Three killed in North Cascades climbing accident

Three King County residents died in a North Cascades rock-climbing accident over the weekend when their equipment failed as they rappelled down the side of a steep gully near North Early Winters Spire, about 16 miles west of Mazama, the Okanogan County sheriff’s office said.

A fourth climber sustained internal bleeding and a traumatic brain injury in the fall, but survived. He walked back to the trailhead just east of Washington Pass and drove to Newhalem, where he used a pay phone to call 911 at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Okanogan County Undersheriff David Yarnell said by phone Monday.

“He didn’t realize he had as significant of internal injuries as he did,” Yarnell said.

The sheriff’s office has not released the names of the climbers who died, but said they were 36, 47 and 63 years old, according to a statement the agency posted on social media on Monday. Two of the three lived in Renton and one lived in Bellevue, Yarnell said. The Okanogan County coroner did not immediately respond to phone and email inquiries Monday.

The individuals were rock climbing in the Early Winter Couloir and started descending in the wedge between the north and south spires after noticing a storm coming in, Yarnell said.

The couloir is a mixed climb along a ribbon of snow and ice that splits the North and South Early Winters Spires, said Joshua Cole, co-owner of North Cascade Mountain Guides.

Conditions in mixed alpine routes like the Early Winter Couloirs can vary not only month to month, but also by the time of day, Cole said. Climbing those routes require various techniques and equipment such as ice tools and rope. Changing inputs like weather, how clear it was overnight, snowfall and the number of warm days we’ve had in the spring can make the route more or less dangerous.

“This route that they were on, there was no exception to that,” Cole said. “Even a very experienced climber could head up to this route expecting certain conditions and find them to be different.”

The fall happened either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, said Okanogan County search and rescue coordinator Cristina Woodworth.

It took the survivor “a number of hours to self-extricate” from the fall site and walk back to his vehicle, which he had parked near a “user trail” often referred to as “the hairpin” and that goes up to Kangaroo Pass, Woodworth said by phone Monday.

Investigators Monday afternoon will examine the climbers’ gear “for wear and tear and whether it was improper,” Yarnell said.

All four were tied to the same anchor point, which Yarnell said is “not preferred.” Investigators will try to determine whether the climbers were using a pre-existing anchor point or their own.

“All we know is that the anchor point that they were all tied off to failed,” Yarnell said.

Two sheriff’s deputies and the agency’s search and rescue coordinator were first to respond to the scene. The Snohomish County helicopter rescue team extricated the three who died from the “technical, mountainous terrain,” according to the Okanogan County sheriff’s office’s statement.