Diana Kornet '93 died in a fatal climbing accident on the morning of June 4 on the summit of Mt. Hood in Oregon.
After reaching the top of Mt. Hood, Kornet looked over the northeast side of the mountain, slipped on the snow covered ground and fell more than 2,500 feet down the side of the mountain.
"She will be remembered for her sense of humor and the exuberance with which she lived her life," said a statement made by her family.
During her time at Dartmouth, she performed with the Glee Club and the Dodecaphonics a cappella group, in which she sang with her brother John Kornet '90, the statement said.
"[It is] a tragedy when someone with that much promise loses her life in an accident that's so preventable," Dwayne Troxel, sergeant of the Hood River County Sheriff's Office told The Dartmouth.
He added that if she had roped herself to a support at the summit, she would have been safe.
Kornet climbed Mt. Hood with six of her friends; however, none of them were near her when the accident took place.
She had successfully scaled the mountain with some of the same friends last June.
"I've never heard of anyone falling off the top in my career," Troxel said, adding that she had climbed the south side of the mountain, which is "pretty routine," but fell down a more dangerous side, where, on average, a climbing party is lost almost every year.
Because of these accidents, rescuers were familiar with the area and located her body less than an hour after the accident was reported.
The path down which Kornet took was not a vertical drop and Troxel characterized the fall as "sliding and bouncing."
Troxel attributed the cause of the accident to poor weather conditions. He said it was windy and the snow was soft, which adhered to the bottom of hiking boot spikes and made the shoes ineffective.
"[Also,] getting too close to steep terrain without being roped" was a factor, he said.
Kornet was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
She was a biology major at the College and received a Certificate in Environmental Studies.
She spent one term in Kenya and another term in Costa Rica and Jamaica on foreign studies programs.
According to the family's statement, Kornet possessed an avid interest in the environment and singing. She enjoyed white-water rafting, hiking, mountain climbing and sailing.
"She was also very creative, painting, dying silk, designing jewelry and silversmithing," the statement said, adding that her silk scarves and ties were sold at craft shows and stores under her own label.
