Looks like it was a sudden heart attack ... at age 34. Wow. Such a quick and tragic end. His mom has a philosophical piece of insight...
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The San Franscisco ChronicleYosemite hiker died of heart attack, not fallPeter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2011(05-18) 16:57 PDT San Francisco --It was a sudden heart attack and not an accidental fall that killed a popular San Francisco sous chef on a trail below Yosemite Falls last week, park officials and his family said Wednesday.
Jason Dunbar, 34, of Berkeley, was hiking down with family and friends from the landmark waterfall in Yosemite National Park on Friday when he suddenly fell to his knees and collapsed on the trail. His fiancee, Alison Bagby, and at least one other hiker spent more than a half hour trying to revive him before emergency crews arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Initial reports suggested that Mr. Dunbar might have tripped and hit his head on a rock, but an autopsy released Wednesday determined the cause of death was a blood clot in his coronary artery, said his mother, Marjorie Dunbar.
Mr. Dunbar, who was born in Walnut Creek and raised in Lafayette, lived with Bagby in Berkeley. He was the sous chef at San Francisco's Millennium Restaurant, where she is the manager.
It was the second death in the park that day. University of Texas Professor Kent Butler, 60, drowned that morning after he slipped and fell into the raging Merced River, prompting park officials to warn visitors about the high water and dangerous trails.
Mr. Dunbar's death was particularly shocking because he was a young, fit, smart and cautious veteran of Yosemite trails, according to those who knew him.
"He was an experienced rock climber, boulderer, hiker and a strong, athletic, coordinated young man," said his mother.
She said the family had been going to Yosemite since he was in the second or third grade, and he had been climbing regularly in Yosemite since he was a junior in high school. He spent a summer in his early 20s scaling all the top rock-climbing peaks from Montana to Maine, she said.
"Yosemite was his favorite place in the whole world," his mother said. "That's the grace of this. He died in the place he loved."
Besides his mother and fiancee, he is survived by his father, David Dunbar of Lafayette; sister Karrin Dunbar of Sacramento; brothers Brad Dunbar of Mill Valley and Drew Dunbar of Walnut Creek; and two nephews.
A memorial celebration is scheduled at 2 p.m. May 27 at the Lafayette Orinda Presbyterian Church, 49 Knox Drive, in Lafayette.
This article appeared on page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle© 2011 Hearst Communications Inc.