Men who died on Mount Rainier were prolific climbers

Jiri Richter and Ben Watson were drawn to the mountains – and they always wanted to help others reach the summit.

Richter, 51, gave fellow climbers a pat on the shoulder and patiently told them to keep going during scary moments. Watson, 35, was willing to wake up earlier than everyone else to get permits and gushed about the panoramic views from mountaintops, even during whiteout conditions.

“He had an insatiable love of the mountains,” said Watson’s wife, Rena Hamzey. “I would often joke about whom he loved more, me or the mountains, to which he’d respond wholeheartedly, ‘obviously you.’ ”

Watson, a newlywed who lived in Seattle and worked in environmental science, and Richter, a software architect and skilled paraglider who volunteered as a Mountaineers leader and instructor, died this month doing what they loved: climbing in Mount Rainier National Park.

Their bodies were recovered from the Wilson Glacier area of Mount Rainier, at an elevation of about 9,600 feet, according to the National Park Service. Both died of blunt force injuries, according to the Pierce County medical examiner’s office, which classified their deaths as accidents.

The park’s investigation of the incident is ongoing, National Park Service spokesperson Scott Clemans said Wednesday.

He had the ‘mountain bug’ since he could walk

Hamzey last spoke to her husband Jan. 17 through text and wished him good night and safe travels in his climb with Richter. She received a call the next day from a park ranger, who had identified Watson and Richter’s overdue climbing permits and found their vehicles in the Paradise parking lot.

She was concerned, she said, because he was usually responsive and she hadn’t heard from him that day. She learned of their likely fate Jan. 19, after searchers spotted the climbers near Wilson Glacier. Ground crews reached the site Jan. 20.

Watson grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and claimed he had the “mountain bug” since he could walk. He moved to Washington state for a job in environmental science but stayed for the mountains.

Last year, he logged nearly two dozen summits, including Mount Athabasca in Canada’s Jasper National Park, Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Olympus in Washington. Watson and Hamzey married in October and, for their honeymoon, climbed Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador.

The pair, who met through their high school cross-country team, had only been married for three months – “but it was the happiest three months of my life with him by my side,” she wrote in an email.

He was notorious for making friends during his outdoor adventures, which is how he and Richter connected, Hamzey said.

Watson loved playing online chess, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and his and Hamzey’s two cats. On mountain trails, he always had to be throwing rocks or snowballs to hit a specific spot on a tree, his friend Stacia Glenn said, and after a big climb, he hid plastic dinosaurs in her apartment in case she was “dino-sore.”

He is survived by his parents, Meg and Rob; twin sister, Amanda; and younger sister, Abby.

In the many tributes to Watson and Richter on climbing and mountaineering Facebook groups and message boards, one climber recalled ascending Sherpa Glacier on Mount Stuart with Watson. Their group woke up at 3 a.m. and then spent 15 hours “suffering between a melted-out glacier, heinous bushwhacking off route and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.”

Looking back on the photos, the climber recalled, Watson was the only one smiling.

‘A very enviable life’

Loved ones said Richter had a seemingly tough exterior that softened as you got to know him and saw his dry humor, willingness to help on climbs and gifts of baked goods. His charm, kindness and humor were contrary to his large stature and Czech accent, said his life partner, Eileen Kutscha.

He grew up in what is now the Czech Republic and moved to the Seattle area more than 20 years ago for a job in tech. In 2003, he joined the Mountaineers, a Seattle-based outdoors nonprofit, where he volunteered as a leader and instructor, Mountaineers spokesperson Mira Poling Anselmi said.

It was through a Mountaineers basic alpine climbing course that Andrew Ellis first met Richter in 2013. Richter was a pretty advanced climber at that point, Ellis recalled, and was helping with the small instructional group Ellis was a part of. They started climbing together, and over the years, completed upward of 30 to 40 climbs, including Mount Rainier at least 10 to 15 times.

Richter’s extensive experience with Mount Rainier is one reason his and Watson’s deaths feel so shocking, Ellis said. He was good at striking a balance between safety and efficiency, Ellis added. Meredith Mosman recalled Richter making sure their knots were always tied correctly and reassuring her when she got nervous.

“If Jiri believes in me, I guess I can do it,” she remembered thinking at the time.

Their climbs together were just a small sliver for Richter, who was a prolific mountaineer and outdoorsman. He was deeply involved in the Pacific Northwest’s paragliding community and enjoyed kiteboarding and windsurfing. He traveled often, coming back with stories from Morocco or supporting another paraglider in the Alps.

“He had a very enviable life,” Ellis said. “It was quite inspiring and neat to live vicariously through him.”

Richter’s last climb with Ellis was over the summer on Mount Rainier, when they ascended a route they had scouted out themselves. It wasn’t highly technical or challenging, but there wasn’t a lot of information in trip reports, so it was an adventure, and they weren’t sure they could pull it off. When they got to the summit, Richter, who wasn’t overly excited about feats in the outdoors, shook Ellis’ hand and gave him a big hug.

“For him to do that was a surprise and also just really nice,” Ellis recalled. “It was a big deal to the two of us. It was a really great last climb we were able to have together.”