Bellevue man dies on Mount Rainier

LONGMIRE, Wash. – One hiker died on Mount Rainier and two others were awaiting rescue Tuesday at Camp Muir, high on the volcano’s flank, officials at the national park said.

Park Ranger Sandi Kinzer and park spokesman Kevin Bacher confirmed the death. They declined to release the hikers’ names, saying park officials were having difficulty contacting the dead hiker’s family.

The three hikers were described as two men and a woman in their early 30s, all from Bellevue, east of Seattle. The dead hiker was the woman’s husband, Bacher said.

Bacher said rangers received a call at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday that three hikers had been trapped in a sudden blizzard on the Muir snowfield as they were descending from a day hike to Camp Muir.

Camp Muir, a staging area for climbers, is at about 10,000 feet elevation on the 14,410-foot mountain.

The three apparently built a snow shelter at about 9,500 feet. Weather prevented an immediate rescue attempt after their call, Bacher said. The other male hiker left the married couple and battled through heavy snow to reach Camp Muir at 7:15 a.m. and was able to direct rescuers to the other hikers near Anvil Rock, a large outcropping at the edge of the Muir snowfield.

The others were brought to a shelter at Camp Muir by 8:30 a.m., but one man was unconscious and later died, Bacher said. All were suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.

Two helicopters were standing by – an Army Chinook from Fort Lewis and a private chopper – but the weather did not improve sufficiently for an evacuation by Tuesday evening. The rescue effort was expected to resume at 5 a.m. today, weather permitting, Bacher said.

“We’re optimistic, given the forecast, that we’ll be able to make better progress at that time,” he said.

Officials didn’t want to attempt a ground evacuation, to avoid exacerbating the hikers’ injuries, he said.

After a winter of heavy snowfall that forced repeated closure of mountain passes, unseasonably cold conditions have continued long into spring in Washington’s Cascade Range.

Paradise, the jumping-off point for the trail to Camp Muir, received 2 feet of fresh snow over Monday night, with 5-foot drifts and 70 mph winds at Camp Muir, Bacher said.

The three hikers were all experienced in the outdoors, all had been to Camp Muir previously and two had reached the summit of Rainier previously, he said.

But “a blizzard that dumped drifts of 5 feet was more than they bargained for,” Bacher said. The extreme conditions would “overwhelm even the most prepared individual.”

Three doctors, clients of a climbing concessionaire in the park, were at Camp Muir to help the two remaining hikers, Bacher said. Both were in stable condition. One of the doctors descended the mountain late Tuesday.

It was the doctors’ recommendation not to attempt a ground evacuation, Bacher said.

“Right now, the best place for them to be is sheltered at Camp Muir, rather than taking the chance of exposing them to try to carry them down the mountain,” Kinzer said. “Since they are safe and stable where they are, we’ll wait until we get a weather window to get them off the mountain.”

Guides for local climbing companies assisted park rangers with the rescue effort.

International Mountain Guides had eight climbing clients and four guides at Camp Muir, while Rainier Mountaineering Inc. had 15 clients and a handful of guides there Tuesday. Both companies said their employees and clients were doing well, but hunkered down awaiting better weather.

Bacher said day hikers are not required to check in with park officials, and these hikers didn’t. But he said it’s a good idea any time of year to inquire about conditions on the mountain, where weather can turn deadly quickly.

“Be prepared for worse conditions than you expect,” he said. “Be prepared to spend the night out.”

The death was the first reported on the mountain this year. In December, a 22-year-old Lynnwood man, Kirk Reiser, was killed when he was swept up in a snowslide while on a day hike on snowshoes.