Moab father of 2 dies in Peru from extreme high altitude sickness

07/22/2024 12:46 PM

Moab resident and active community member Chad Harris died on July 1 during a trip to the 12,500-feet-high town of Puno, Peru.

The 48-year-old was traveling with his two sons and likely died from extreme high-altitude illness after hiking a nearby peak. Harris was an experienced cyclist whom friends say loved to travel with his kids.

Harris had shown sensitivity to high elevation before, his ex-wife, Margaret Harris said. Their sons, Wred and Riis, ages 13 and 10, told Margaret that Chad had been "suffering for two days before he died, coughing up blood" and being unable to sleep at night following a hike. He didn't seek medical attention, according to the boys.

On the night of June 30, Harris decided to sleep in a separate hotel room from his sons, so he wouldn't disrupt them. When the kids woke up the next morning at 7 a.m., they couldn't get into their dad's room, so the hotel staff accessed it through the window.

"They opened the door, and Wred said he ran in and saw Chad with bloody foam around his mouth, dead," Margaret said. "I can't imagine the trauma of seeing your dad slowly die over two days — it's so intense."

Chad likely died from what's called high-altitude pulmonary edema.

"HAPE is a severe form of high-altitude illness that, if left untreated, can lead to mortality in 50 percent of affected individuals," according to the National Institutes of Health. The primary treatment is descending to a lower altitude with minimal exertion until symptoms resolve. If that's not possible, supplemental oxygen is the most effective treatment.

Darby Teander, whose relationship with Chad ended a couple of months ago, said every day since he died is different but the first week was especially hard.

"It's been really hard. This is the first time I've truly experienced grief," Teander said. "It's so surreal, it's still hard to believe what happened."

Springing into Action

The boys messaged Margaret over WhatsApp with one of the hotel staff's phones.

"It said, "Mommy, call me, it's urgent. I think Daddy is dead," Margaret said. After speaking with the hotel staff, the reality of the situation — that her children were thousands of miles away without a parent — hit Margaret.

"They were in pain – something so traumatic just happened and they were essentially alone," she said. "There were strangers who were nice to them, but [my kids] don't speak the language and they just saw their dad die in a very horrible, painful manner."

In Draper that morning, staying with her parents, Margaret got to Peru as soon as possible with her sister.

Wred and Riis stayed in an orphanage and then Family Protective Services of Peru became wards of the state for about 30 hours. Luckily, the boys were able to communicate with their mom over Facetime.

"[Wred] was just screaming and crying, like super distraught," Margaret said. "… I told him 'I'm coming to get you, we're gonna survive this, it's going to be okay.'"

Reuniting and getting back home

When Margaret and her sister landed in a nearby town in Peru, they were driven by police to where her kids were. Chad's brother Darren Harris and his wife were there too.

"The boys both came running into our room. We gave them big hugs … That was a hard moment, we were all just sobbing," Margaret said.

Before Margaret could take her children, she completed a psychological evaluation to regain custody from the Family Protective Services.

The test consisted of around 30 questions ranging from how good of parents her and Chad were individually to if the kids had ever been hit to if she had tattoos. Margaret, who knows how to speak Spanish but isn't fluent, was left by the interpreter after being told "you speak good enough Spanish," which made it even more difficult.

"It was a long process — we were there for like three or four hours before they would give our passports back and we had to sign all these documents, show our fingerprints and my kids had to do psychological evaluations too."

After several flights, they got back to Utah.

A GoFundMe created July 9 has exceeded its goal to support Margaret's travel expenses.

Chronicling Chad's life

Chad previously worked as an environmental, health, & safety coordinator at the mining company Intrepid Potash. He was also previously an environmental engineer at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.

"He was definitely an environmentalist so somebody of his caliber working for a mine like us was awesome," said Dave Berrelez, who worked with Chad at Intrepid Potash and was a friend.

Additionally, he volunteered his time on the board of the Canyonlands Solid Waste Authority, where he had recently stepped into a role as temporary chair.

"Obviously it's a tragedy, and he'll be greatly missed," said Mike Kennerly, the executive director of CSWA. "… He was really coming into his own and he brought a lot to the table with his voice of reason, his logic and his background."

Originally born in Salt Lake City, Chad graduated from Timpview High School in 1994 before going to BYU to major in Engineering.

He served an LDS mission in Australia. He later received a Masters in Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington in 2004 and an MBA from Weber State in 2009.

Teander said he was a "lover of hot springs, alt-country, the Grateful Dead, travel, John Steinbeck and watermelon."

He was also an avid cyclist, having biked from the west coast to the east coast in 2004 and racing mountain bikes professionally.

"He was a fanatic when it came to bikes – that was his thing," Berrelez said.

Chad also maintained a cycling blog for years and a "backpacking manifesto" he would write for friends on trips.

He recently made a tradition of taking his boys traveling internationally for weeks at a time in the summers. They had been backpacking across Europe and on safari in Africa, among other places.

Berrelez, who cross country skied with Chad, recalled when they trained for a year for the Grand Traverse, a 40-mile-long ski mountaineering race. After 12 miles of the race, Berrelez was struggling with his asthma, and so Chad decided to turn around with him.

"For a lot of people at his caliber, they probably would have been upset," he said. "But for him, it was like, 'You know what? It was fun, that was awesome … when it came to that, he was always down for an adventure."

Teander said Chad was so "intelligent and nerdy" that he organized his home library by the Dewey Decimal System and had a spreadsheet for everything including trip plans and where to hang pictures.

She added that several people have told her that after talking to Chad, they walked away feeling smarter.

"He was just a really well read, really smart and a good conversationalist," Teander said. "… He really valued deep, meaningful conversations and he had so many friends all over."

What forever means

When it comes to Wred and Riis, Margaret said they've experienced a range of emotions and it has been difficult as they "slowly start to understand what death is for the first time."

"Day by day they're like this is what forever means: He will never walk through the door with me, he will never take me on a hike, he will never bike with me," Margaret said. "So that reality is slowly coming so they can come to grips with it. It's very heartbreaking, but they're hanging in there and they're doing okay, but I do worry about them."

This story was first published by The Times-Independent.