On October 6, 47-year old Michael Wilson from Scottsdale, Arizona, fell 250 feet to his death from an overlook on Desert View Drive in Grand Canyon National Park.

In the predawn darkness of September 9, a 25-year old Ohio man leaped to his death from the New River Gorge Bridge at New River Gorge National River. In his car, investigators found a Mapquest map with directions from his home to the bridge. Like many before him, this victim had carefully planned to end his life at an architectural icon far from his home.

A deadly lightning strike killed one visitor and injured two others Sunday afternoon on a Sandy Hook beach in Gateway National Recreation Area. The lightning hazard is worse than most people think, but putting lightning safety precautions into practice dramatically lowers the risk of injury and death.

Why did a man who had nearly three decades of experience teaching others to climb fall to his death in Grand Teton National Park? The only thing investigators can be sure of is that free solo climbing like George Gardner was doing leaves no appreciable margin for error or misfortune. This unattended death might have been caused by a gale force gust of wind.

When a climber died on the Mount McKinley summit on July 4th, his companions buried his body in one of the least accessible places on the North American continent. It will probably stay there until at least next year, and might be left there for good.

It's been a rough few days in the national parks. A three-day search in Mount Rainier has led to the discovery of the body of a missing hiker, while in Yosemite another hiker has died while trying to negotiate Half Dome.

What should the National Park Service do, if anything, with Angel's Landing in Zion National Park? This question arises every time there's a fatality, and rightly so. The recent death of Barry Goldstein has rekindled the debate, with at least one reader believing the Park Service should, in essence, certify the ability of hikers determined to reach the landing.