Rock climber falls to his death

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- He grew up in the Adirondacks and scaled Washington's Mount Rainier.

But a misstep cost the life of West Brighton's William Eldridge, 57, in his latest rock-climbing expedition on Wednesday.

Eldridge, of Bement Avenue was climbing in the Mohonk Preserve in Ulster County about 10 a.m. when he slipped from a rock face and plunged 40 feet face-first down a cliff.

His wife, Rachel Wiener, knew something was wrong when she came home that evening and found her husband's climbing partner waiting outside.

"He said (Eldridge) was leading and he made a mistake. That was it," Ms. Wiener said last night. "I can't imagine how it happened; he wasn't the type to take chances."

Ms. Wiener last saw her husband alive when she waved goodbye to him as she left the house at 6 a.m. to catch a bus.

Eldridge, a native of Elizabethtown, was an experienced rock climber and mountaineer who scaled Mount Rainier's 14,411-foot peak in 2003. He trained for the five-day climb by running the New York City Marathon.

The piano tuner and former jazz drummer was also a "46er," meaning he had scaled all of the state's 46 peaks higher than 4,000 feat, his family said.

A sister, Darnell Stuart, once asked Eldridge if he was ever afraid when climbing. He shrugged off the suggestion.

"He would say, that's why you check your equipment and research and read," Ms. Stuart said. "He was just so intense. He said you never climb with someone you don't trust with your life."

Eldridge met Ms. Wiener in the 1980s, when he lived above her Brattleboro, Vt., bookstore. The couple married in 1981 and moved to Staten Island from Manhattan a decade later.

Nadia Steinzor, a spokeswoman for the Mohonk Preserve, located in the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, called the accident "extremely rare," considering how many people climb there safely.

"It's a very rare event, fortunately, and it's somewhat surprising and shocking to everyone," Ms. Steinzor told the Poughkeepsie Journal.

The Mohonk Preserve was one of Eldridge's favorite places to climb, especially in the fall, his wife said.

"This time of year, he would be out there every week. If he could, he probably would have gone every day."

Phil Helsel is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at helsel@ siadvance.com.