'Most genuine' climber remembered after Mt. St. Helens avalanche

A Washougal man is being remembered for his legacy as an avid outdoorsman with a passion for helping his community after he died in an avalanche while summiting Mt. St. Helens on Saturday.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Washougal man is being remembered for his legacy as an avid outdoorsman with a passion for helping his community after he died in an avalanche while summiting Mt. St. Helens on Saturday.

Roscoe (Rocky) Shorey was ready to snowboard back down the volcano, triggered a cornice (an overhanging edge of snow on a ridge) and fell into a crater.

By the age of 42, Shorey had already made it to the top nearly 30 times, and has summitted Mt. Hood 44 times, his friend Bret Barnum told KOIN 6 News.

“If he found a block of time in his schedule that was free, and it’s wintertime, he’s heading for the mountains," Barnum said. “His last summit at Mt. Hood with us together was March 19 and it’s going to be one of those days that’s burned in my mind forever.”

Barnum said Shorey always practiced safety during summits, noting, “There will be naysayers out there that maybe [say] he didn’t exercise caution, but in his mind and his experience and skill, as the Northwest Avalanche Center said, these things can sneak up on people, even with experienced climbers.”

Throughout his career as a personal trainer, Shorey took multiple groups of clients to the peak of Mt. St. Helens, and was involved in several organizations including the Boys and Girls Club and the Range of Motion Project, which helps disabled athletes.

“He was probably the most genuine human that you’ll ever meet,” Barnum said. “He truly was one-of-a-kind...if you had friended Rocky, you were his family and he treated everybody like that."

“The last thing in the world he would ever want to do would be to fall because he’d want to live to ski another day or live to climb another day,” Barnum said.

“It’s hard for people to realize, anybody in this situation would talk about their friend or their loved one as an incredible human being, but when you talk about Rocky…he probably packed well over 100 years’ worth of fun, entertainment, and adventures into his life in just 42 years. He lived to have fun.”