Local climber/skier dies in car crash

THE GAZETTE

The victim of a fatal car crash Saturday on Garden of the Gods
Road has been identified as 59-year-old Larry McDonell of Colorado
Springs, a long-time resident who had climbed all
of Colorado's 14ers and was working his way up the state's dozens of
13,000-foot peaks, his wife of 34 years, Janet McDonell, said Monday
morning.
McDonell was pronounced dead at Penrose Hospital after his car clipped
another vehicle, crossed a median and crashed into a concrete drainage
ditch, flipping onto its top.
It was the mountains that drew the couple here about 30 years ago.
"Larry saw those mountains and he just had to come here," she said.
He was a telemark skier and ice climber.

He had told his family he was going hiking the day of the crash.
McDonell, a Qwest technician by trade who once earned a living as a lead
rock and jazz guitarist, earned the nickname "Logical Larry" for his
matter-of-fact demeanor and penchant for problem solving.
"In any crisis he would bring everything down a notch. He was my
stabilizer," Janet McDonell said.

McDonell is survived by two grown daughters, Angel and Joy, and a
grandson named Johnny. His daughter's dog, Lucy, a chow/labrador mix,
survived the 1:30 p.m. crash and is recovering.