Garrett Keith

Garrett and another pilot began their climb at 4am reaching the summit shortly after sunrise.

Conditions were moderate and crossed and so they spent a little over an hour checking out different launches before settling on a technical cliff launch with a favorable headwind.

Both pilots are competent and experienced pilots capable of doing a launch like this, Garrett had flown this particular mountain 3 times previously and had opened a lot of technical launches and lines up here in the PNW.

The other pilot went first, having a successful launch and flight, landing in the predetermined LZ.

Around 9:50am he contacted me via satellite communication asking if I could call Garrett as he hadn’t landed and with no service in the LZ he was concerned.

After not being able to reach Garrett I called 911 and began coordinating with SAR while the other pilot bushwhacked back to the trailhead.

Snohomish county sheriff and SAR met the other pilot who relayed beta to them before they took off to look for Garrett.

Shortly afterwards it was relayed that they had located him around 900ft below launch and he was deceased.

Snohomish county sheriff and SAR then put in a Herculean effort to get Garrett off the mountain, being pushed back multiple times by clouds and winds of an incoming storm front but finally managing to reach him and bring him down.

While we will likely never know for sure it is believed Garrett had a failed launch and impacted shortly after take off. The sheriff and SAR both believe he was killed instantly before coming to rest some way below launch.

Garrett was an experienced and conservative pilot, but mistakes happen and cliff launches are unforgiving. He will be sorely missed.