We received the following English article from The Kemer Times, Kemer, Turkey after our return from the rescue mission in 1996. Tahtali Dag is the Turkish name for a famous mountain you know as Mount Olympos, the birthplace of Apollo.
Turkish Newspaper - 1996
Tahtali Dag Summit Passage Named After an American Student
by Vedat Uras
At a time when thousands of children and their teachers though out the world, were celebrating the International Children''s week and festival between 16 and 23 April in Ankara, an American lady, Harriet Zielger was on her way to Kemer looking for her son Donald who came to Turkey seven months before and got lost after staying overnight in the King''s Pension on the 16th of September, 1995.
The distressed mother was accompanied by her two adult children, Donald''s girl friend who was a keen mountaineer and was preceded by a renowned four-member international rescue team along with two dogs specially trained for rescue operations.
Previous investigations by local villagers, members of Turkish Army units, private detectives and the American State Department had all failed. The investigation carried out by the Canadian and American Rapid Deployment Rescue Team which included world famous rescuers such as Doug Copp, David Pottier, Caroline Hebard and Joyce Pugh, along with members of their Turkish team, consisting of four mountaineers led by Mehmet Transiver, brought to the daylight that Donald had been fascinated by the majestic Tahtali Dag (Mount Olympos) and climbed it all alone last September. According to the dairy found by the rescuers at the summit of the mountain, he reached the summit, signed the log book there and slept for a while to rest. In the early evening or at night, he began his descent, took a wrong turn and got lost, resulting in a fatal fall of the cliff.
On 26 April two of the Turkish mountaineers, Mahmut Gl and Hseyin Aktas, climbed up to the spot where Donald had died, paid a mountaineer''s tribute to him and laid some flowers.
The Zielger family and the rescue team''s dog handlers left Turkey on 28 April with the satisfaction of finally learning the facts about this tragic accident and with the consultation that the Turkish mountaineers had perpetuated Donald''s memory by naming that pass after him - The Donald Zielger Pass.
The American and Canadian team leaders have stayed on to teach courses and complete international cooperative agreements with other Turkish rescuers and will next go to Romania to create a new international rescue team in that country. We must commend the humanitarian volunteer efforts of these brave men and women who perform elite international rescue.