South Sister

Hikers are pictured Aug. 22, 2015, with South Sister in the background.

(Terry Richard/Staff)

Tom Shakespeare

A Portland man died Tuesday while hiking up South Sister, Oregon's third-tallest peak, deputies said.

Hikers found Tom Shakespeare, 63, face down and unresponsive Tuesday morning, the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Deputies are investigating his death but said it doesn't appear to be suspicious.

Shakespeare was at about 8,417 feet, or roughly 1,941 feet from the mountain's summit. He was hiking to the summit by himself, as far as rescuers could tell, said Lt. Bryan Husband, the sheriff's office's search and rescue coordinator.

The hikers who found Shakespeare unresponsive called 911 and performed CPR but weren't able to revive him, deputies said. Sheriff's office personnel and search and rescue volunteers got Shakespeare's body to the Devils Lake trailhead around 9:30 p.m.

The hikers found him about 4-1/2 miles from the trailhead on the South Sister Climber Trail. People who have little technical climbing skill can summit South Sister using the popular route in the summer, according to outdoors website SummitPost.com.

The website says summiting South Sister via its climber trail "requires only (decent) physical conditioning and a tolerance for massive amounts of scree" -- or loose rock.

Shakespeare had a hiking background, Husband said.

Deputies ask anyone who ran into Shakespeare on the trail or saw him die to call the sheriff's office's Special Services Unit at 541-388-6501.

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

503-221-8005; @Jimryan015