Former Flathead man dies in climbing accident

Strong in the mountains, full of positive energy and forever humble.

That’s how friends will remember Scott Sederstrom, an accomplished backcountry skier and mountaineer who left a lasting impression within the Flathead climbing community.

Sederstrom, 44, died last week in a climbing accident near his home in California.

The former Kalispell resident fell to his death March 13 when a bolt he was clipped to broke off while climbing alone at Owen’s River Gorge near Bishop, Calif.

According to a release from the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office, Sederstrom was reported missing when he did not return from a day climbing trip. His fiancé drove to the Lower Gorge area that evening and located Sederstrom’s van and dog.

Search and rescue was dispatched and his body was located by a family friend an hour later near the base of the “Silent Pillar Wall.”

According to a report in Rock and Ice magazine, Sederstrom was climbing bolt to bolt, unclipping as he move upward, when the third bolt failed. It was reported he fell about 30 feet. He was not wearing a helmet.

The cause of death was traumatic injuries due to a fall, the Mono County Sheriff’s Office reports.

Friends reflected this week on Sederstrom’s influence on the local climbing and skiing community — often noting a passion for the mountains matched by few.

“He was known as a guy who climbed more than he worked,” said climbing partner Jandy Cox. “He was always trying to be outside. He lived a lifestyle that is super enviable — how to live simply and with the basics.”

Sederstrom, a Flathead High School graduate, found rock climbing as a teenager with close friend Nathan Sande. They first roped up at a crag called “The Spires” near Sheepherder Hill in Kalispell.

“It was the summer of 1984, and that experience set the hook forever,” Sande said. “It was the best day either of us could have ever imagined.”

The next year Sande was hired as a ski technician at Rocky Mountain Outfitter where he met prominent local climber Don Scharfe.

“Don mentioned that he and Ted Steiner would be starting an intro to rock climbing class at FVCC and said we should enroll in it,” Sande said. “We spent weekends at Stone Hill with the class and the climbing bug set even further.”

It also forged friendships with Scharfe and Steiner that continued for many mountain adventures.

“Scott was pretty young, just out of high school when I first met him,” Steiner recalled. “He was always up for having fun and getting after it. We put up a bunch of routes together at Stone Hill, climbed ice in Glacier Park, did some road trips, climbed Mount Rainier and the Liberty Bell in Washington.”

“Scott was humble with a super positive attitude and tremendous skiing and mountaineering skills. He was someone you could always trust as a solid partner on the rock or in the mountains.”

Sederstrom and his friends pushed the envelope at Stone Hill, “putting up new routes and first ascents on any blank piece of quality rock we could find,” Sande explained. “We climbed in a competitive yet friendly race with Whitefish locals Greg Stenger, Kenny Kasselder, Mark Brown and Shawn Peretto — always trying to up one another’s accomplishments.”

Glacier Park was the venue of countless mountain ascents for a young and strong Sederstrom, often bagging multiple peaks in a single day.

“We started embarking upon uncommon routes to common peaks to fill afternoons and evenings after work,” Sande said.

During one summer they climbed four different routes on Mt. Clements in search of the most classic alpine ascent.

In 1991, they made a first ascent of the steep south ridge on Mt. Saint Nicholas.

Impressive and rare winter ascents included Heavens Peak, the west face of Mt. Edwards, Mt. Vaught, Mt. Stanton, Mt. Brown, Mt. Jackson, Gunsight Mountain and many others along the Middle Fork corridor.

On skis, Sederstrom was far ahead of his time, having cut his teeth as a young boy on the slopes of Big Mountain. His skills were famously captured in a 1990 photo that depicts Sederstrom soaring off a cliff in Haskill Slide. The image was made into a Powder magazine poster.

“In all of these efforts, Scott’s talent, stamina and modesty continued to humble me,” Sande said of his friend.

But as strong as he was in the mountains, Sederstrom’s gentle personality is what stuck with those who knew him best.

“He was as mellow as could be,” Cox said. “Everybody loved being around him. He was gentle and easy going.”

It was Sederstrom who taught Cox’s wife how to climb.

“She thinks of Scott as having made a huge impact in her life,” Cox said.

Sederstrom moved from the Flathead in 1993 after earning a nursing degree from Salish Kootenai College. He would settle in the Mammoth Lakes area of California where he continued climbing and lived in a yurt.

“I’ve recently met some of his Eastern Sierra friends, and his legend lives on the same — grace and humility continues to be the common theme of Scott,” Sande said.

“He just had a driving spirit for being in the outdoors,” Steiner added.

“It’s a tragic loss. He had such great energy. He was a good man.”

A memorial service will be held in the Flathead Valley in early July.