Climber’s body seen on Mount Rainier

TACOMA — The body of an overdue climber was spotted Thursday at the 9,000-foot level of Mount Rainier, and a second climber was missing, a Mount Rainier National Park ranger said.

Rangers in a helicopter saw the climber, lying motionless and face-down in the snow on the Carbon Glacier on the 14,411-foot peak’s north side, supervisory climbing ranger Mike Gauthier said Thursday night.

Rangers had been searching for two overdue Missoula men in their 20s, who had been expected back Monday from a climb begun last Friday up the mountain’s dangerous Liberty Ridge route.

Heavy snowfall and winds of more than 100 miles per hour pummeled the mountain all weekend, Gauthier said, destroying tents at some of the high camps. Avalanche danger was extreme.

The Montana climbers were described as experienced. One was 29, the other was described only as in his 20s, the ranger said.

Rangers were unable to reach the body Thursday but planned to fly to the site early Friday to check the body and search for the missing man, Gauthier said.

“Having seen a lot of fatalities in the mountains in the snow, one can suppose this person is not alive,” he said. “There was no movement, no signs of life.”

The climbers were not immediately identified, pending notification of relatives.

The body was located west of Liberty Ridge and below Liberty Wall in a large basin, essentially at the bottom of a 4,000-foot-tall glacier wall or rock and ice, Gauthier said.

“There was a lot of icefall debris around the body,” he said, as well as two backpacks and climbing rope.

Had the climber been higher on Liberty Ridge and fallen, he would have landed in this basin, the ranger said.

The climbers were first reported overdue on Tuesday, but rangers were not unduly concerned until late Wednesday because many climbing teams had been slowed by the weather, and no descending climbers reported seeing any accidents.

Another two-man climbing party, at the 10,670-foot level on the Liberty Ridge route, called for assistance Thursday in climbing down, saying they were unhurt but “in over their heads,” Gauthier said. Those climbers, also unidentified, have food and fuel.