” and went to a restaurant to eat pizza, burgers and fries, razzing each other the whole time.
Lopez died before fulfilling dream to climb Mt. Shasta
Lopez died before he could fulfill one of his lifelong goals: To reach the summit of Mt. Shasta, according to his sister, but he was exactly where he wanted to be when he died.
The most popular route up the mountain, reputed to be John Muir’s favorite, is a 7,000-verticle-foot climb through rockfall, snow and ice, according to the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center. Best times to climb are usually April to June, when there’s enough snow to hold loose rocks in place.
Lopez tried to scale the mountain using that route “about two years ago,” but his climbing partner injured his knee halfway up, Engel said. At the time, her brother vowed he’d be back.
That’s what he and McDermid planned to do when they entered Avalanche Gulch on May 17, she said.
McDermid described on social media the spot on Mt. Shasta where Lopez died: “I noticed the red hue of the alpenglow on the snowy mountain around us. It was beautiful.” Minutes later, “it hit me: Davy was gone.”
In addition to his sister and friends, Lopez is survived by his wife, Megan, their daughters, Sienna, 13, and Scarlett, 11, and his parents, David and Elaine Lopez, all of Campbell.
“My brother was my dad’s best friend,” said Engel, whose only other sibling, Jenny, died in April.
She and Lopez planned a family trip to Yosemite in September, she said. “I’m still going to do it. I promised my brother I’d take his kids.”
McDermid created a GoFundMe page for her sister-in-law, Megan Lopez, and her two nieces at tinyurl.com/3emjm94d. As of May 31, donors gave more than $7,000 toward the $12,000 goal, according to the online fundraising platform.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Davy Lopez of Campbell ‘died doing what he loved,’ climbing Mt. Shasta
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