Edward Jack Miller saved Hallard B. Kinnison from possible fatal shock, Yosemite National Park, California, July 7, 1970. Kinnison, 24, college student, fractured a thigh bone when he fell onto a ledge 750 feet above the base of a precipitous rocky peak which he was climbing with Miller, 31, schoolteacher, and another student, 20. Fearing that Kinnison would die of shock if, awaiting a rescue party, he was subjected to the lower temperature of the approaching night without medication and food, Miller made a solo descent and walked to a cabin where he obtained medicine and other supplies. Returning to the cliff, he began a solo ascent. Although leaving most of the supplies at the 300-foot level, he had difficulty climbing because of his waning strength. Deciding to avoid an overhang at the 700-foot level, Miller made his way through a crevice and came to a narrow ledge which sloped upward to the next level. Because he needed his last rope for the final leg of the climb, Miller traversed the ledge with no safety aid. He then climbed to Kinnison’s position. Although Miller had brought Kinnison a sleeping bag and medicine, it was felt that the rest of the supplies would be needed before a rescue party could arrive. Because Miller was so fatigued, the other student volunteered to get the supplies. By then it was dark. The student made the descent with the aid of a flashlight but was unable to get the supplies past the 450-foot level. In total darkness, the flashlight being lost, Miller descended to that level and then took the supplies to Kinnison’s position, again crossing the narrow ledge. The next day a rescue party removed Kinnison, who recovered after hospitalization.
51723-5804Obituary
E. Jack Miller, a man who loved high mountains and deep fjords, passed away on March 1, 2023, in a hospital in Montrose, Colorado, of injuries suffered in an auto accident the week before. He was 83.
Miller taught climbing in Yosemite, led wilderness trips for Mountain Travel in Berkeley, California, and ran an adventure travel company, Andean Outfitters. He made numerous first ascents in South America but held a special love for the icy terrain of southern Chile. He first visited Patagonia in 1974 and climbed many of the region’s wildest ranges.
Miller was born on September 2, 1938, in Spokane, Washington, where he grew up. He took to rock climbing with great enthusiasm but little money. “When we climbed in Mexico, we would buy cheap rope in the markets, he said, “and were very careful not to fall.”
Having honed his climbing skills in the Cascades and the California Sierra, he joined the Yosemite Mountaineering School under Wayne Merry of the first El Cap climbing team. Miller proved a popular teacher, combining concern for his students with a wry sense of humor. He nearly convinced one client that in case of starvation, the man could eat the large buttons on his parka.
Miller’s published a number of articles about his trips, including “Sea-going Climbers in Southern Chile” and “Towers of Wind and Ice: The Cordillera de Sarmiento of Southern Chile” in the American Alpine Journal, and “Chile’s Uncharted Cordillera de Sarmiento,” National Geographic, 1994.
Over the years, Miller’s climbing partners included Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, and many others. Not all of them shared his enthusiasm for the windswept wilds of southern Chile. “We were rained on every day for forty days,” said journalist William Rodarmor, who joined Miller and his friend Peter Bruchhausen on an expedition out of Punta Arenas in 1974. “It was biblical.”
In 1979 Miller moved to a cabin he built on Hasting Mesa near Telluride. He continued to roam the local mountains with his dog Klondike, still planning one last trip to Patagonia.
A celebration of Jack Miller’s life took place in spring 2023 on Hastings Mesa.