Paraplegic Abandons Mount Rainier Climb

A Wisconsin man’s attempt to become the first paraplegic to reach Mount Rainier’s summit ended amid high winds, melting ice and exposed rock some 2,000 feet short of the summit.

“We know when the mountain says you’re not going to hit the peak today, you’re not going to,” said Gigi DeYoung, public relations manager for Jansport Inc., the Appleton, Wis.-based firm that sponsored the climb by Jeff Pagels.

She said Friday that Pagels, 50, from the Green Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon, telephoned her Thursday night from Ingraham Flats at 11,300 feet.

He reported that the team traversed a glacier, but the strong winds and melting left large expanses of rock not covered by ice or snow.

“It was quite treacherous,” DeYoung said.

The sit-ski device that Pagels used to pull himself up the mountain could not slide on the rock, so his team members were forced to carry him.

Two mountain guides who went ahead reported that the terrain was as bad or worse higher up.

Another paraplegic, Pete Rieke of Pasco, Wash., made it to within 3,000 feet of the summit before ending his climb earlier in the week. Rieke used a “snow pod,” a hand-cranked device with spiked treads and gears, for his climb.

Pagel’s journey began Tuesday at 5,000 feet, and he reached nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, well short of the summit at 14,411 feet.