I intended on making this post about France but I just found out about the untimely death of a friend named Thomas “Axel” Roerig. My friendship with Axel started in Bishop a number of years ago when I hung out and climbed with him for a few months. After that I would run into him at random climbing areas across the continent or talk to him on the phone infrequently. Maybe 4 or 5 months ago I decided to call him out of the blue to see what he was up to and a very different Axel answered the phone. While we talked, Axel struggled to remember simple things. He told me that he had brain cancer and that he had gone through two surgeries to try and remove it. I didn’t know what to say.

Thomas “Axel” Roerig, of Golden, Colorado, formerly of Springville, died Monday, August 7, 2006, in the Exempla Lutheran Medical Center, Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He was born in Perth Amboy, NJ, on December 14, 1965, a son of Carolyn Roerig Mostek, Springville, and the late Thomas D. Roerig.

I have attached a couple photos of Axel the talented climber. He will be missed.