Robbi Mecus, a forest ranger with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and one of the lead organizers of the Keene Pride celebration, speaks to a crowd during the celebration in Marcy Field in June 2021. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

KEENE VALLEY — Robbi Mecus, a forest ranger with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and a beloved member of the Keene Valley and local LGBTQ-plus community, died in an ice climbing accident in Alaska on Thursday.

Mecus, 52, fell approximately 1,000 feet while climbing a steep route known as “the Escalator” to the 8,400-foot peak of Mount Johnson in Denali National Park, according to the National Park Service. She died from injuries as a result of the fall.

Mecus served as a forest ranger for 25 years, joining ranks in 1999 at the age of 27. She was part of the DEC’s Region 5 ranger team with a focus on Essex and Franklin counties.

“I join the Department of Environmental Conservation family in mourning the sudden and tragic passing of Forest Ranger Robbi Mecus,” interim DEC Commissioner Sean Mahar said in a statement Saturday.

Mecus “exemplified the Forest Rangers’ high standard of professional excellence,” Mahar said, pointing to her rescue efforts, her work on complex searches and her deployments to out-of-state wildfire response missions.

Mecus’s older brother, Joe Mecus Jr., said he was “moved and overwhelmed” by the outpouring of support following his sister’s death.

“The attention this has gotten … just reinforces what I know of my sister, how brave, determined and influential she has been in the local, regional and global climbing and outdoor communities; the ranger and law enforcement community; the (LGBTQ-plus) communities and of course her family,” he said Sunday.

Mecus was climbing with Melissa Orzechowski on Thursday. Orzechowski, 30, survived the fall but was seriously injured and is currently hospitalized in critical but stable condition in Anchorage. Her father wrote on Facebook that she was “breathing on her own and breathing well” around noon on Sunday.

A co-organizer of the Queer Ice Festival in Keene and a former teacher at North Country School, Orzechowski relocated to California a year ago. Climbers who witnessed the fall were able to keep her warm throughout the night and tend to her injuries. She was airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage Friday morning.

The Park Service wasn’t able to recover Mecus from the scene until Saturday morning because of the weather conditions.

Mecus had a long history of climbing in Alaska. When she graduated from college in 1996, she worked with the U.S. Forest Service in southeast Alaska. She detailed her love of the state in a 2023 YouTube video, which can be viewed at this link: https://tinyurl.com/mr4fkw5j.

“I’ve had a crush on Alaska for more than 40 years,” Mecus said in the video. “I was there for 6 months (in 1996) and fell more in love with the land than ever before. I wanted to stay. There was one problem: I was trans.”

She returned to climb in Alaska in 2008, a trip which she said reignited her passion for the state.

Mecus is survived by a 10-year-old daughter, her former wife, her brother and sister, and her niece and nephew.

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Advocate and leader

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Mahar said that Mecus advanced “diversity, inclusion and LGBTQ belonging throughout the agency.”

Mecus was a proud, out, transgender woman whose visibility inspired many in a region where there are few openly queer leaders and limited queer representation in the outdoor recreation community.

Keene Valley hosted what was once one of the only town-wide Pride Month celebrations in the Adirondacks in 2020. In 2021, she was one of the lead organizers of Keene’s Pride parade.

Mecus transitioned at the age of 44, after being raised as a boy and after a lifetime of knowing that she was a girl. She started her transition about a year after she moved to Keene Valley.

“I didn’t see anybody like me. I didn’t see anybody being who I wanted to be,” she told the crowd at Keene’s Pride festival on June 20, 2021. “I thought everyone was going to reject me, that I was going to have to quit my job and move out of town.

“But something amazing happened,” she added. “I was accepted by everybody in town. They were welcoming, with open arms. I think somebody asked me, ‘Well, am I still going to get my burning permit?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And they’re like, ‘OK, so, good.'”

But she realized that she wanted more than acceptance.

“I needed to create a space here in town that I wanted to see. I wanted the visibility that was missing for me,” she said. “I want people who want to move here, I want people who want to visit here, who want to recreate here, to spend time here, to know that we’re not just accepting. We’re openly welcoming. That’s what I want to see here and that’s why we created this here.”

Kelly Metzgar, Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance executive director, said that Mecus was a “very well-known, very well-liked” person in the Tri-Lakes region.

“She was the face of transgender, you know? As much as I am a face up here in our area, she was the face of what it was to be a positive transgender person,” Metzgar said. “I think she was a wonderful face for our community, showing the good points that you can be who you are and our gender identity does not hold us back or hold us down. She was everywhere and she was living her life.”

Metzgar said that Mecus’s death is a blow to the community. It was comforting to her to hear that Mecus died doing what she loved: ice climbing.

“We’re going to miss her, her enthusiasm, her skill, her commitment to her area, her commitment to the trans community. She will be definitely missed,” Metzgar said.

Mecus helped organize a space for queer ice climbers to gather — the Queer Ice Fest, a free climbing event in Keene Valley.

“She was so essential for me as a queer person, as a climber, to be able to see myself into old age as a grown queer person,” said Athe, a friend of Mecus’s and fellow climber. “She was so important as an example for so many queer and trans folks, and she was also extremely giving and open with her knowledge and resources and, just, heart.”

Athe, who uses they/them pronouns and goes by only “Athe,” said Mecus was a mentor to them, in life and in climbing, and was “always down to climb.”

“She just had a big belief in your potential and was also very mentoring and sweet,” they said. “She was very open to share her massive amount of experience and knowledge with people like me who had been ice climbing for a few seasons.”

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Ranger and adventurer

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Mecus found acceptance among her DEC colleagues and she continued her life-saving work after transitioning. She was trained in highly-technical rope rescues and participated in countless rescues in treacherous conditions throughout her career, including a 2021 rescue of a hiker trapped on a ledge in the Mount Colden Trap Dike, a 2021 all-day rescue of an injured hiker on Mount Marcy and a search and rescue on Mount Marcy during a snowstorm just last month.

“Ranger Mecus will be dearly missed, and my thoughts are with her family and friends, fellow Forest Rangers and DEC staff fortunate to have known her and learned from her,” Mahar said.

Former DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday that he was “devastated” to hear of Mecus’s death.

“Robbi was such an incredible person. A pillar of strength. Always there for the most difficult (DEC) rescues and crises, and a tremendous leader for LGBTQIA rights. I feel fortunate to have known her. Rest in peace, Ranger,” he said.

On the public Adirondack Ice Climbers Facebook group, people shared their memories of climbing with Mecus — and occasionally being rescued by her.

“She was a special servant. She participated in my rescue in 2018 and I thanked her a couple of times. She’s gone way too soon,” Donald Heinz wrote.

“You played a huge role in making the Adirondack climbing community the beautiful thing that it is, and your courage in life will continue to inform how we treat each other in this world,” Adam Nawrot wrote.

Alec Burney started a memorial forum post on Mountain Project, an online guidebook for climbers, to honor Mecus.

“Robbi was also quick to reach out to new climbers and offer support and mentorship. When my girlfriend reached out to the community for mentorship as a new climber, Robbi stepped up, followed through, and gave her time to help teach a newer climber one-on-one,” Burney wrote.

“Robbi worked hard to shatter boundaries, and I was often in awe watching her grow as a parent, alpinist, and one of the most badass DEC Rangers in one of the most unforgiving parts of the country. Her name was often attached to all-night winter backcountry rescues, harrowing SAR stories that would feature her dragging the underprepared adventurers back to safety,” Chris Vultaggio wrote. “Only Robbi would know how many lives she saved.”

Mecus is the third North Country forest ranger to die unexpectedly in the last two years.

“Rangers are having a tough time right now,” said former forest ranger Scott Van Laer. He added that “everyone loved Robbi.”

Other rangers could not be reached for comment by deadline Sunday.

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Parent and aunt

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Joe Mecus Jr., Mecus’s older brother, said that he was doing OK until he logged on to social media and saw how many people were memorializing his sister.

“I (am) moved by all of this beyond words. People die on outdoor excursions every day (who) never see the news. She was so impactful, which I already knew, that I (can’t) turn on a device without someone contacting me,” he said. “I am so very proud of her. I always have been. I hope she knew that.”

Joe said that his sister’s death has left a gap in their family — from her 10-year-old daughter, who lives in the Keene area with her mother, Mecus’s former wife, to her siblings, Joe and Paulette, and her niece and nephew.

“(There are) so many things unsaid, so many things undone, so many memories that were meant to be, that will never be. And her 10-year-old daughter, my niece, who needs family right now,” Joe said. “(My children) have always been inspired by her to be the best they can be, to challenge stereotypes and lead a life of purpose. They are both devastated.”

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Melissa Orzechowski was kept warm after falling by park rangers; she was kept warm by other climbers who had observed the fall. The Enterprise regrets the error.