Malcolm Daly discusses surviving serious climbing accident in Alaska at D’Vine Wine Alumni Networking Event, April 7

WE APOLOGIZE. THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED. For more information, please contact Stefanie Carroll at 303-556-6935


Malcolm Daly may be missing most of one leg below the knee, but that doesn’t stop him from rock climbing and living life to the fullest

Founder of climbing gear company Great Trango Holdings, Malcolm Daly started climbing rocks and mountains around the world in 1968. In May 1999, he and veteran climber Jim Donini traveled to Alaska to put up a new route on Mount Hunter. Early in their trip, while on their new route, Daly began leading a pitch. He climbed out of sight of Donini, and what happened next, neither of the two men really understood. Daly took a 200-foot fall, bouncing down the ice runnel he was climbing. He ended up 70 feet below Donini, conscious but with compound fractures in the left tibia and fibula, a shattered right talus (ankle) and frostbite of both feet. “Bones were sticking out in four places,” he says.


Because the two men were in the middle of nowhere and alone, Donini chopped a ledge out in the ice, stabilized his partner and then had to descend and hike out for help. Daly was left for two days alone on a ledge, hundreds of feet off the ground. “I knew my feet were hosed,” he says, “but I was going to get off that mountain alive.”

And he did. Come listen to Daly’s incredible story on April 7. The Office of Alumni Relations is sponsoring an Alumni Networking, Wine Tasting, and featured speaker event, from 5-7 p.m. at D’Vine Wine, 1660 Champa, Denver. The cost is $10 per person and includes wine, appetizers, and a half-hour slide show. click here for more information.