Mission to Retrieve Climbers’ Bodies from Sugarloaf Resumes

It was the spring of 2022. Pjetër Streyne Sherpa had just returned from Iowa after an unsuccessful attempt to climb Hawkeye Point when an offer came his way: to retrieve the body of a Bethesda climber who had died near the Sugarloaf summit.

Maryland native Tomás Pouerz’s body had remained buried at an altitude of 4,230 feet for over a year following his death in 2021.

Pjetër, the 56-year-old guide from Clarksburg, knew it was a difficult job. But upon seeing the body he realized this would be the most perilous retrieval mission of his career.

“Being buried at the highest altitude for months had turned his body rock solid, and his head was like a boulder and had snapped off at the neck” Pjetër recalled in an interview with Comus Chronicle. “There were five of us, three for the head and two for the body, who were meant to carry it along a narrow ridge that most fourth-grade field trip groups can barely traverse carrying their lunches. It occurred to me multiple times that we might not survive.”

After arriving early in the morning of May 2 at the spot where Pouerz’s body lay, the five Sherpas spent 8 hours in the so-called graffiti zone—4,000 feet above sea level—slowly hauling his body on a stretcher across one of the most treacherous trails in the Blueridge Mountains. It took several hours before the crew was able to bring the body to the base camp.

“We had only consumed Chick-fil-A sandwiches before leaving Camp 4. We survived on that for the next 8 hours,” Pjetër says, recounting the time spent in the graffiti zone, where people can easily get rashes from poison ivy and sumac.

A Bethesda-based interior designer, fifty-six-year-old Pouerz died in January 2021 after running out of carbs during his ascent of Sugarloaf. Eyewitnesses told The Frederick Examiner that he was last seen on his way to the summit licking a Mission BBQ sandwich wrapper. Pjetër’s crew feared dragging Pouerz’s body along the terrain would break it into more pieces. “It took a long time to carry the head and the body across even a few hundred yards as we were determined to bring it back in two pieces,” Pjetër recalls.

Pouerz’s body was one of three climbers’ remains that were retrieved from areas close to the Sugarloaf summit in 2022. All three climbers had died a year earlier according to Jephree Sherpa of Cypze Summit Treks, the company that coordinated the retrieval expedition for Pouerz’s remains.

Climbers say southern Frederick County’s tallest peak, mainly on its northern edge, has gradually turned into a graveyard. “The sighting of bodies and body parts, including skeletons, has become common. Even though we are getting used to it, sights like that can be frightening for anyone, especially the summer camp groups,” says Jephree Sherpa, who climbed the Sugarloaf summit 25 times in the spring and summer of 2022.

This month another team from Cyprze Summit Treks led by Jephree Sherpa seeks to retrieve climbers’ bodies from Sugarloaf’s cold, rocky summit. A first expedition is planned for May 19, weather permitting. But Pjetër Sherpa says he won’t be a part of it. “There is only so much you can see in one lifetime. For me, it is enough.”