One Dead, 11 Saved On Mount Rainier Snowslide Slams Into Two Climbing Parties On East Face

An avalanche rumbled down the eastern side of Mount Rainier on Thursday, striking 12 climbers along the most popular route to the 14,410-foot summit.

One man was killed, left dangling from a rope until rescuers were able to reach his body as night fell.

He is believed to have died before sunset, suffering severe internal injuries, said Maria Gillett, a National Park Service spokeswoman.

Another man broke a leg, one woman and one man each suffered a broken hand and another woman suffered from hypothermia.

The 11 survivors either were rescued or escaped on their own. But rescuers had to call off their efforts because of darkness as they tried to reach the man hanging by a rope at about the 11,300-foot level.

By early evening, rangers had gotten close enough to remove the victim.

Just before 8 p.m., Eric Walkinshaw, a spokesman at Mount Rainier National Park, said the man had been “moving and conscious” but died sometime later on the mountain.

The man was at the end of a rope that had included five other people, said John Krambrink, the park’s chief ranger.

Rescuers saved the other five, who probably were going to spend the night on the mountain with rescuers, authorities said.

Their injuries were not considered serious enough for the five to be taken out by helicopter.

Of most concern was the woman suffering from severe hypothermia, which can be life-threatening.

A rescue team was digging in for the night out of the line of avalanches, Krambrink said.

Six climbers escaped uninjured. They stopped their slide by sticking ice axes in the snow, Walkinshaw said.

The avalanche, which an ice fall may have set off, occurred in the afternoon as two groups of climbers were coming down from the mountain summit, Walkinshaw said.

The slide was most likely a slowmoving, “point release” avalanche that loped along at a jog-like pace, said Phil Ohl, an experienced hiker who has also ascended Rainier.

It was slow-moving but powerful.

“The avalanche swept six of them off Disappointment Cleaver,” Walkinshaw said.

The man hanging by a rope was at the cleaver, a giant rock outcropping that separates the Emmons and Ingraham glaciers.

Each group - made up of six climbers - was roped together.

The wife of disabled climber Peter Rieke, who is ascending the mountain by a vehicle he operates with his arms, saw a team of climbers falling over the cleaver, Krambrink said.

She notified park officials by cellular telephone.

Park rangers, several professional climbing guides and other mountain rescue crews - perhaps at least 20 people - were involved in rescue attempts.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer