A 35-year-old man from Bengaluru was killed in an accident while hiking in an Oregon state park on Saturday, August 24, according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office. Chaitanya Sathe fell roughly 100 feet near the access to Lower Gorge at Smith Rock State Park, authorities confirmed.
The accident occurred about 9.40 am. Rescue personnel and officials from the sheriff’s office were dispatched to the scene, but Chaitanya was pronounced dead at the site. Upon investigation, it was found that Chaitanya had tripped and fallen approximately 100 feet while coming down a climber’s path in the state park. The park covers about 650 acres and is at around 3,000 feet in elevation.
Chaitanya was reportedly an engineer at Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon, and his family lived in India. He studied is Bachelor’s degree at University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering and his Masters at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He also appears to have been an emerging scientist and researcher with the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
He had been a member of the Mazamas hiking group, which posted a message on Facebook mourning his death. “Chaitanya Sathe, an active member of the Mazamas, passed away while on a personal climbing trip. We extend our deepest and heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.”
The message noted that he “fell while climbing down in 4th class terrain to the base of the climbing area. His climbing partner was ahead of him and did not see the accident occur. Two climbers below responded to Chaitanya who was pulseless and not breathing at the base of the cliff where his body came to rest.
On the Mazamas Facebook page, scores of friends wrote their tributes for Chaitanya. Most remembered him as a genius and a man who loved the mountains.
A GoFundMe campaign was launched to raise money to fund Chaitanya’s father’s trip to the United States. As of Tuesday evening, the campaign had exceeded its goal and had raised $16,820.