Melissa Orzechowski is seen here in 2023 in her favorite place: The top of a mountain. (Provided photo — Orzechowski family)

Former North Country School teacher and local outdoors enthusiast Melissa Orzechowski was critically injured during a 1,000-foot fall in Denali National Park and Preserve last week. Now almost a week into recovery, Orzechowski, 30, is stable in an Anchorage hospital and a GoFundMe to help with her medical expenses has raised more than $54,000.

Orzechowski’s aunt, Tina Neuenschwander, said that it’s important for everyone to know that Orzechowski is improving. Orzechowski uses she/they pronouns.

“There’s reduced swelling in her face and better-looking hands,” Neuenschwander said. “She’s responded to conversation and has asked for her mother’s help in sitting up. … The medical staff is impressed with her progress.”

Between medical costs that insurance may not cover, an impending year of physical therapy and the necessity of medical transport from Anchorage to Michigan, where Orzechowski’s family lives, the bill for Orzechowski’s care and recovery could top $100,000, with some doctors’ estimates closer to twice that amount.

“The biggest thing is she has a year of recovery (ahead of her) and her insurance is … we don’t know that it’s gonna pay for it all,” Neuenschwander said. “We’re trying to resolve that. We’re trying to figure it all out.”

The family does not know for sure how much Orzechowski’s medical care will ultimately cost right now, but a GoFundMe to benefit Orzechowski’s care has a starting goal of $100,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, it has raised more than half of that amount in three days. The GoFundMe campaign can be found here: tinyurl.com/melissaclimb.

The GoFundMe was organized by Jessica Jeffery, a former colleague of Orzechowski’s at North Country School, and the funds are currently being routed to Orzechowski’s aunt, Alice Orzechowski, who is a CPA and is helping the family navigate the financial end of things. Jeffery was unable to be reached for comment before deadline Wednesday.

Neuenschwander said, if all goes well, Orzechowski will be moved from Anchorage to Michigan in two weeks to rehabilitate close to family.

“She has to be moved with medical transportation because she’s not in good shape,” Neuenschwander said. “She will need professional physical therapy. This is day four of 365 days of recovery.”

Orzechowski is an “outgoing, warm” person who “just approaches life with an excitement and curiosity,” according to North Country School Director of School Matt Smith.

“They were living on campus, house parenting, a beloved eighth grade English teacher, really avid outdoors person,” Smith said. “Melissa would be taking students on these wonderful adventures out into the Adirondack park, hiking 46ers, backcountry skiing nearby.”

By all reports, Orzechowski’s greatest love is climbing, a hobby she picked up in college.

“Melissa lives to climb. It’s what she said for the last 10 years. She’s climbed all over,” Neuenschwander said.

“Every free moment was rock climbing or skiing or hiking,” Smith said. “They had a really wonderful friend group within our North Country School community and also this incredible supporting and engaging friend group beyond our campus, which was really cool, and I always admired that she had so many different people in her orbit and in her life.”

As donations continue flooding in to the GoFundMe, donors are sharing fond memories and words of encouragement for Orzechowski’s recovery. Though Orzechowski moved to California about a year ago to become an instructor with Outward Bound, an outdoor education organization, she maintained close ties to her Adirondack climbing community.

Meanwhile, in Anchorage, the National Park Service is trying to put Orzechowski and her family in touch with the climbers who rescued her, Neuenschwander said.

The two climbers witnessed Orzechowski and her climbing partner, DEC forest ranger and local trans advocate Robbi Mecus, fall around 1,000 feet on Mt. Johnson around 10:45 p.m. on April 25.

After alerting park rangers, the two climbers — whose names have not been released by the National Park Service — descended the mountain and dug a snow cave for Orzechowski to keep her warm and tended to her injuries throughout the night. Mecus died from her fall before the other climbers reached her.

Orzechowski was rescued via helicopter the next morning, then flown via air ambulance to Anchorage for care.

Neuenschwander said the family is grateful for those “good Samaritans” who saved Orzechowski’s life, and extended condolences to Mecus’s family.

“It’s very tragic what’s happened to Robbi,” Neuenschwander said. “Melissa is a very experienced climber who was climbing with her teacher and mentor.”

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Mecus

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At Tuesday night’s Keene Town Council meeting, the council unanimously passed a resolution honoring Mecus’s memory.

“The Keene community lost a beloved community member and leader on April 25, 2024 with the death of Robbi Mecus,” the resolution reads. “She served our community as a loving parent, valued professional, mentor, teacher and naturalist with kindness, devotion and laughter.”

Several forest rangers and local families who were close with Mecus turned out to the town council meeting to watch the resolution pass.

Keene town Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson said on Monday that Mecus “will be missed in our community,” from her work with the DEC to her LGBTQ-plus activism.

Adirondack Mountain Club Deputy Director Julia Goren said in a statement Monday that knowing Mecus was responding to wilderness rescues gave ADK’s staff “great comfort in stressful situations.”

“Robbi modeled professionalism and kindness, bringing her positive energy to every interaction. As a rescuer, she made patients comfortable and provided outstanding care. You simply felt better when she was around,” Goren said.

A GoFundMe campaign was also created to provide for the family Mecus left behind: a daughter and a former wife, who both live locally. It can be viewed here: tinyurl.com/robbimecus.

Mecus served as a forest ranger for 25 years, joining ranks in 1999 at the age of 27. She was part of the DEC’s Region 5 ranger team with a focus on Essex and Franklin counties. An proud, out, transgender woman, Mecus transitioned in her 40s shortly after moving to Keene Valley. She was one of the lead organizers of Keene’s Pride parade and the Queer Ice Festival.