Inexperience, Equipment Cited In Rainier Tragedy
Icy conditions, inexperience and faulty equipment all played a role in the deaths of two summer rangers in an August rescue attempt on Mount Rainier.
“Even the best climbers, had we sent them, could have met a tragic end under those conditions,” said John Krambrink, chief ranger at Mount Rainier National Park.
Philip Otis, 22, and Sean Ryan, 23, died Aug. 12 while trying to reach a California man stranded with a fractured ankle at 13,500 feet on the northeast side of the mountain. He later was rescued by others.
The report suggests the two rangers confronted one problem after another, but were determined to prevent the man’s death from exposure. They fell when they stopped at 13,200 feet to fix their equipment on Aug. 12.
Their deaths were the first at the park in the line of duty.
Otis had climbed Mount Rainier once and Mount Baker once, while Ryan had climbed Mount Rainier 11 times. They had enough experience to handle a rescue under less severe conditions, Krambrink said.
But “I don’t think any of us would have sent (Otis) up there had we known what the conditions were.”
Otis did not thrust his ice axe deep into the snow and snap his rope to it, a technique most climbers use for an anchor, the report said. His axe was later found with only the tip in the snow.
He also was wearing faulty crampons, spiked cleats that clamp onto climbers’ boots. One of the crampons didn’t fit his boot property, and the other had broken in half and was no longer screwed in tightly, the report said.
In their last radio contact, Ryan said Otis was having trouble with his crampons. He used duct tape and then white athletic tape to try to secure them, the report says.
Otis probably found the park-owned crampons in the hut at Camp Schurman, the base camp for ascents up the northeast face, Krambrink said. Some of the reserve equipment stored there is not in good condition, he said, though the park has since bought new crampons, axes and four cellular phones for better communication.