RANDOLPH — The Texas who died Saturday while trying to summit Mt. Adams reportedly slid more than 1,500 feet down the King's Ravine, and then fell another 950 feet, the entire length of the Great Gully, before landing at the bottom, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game Lt. Douglas Gralenski.

Richard Gabrielle, 64, from University Park, Texas, was part of a seven person team climbing the mountain by way of King's Ravine on Saturday. Gabrielle, an experienced hiker, was reportedly bringing up the rear of the team when he fell. Due to the high winds, and the fact he was last in line, no one else in the team heard or saw his fall, Gralenski reports.

While Gabrielle was well equipped for his climb — wearing crampons, utilizing an ice axe, and wearing a helmet at the time of his fall — he was not using a rope for the climb up the ravine, Gralenski reports.

Around 1 p.m., during the climb, the climber closets to Gabrielle, Leo Freeman, 60, from Presque Isle, Maine, looked back and did not see his companion. Worried, Freeman climbed back and saw evidence Gabrielle lost his footing and fell.
Freeman called 911 on his cell phone. Gralenski says hopes of surviving such a fall are remote.

Rescuers and freeman went to the bottom of the Great Gully to find Gabrielle's body, which was recovered from the gully and brought to the Appalachia trailhead in Randolph at 7:02 p.m., according to Gralenski.