5/13: According to the Associated Press, “a team from a Japanese climbing group called Canyons will descend the steep, vegetation-covered slope where Arnold was tracked…. the climbers have committed to search for two days, starting Thursday morning in Japan.”
Via Find Craig Arnold:
Our dear friends and family,
Though Craig himself has not been recovered, the amazing expert trackers of 1SRG have been able to make themselves and us certain of what has become of Craig. His trail indicates that after sustaining a leg injury, Craig fell from a very high and very dangerous cliff and there is virtually no possibility that Craig could have survived that fall. Chris will pursue what he can about getting specialists to go down into the place we know Craig is so we can bring him home, but it is very, very dangerous and we are not yet completely certain what that will require. The only relief in this news is that we do know exactly what befell Craig, and we can be fairly certain that it was very quick, and that he did not wait or wonder or suffer.
I cannot express again the profound gratitude I feel to everyone who has loved and honored Craig with their goodwill, their immense efforts and energy, and their overwhelming generosity. I believe that where he is, Craig knows.
There will be further occasion to celebrate Craig, and when I know more I will post it.
For my part, I love Craig beyond the telling of it and will always love him as immeasurably, as enduringly, as steadfastly and as unconditionally as I do now and have done these past six years. In leaving our family Craig, in a manner absolutely characteristic of his own vast generosity and capacity to inspire, brought us all closer together than we perhaps have ever been. I feel his presence, loving and understanding and funny and deeply feeling, at all times. I hope you do, too.
With love,
Rebecca Lindenberg
who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving
behind nothing but the shadow of dungarees
and the lava and ash of poetry
He will be missed.
Posted By: michael robbins on May 9, 2009 at 1:49 amReport this comment
SONNET 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Posted By: Mary Meriam on May 9, 2009 at 9:01 amThou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
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My best wishes to Craig’s friends and family.
Posted By: Jason Guriel on May 9, 2009 at 3:15 pmReport this comment
Understanding, of course, the pain and loss currently being endured (having, myself, more than once endured it), take heart from this, at least: the man died doing what he loved to do. We should all be so lucky.
Posted By: Gary B. Fitzgerald on May 9, 2009 at 8:31 pmReport this comment
Thank you, Rebecca. You sound very brave. Lots of love to you and in memory of Craig. Cathy
Posted By: Cathy Wagner on May 10, 2009 at 3:22 pmReport this comment
A lovely and brave letter…I knew Craig at Utah–we had some nice times laughing together. I will miss knowing he’s in this world, but am grateful for the amazing work he’s left us.
Posted By: Anna Vogt on May 12, 2009 at 5:44 pmReport this comment