American Man Found Dead On Prestigious Mountain At 39

Making Pancoe's death all the more tragic was that he was raising money to help sick children. According to the Daily Mail, Pancoe's expedition up Mount Mukalu was part of an effort to raise $27,838 for the Lurie Children's pediatric blood cancer program in Chicago.

Pancoe himself had been battling chronic myeloid leukemia at the time of his death. On his Peak of Mind company website, Pancoe explained that he suffered a brain tumor back in 2005 that he was successfully able to get operated on. He said that in 2016, he fell in love with climbing after ascending Mount Kilimanjaro.

'In 2005, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and successfully operated on at Lurie Children's Hospital. 20 years later I have had no complications,' he explained on the Peaks of Mind's website.

'In 2016, I went on a life-changing adventure to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. In the years following, I fell in love with adventure, overcoming fear, and pushing my physical and mental limits.'

Pancoe leaves behind a wife and two children. 

Sadly, he's hardly the first victim that Mount Mukalu has claimed, though he is the first to die on it in 2025. In May of 2024, Johnny Saliba of France succumbed to altitude sickness. One week earlier, Lakpa Tenji Sherpa of Nepal died of exhaustion.

The last American to die on Mukalu was Jay Sieger back in 2004. Sieger suffered a fatal fall.

No less than 50 people have lost their lives on Mukalu since the 1950s.

Our hearts go out to Pancoe's family and loved ones.