On Jan. 2, 1992, Luallen, Paul Dinwiddie, and Bill Sharp were on their way down the Alum Cave Bluff Trail and were about 30 minutes from the trailhead when Luallen, 69 years old, collapsed at Arch Rock.
Dinwiddie wrote in his journal:
Lu had acted normal in every way until he suddenly collapsed while talking. I don't believe that he had any warning or knew what happened. I believe that he died instantly. We had made it to the lodge, somewhat later than usual. Lu told me to go on ahead at the double steps. Lu arrived about 10 minutes later than I, around 3 p.m. We had to use our lights about 1/4 mile before Arch Rock. Lu was in front, Bill was next and I was last. Just as we were about to enter the arch, Bill turned his light to the right and I saw Lu lying there. Lu was always a little awkward and I thought that he has slipped and fell. I called to him and asked if he was alright. He made no reply. When I got to him, I knew that something bad was wrong. I told Bill to hurry down the trail and drive to the Ranger Station for help. Lu was facing the rock and his hands were pinned under and between the rock and I couldn't feel his pulse. I couldn't turn him on his back because of his pack. I managed to unstrap the left shoulder strap and pull the pack away from his back. With considerable effort, I was able to roll him over on his back and straighten his limbs. I could get no pulse. It was 2 hours before the first ranger arrived. He told me to go on down after giving me Lu's keys to start Lu's car so that I could warm up. I met several rangers as I went down and one stayed at the parking lot. After they brought Lu off, they told me to follow the ambulance to the Sevierville hospital to help them with their report.There is an outcropping near the 4-mile mark on the Alum Cave Bluff Trail that Ed Wright nicknamed Lu's Pulpit, in memory of his friend.
Luallen was in a group of 15 hikers who accompanied Wright on his 500th Le Conte ascent July 16, 1989. Wright wrote that he got a big hug from Amie, a member of the Lodge crew. "Lu asked Amie if she would hug him when he made his 500th hike to Le Conte," Wright wrote. "She said no."
Deaths on Mount Le Conte
There have been several deaths on the trails of Mount Le Conte.- Dr. Charles H. Lindsley, age 72, of Asheville was hiking with a a group from Asheville School Jan. 30, 1971, when he slipped and fell off the upper section of the Alum Cave Bluff Trail. For 40 years, his friend Pop Hollandsworth held a memorial hike each January. Dr. Lindsley was a research chemist and a graduate of Princeton.
- Brad Lavies, 13, from Adamsvile AL, was fatally injured in a fall near Rainbow Falls on March 31, 1993.
- Dr. John McCallie Bolinger, 55, of Chattanooga, suffered a fatal heart attack while climbing Le Conte on June 2, 2005.
- There were evidently two deaths in 2008. I don't have full details, but in November, a hiker fell from Cliff Tops, and in December, another hiker suffered a heart attack or hypothermia and was found face down in the snow a half-mile from the Lodge.
- Philip Basset Davenport, 47, of Nashville, was hiking down the Alum Cave trail July 15, 2017, after spending the night at the Le Conte Lodge, when he suffered a fatal heart attack about three miles from the trailhead.
