king5news Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Just thought I'd let you all know -- there are two more overdue climbers on Mt. Rainier. A Seattle area man and a partner (unnamed) were to return home yesterday. The search is in the beginning stages. Few details available yet. Please keep them in your prayers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 thank you for the info now prepare to be flamed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king5news Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 too bad. And from such a cutie. Â fyi -- rainier says they won't be searching right away. white out conditions on the mtn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 just the last news org who came by here during a climbing incident didn't receive a warm welcome at first, that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king5news Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 I know. It was us. We're TRYING to do better -- that's why I thought I'd just pass on the info. Not seeking advice. Not seeking information -- just passing on info to people who will care. Â Thanks for being friendly about it. I appreciate it. While I'm not a climber I did hike (pre-baby) and look forward to doing it again once she gets bigger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambone Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Thanks for leting us know. I hope they return safely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Lambone said: Thanks for leting us know. I hope they return safely! Â me too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king5news Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 you're welcome. so do we. the family of one of the hikers called us. they're looking for advice on what to do. I steered them toward this board -- hopefully you all can help and lend them moral support. supposedly one of them is pretty experienced - though the wife isn't sure he took any extra supplies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalX Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Hope they make it out okay. What day did they go up?  I'd go check out the story on king5.com if it didn't require you to be registered. Guess I'll just have to surf over to one of the other million news sites.  on another related note, news.google.com rawks  --eternal  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
king5news Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 yeah. we're forced into the registration thing by corporate. arrgh. i just tell people to make up a name. Â they went up friday - were due back yesterday afternoon. rainier is telling us one thing -- the family something else. telling us they're NOT searching and won't 'til maybe tomorrow. telling the family they CAN'T search because of conditions. is this normal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 (edited) yes, thats normal if you mean that a rescue attempt/search waits for a semi-decent weather window. Can't and Won't, semantics. The Mt Rainier NP rangers know whats up and will do their best.  Cheers, Alex  Edited February 17, 2003 by Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayB Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 I wish I knew somthing that might help the families of the missing climbers - I can only imagine how terrible it is to be in that situation. I'll keep them in my thoughts and my fingers crossed. Â If anyone knew what route the climbers were intending to climb, and other information of this sort, someone could perhaps offer useful information concerning conditions, any sections of the climb that looked especially hazardous or that might significantly slow down a party, sites where they would have hunkered down if caught in a storm, etc - as I know that a few fellows who post here have climbed the common winter routes lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toast Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 If they are experienced, they'd know there's not much the outside can do at the moment and that they need to hunker down till conditions improve. Hopefully they're knowledgeable enough to know this and equipped to do so. Â My empathy to the families and hope to the two on the mountain. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 (edited) king5news said: rainier is telling us one thing -- the family something else. telling us they're NOT searching and won't 'til maybe tomorrow. telling the family they CAN'T search because of conditions. is this normal? Â the two statements are not necessarily contradictory. if they can't because of conditions, then they won't, either. Â for the sake of the families though, anybody know some Rainier statistics? like "87.335% of rescue callouts for overdue hikers result in a successful recovery with no injuries or fatalities?" Edited February 17, 2003 by Dru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryland_moore Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 I am still not clear if these folks were "hikers" or "climbers". I think the media sometimes portrays climbers as hikers and vice-versa. I always think of a hiker as anyone who is on a trail and in relative safety, and a climber as anyone who is on rock or ice. If these folks are climbers, then they definately new about the weather coming in and should be equiped for a Rainier storm. If they were actually attempting a summit, they have larger cajones than me, as I tucked my tail b/w my legs as soon as heard about the weather for this weekend. Even if these folks were generally knowledgeable about the mountain, and happened to be up near Muir, they might know about the hut and are hunkered down in there or at least a snow cave, waiting for the storm to pass. Hope they are well, and being an eternal optimist, I am sure they are fine, just miserable in this snow dump. Best of luck and sending warm wished their way..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEWSTIPS Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 Mt Rainier says they're still waiting to see if the climbers make it out before nightfall. There's been a little break in the weather. If they don't come out tonight, Mt. Rainier will institute a full scale search on Tuesday morning. The climbers did register so they know the route they took which will help if they need to search. Â Because they're experienced climbers, if they don't come out today rangers expect them to hunker down until the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambone Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 The title of this thread says "two more overdue climbers"... Â Are there other climbers missing up there that I am not aware of? Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEWSTIPS Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 No, no others currently missing. I believe that is a reference to 2 more in a string of occurrences over the winter season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 NEWSTIPS said: No, no others currently missing. I believe that is a reference to 2 more in a string of occurrences over the winter season. Â a string of occurences?? Â when will the industry of mass media stop with the overzealous attempts at building everyday life into something grand? Â tragic story and i hope they are rescued. but without word they are just lost. we should leave it at that. a string of occurences makes it sound as if there have been missing climbers weekly. Â you should simplify your wording and just tell the plain facts. your usage of adjatives is always annoying. Â and don't let jim forman do any of the reporting! Â keep up the good effort!! Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klenke Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 "and don't let jim forman do any of the reporting!" Â Amen to that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEWSTIPS Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 You know, as soon as I re-read my posting with "string of occurrences", I realized that was probably not the best wording. Â I do apologize for the mischaracterization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Larson Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 One of the climbers as per the news is 51 year old Chris Mcginnis an experienced climber from Mukilteo . Anyone know him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattp Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 C'mon, Klenke - picture Jim Forman, standing in the Paradise parking lot with his hair blowing about his face, holding a flashlight. Unless, maybe, the rangers ask them to do so, they don't withold information so much as they don't have much information to present; to make the story more exciting they have him stand out in the storm. That's all. It's classic TV news and it can be kind of amusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 That name is very familiar, but I can't place it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGowans Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 I'm glad you checked in catbirdseat. I was a bit worried that you were one of them. Did you guys go up Rainier last week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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