Tech entrepreneur, outdoorsman Doug Walker killed in apparent avalanche

About 60 search and rescue members from the King County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Unit, Seattle Mountain Rescue, Everett Mountain Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue, Snohomish County Search and Rescue, King County 4×4 Search and Rescue, and King County Guardian 1, searched for the man. He was found in a debris field about 2 miles up the mountain just before 10:30 a.m.

He retired in 2004 after selling WRQ for an undisclosed amount.

When Walker did not return to the trailhead after his friends had waited about two hours, they called for help. Walker made a decision to go to the top, but his fellow snowshoers didn’t want to go with him, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office says.

He was and president of the American Alpine Club.

‘My thoughts are with his wife Maggie and their daughter Kina’.

Walker was said to be an experienced hiker and was well-prepared for the hike. “I know I join with so many others in saying how much I will miss his friendship, his energy, and his infectious commitment to community, country, and the environment”.

From 2005 to 2008, Walker was chairman of REI, the outdoor gear company.

“We are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of AAC President Doug Walker”. Walker had already helped to launch and fund outdoor summer programs for children from urban areas.

Walker was also remembered by US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who said in the Seattle Times that “our nation lost an awesome entrepreneur and true champion for access to the great outdoors for all people, especially youth”.

He took countless people up into the mountains for the first time, Jewell said, and was with her the first time she climbed Mount Rainier with her son. Doug was killed in an avalanche on Granite Mountain yesterday.

Walker was also a past chair of the board of trustees of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “He served on many environmental nonprofits including Wilderness Society, Sierra Club Foundation, Conservation Lands Foundation, and was also a former chairman of REI”.

A SC native, Walker moved to Seattle for grad school and co-founded software firm Walker, Richter and Quinn in 1981.