--- id: "20261021_gb-the-glacier-essay-daniel-comps-fall-reco" title: "The Glacier Essay: Daniel Comp's Fall, Recovery and Turning Point" category: "Formation" keypoints: - "Daniel's undated typed essay tells of his 1979 fall on Saint Mary's Glacier, Colorado (Daniel's account; the Monticello Times, Jul 28, 2005, also gives 1979)." - "'Laying face up, sprawled across the back seat of the burgundy Alpha Romeo…'" - "'Mollie and Dave in the front seat say they're Christians…'" - "'a cornice -- a massive wave of ice hanging 150 feet above the rock lined shore.'" summary: "Daniel's undated typed essay tells of his 1979 fall on Saint Mary's Glacier, Colorado (Daniel's account; the Monticello Times, Jul 28, 2005, also gives 1979)." description: "Daniel's undated typed essay tells of his 1979 fall on Saint Mary's Glacier, Colorado (Daniel's account; the Monticello Times, Jul 28, 2005, also gives 1979)." tags: - "witness-mark" - "portfolio" - "evidence" - "daniel-comp" agent: "gb" voice: "gb" created: "2026-10-21T22:50:00Z" updated: "2026-10-21T22:50:00Z" date: "2026-10-21" pipeline_filename: "GB_the-glacier-essay-daniel-comps-fall-recovery-and-turning-point.md" source_kind: "authored" lane: "Formation" corpus_topic: "Formation" content_status: "approved" approved_by_daniel: "APPROVED for all posts (Daniel, GB chat, 2026-10-21 3:48 PM PT)" author: "GB, Silicon Director of Operations, Intelligent Netware, for Daniel Comp" image_stem: "glacier-essay-page-1" canonical_url: "https://danielcomp.com/a/the-glacier-essay-daniel-comps-fall-recovery-and-turning-point.html" share_url: "https://danielcomp.com/a/the-glacier-essay-daniel-comps-fall-recovery-and-turning-point.html" asker_site: "danielcomp.com" --- # The Glacier Essay: Daniel Comp's Fall, Recovery and Turning Point **Claim supported:** Daniel's undated typed essay tells of his 1979 fall on Saint Mary's Glacier, Colorado (Daniel's account; the Monticello Times, Jul 28, 2005, also gives 1979). [![First typed page of Daniel Comp's essay about falling from a Colorado glacier](/i/media/glacier-essay-page-1.jpg)](/i/glacier-essay-page-1.html) *The Glacier Essay, Page 1. Image: Daniel Comp's own portfolio, photographed by Daniel.* [![Second typed page of Daniel Comp's glacier essay, ending 'Seven years later'](/i/media/glacier-essay-page-2.jpg)](/i/glacier-essay-page-2.html) *The Glacier Essay, Page 2. Image: Daniel Comp's own portfolio, photographed by Daniel.* [![Map of St. Mary's Glacier, Colorado, tracing the 4,411-foot carry-out route from the lake to the trailhead](/i/media/st-marys-glacier-carry-out-path-4411-ft.jpg)](/i/st-marys-glacier-carry-out-path-4411-ft.html) *St. Mary's Glacier Carry-Out Path. Image: Google Maps screenshot by Daniel Comp.* ## The story This two-page typed essay is Daniel's own telling of the day that changed his direction. It opens in the back seat of "the burgundy Alpha Romeo" on a winding Colorado road, with Mollie and Dave in the front. It's a Sunday morning, and he's wondering whether it's all right that he missed mass. At the ice, he describes "a cornice -- a massive wave of ice hanging 150 feet above the rock lined shore." Then come the paramedics standing knee-deep in the icy lake, the stretcher and the ambulance. Forty-eight hours later he conceded "to an immobile lifestyle." His hang glider would go up for sale and his bicycle would never race again. Then he prayed: "God, I give up, I've nothing left to run with." Recovery came quickly. "Within a week I would be walking home, within a month on a bicycle tour of New England." He closes "Seven years later," as a man "commissioned to carry the message into the water." Daniel's account adds what the essay leaves unsaid. The fall was in 1979 at Saint Mary's Glacier. Mollie and Dave were the two he prayed with on the glacier, and he was the last of them to cross the glacier face when he fell. The archive's Formation record of the aftermath (late July 1979, age 24) says Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue volunteers were training on the glacier that day and carried him out. It lists a compound fracture of the left arm, a fractured hip and broken ribs, and says a nun from Sacred Heart of Mary in Boulder anointed him in the hospital. On recovery time and spelling, Daniel's account is to follow the original essay over later memory: "Mollie," and walking home "within a week." The essay carries no date. The Monticello Times of July 28, 2005 says he "fell 150 feet off of a glacier" on "a cold Colorado glacier" in 1979, which would put the essay about 1986 (inference, not on the page). Daniel's account calls the years after it the time "between falling off the glacier and starting network marketing." ## What the page shows - "Laying face up, sprawled across the back seat of the burgundy Alpha Romeo…" - "Mollie and Dave in the front seat say they're Christians…" - "a cornice -- a massive wave of ice hanging 150 feet above the rock lined shore." - "48 hours later, I would concede to an immobile lifestyle…" - "God, I give up, I've nothing left to run with." / "Just get me out of this bed and I'll follow you." - "Within a week I would be walking home, within a month on a bicycle tour of New England." - "Seven years later… I'm commissioned to carry the message into the water." ## The carry-out path A second image maps the route out. On a Google Maps aerial of St. Mary's Glacier, Colorado, Daniel traced the path from the lake below the glacier down the trail toward the road. The measure tool reads "Total distance: 4,411.03 ft (1.34 km)." Daniel's account is that Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue was climbing the glacier when he fell past them into the lake, and that they carried him out along this route to their ambulance. The Formation record gives the carry as "1.33km down the trail to the trailhead parking lot." - File: `st-marys-glacier_carry-out-path_4411ft.jpg`. Alt: "Map of St. Mary's Glacier, Colorado, tracing the 4,411-foot carry-out route from the lake to the trailhead." ## Sources beyond the page - Formation record: Formation-1979, Saint Mary's Glacier aftermath, in Daniel's CODEX (Daniel's account, as recorded). ## Not yet documented Some details in this story are still being confirmed with Daniel and will be added as the evidence comes in.