OlympicMtnBoy Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 Just saw the news blurb on King 5, nothing on their website yet. Sounds like someone got swept away near Panorama Point while descending from Muir yesterday. Search going on now. Best wishes to the subject and family. Be careful out there folks. Quote
lizard_brain Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 Avalanche on Mount Rainier buries climber 09:05 AM PST on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 KING5.com Staff MOUNT RAINIER, Wash. - A rescue operation is under way after a climber was buried by an avalanche. Kevin Bacher of Mount Raininer National Park says two young men left for a day hike at Tuesday morning but turned back due to poor visibility and high winds. At about 1:30 p.m., while leading the way down, one of the men triggered an avalanche and was swept down the slope. "His friend searched for him for several hours and then came out at dusk last night and reported his friend missing," said Bacher. Six rangers from Mount Rainier National Park, four members from mountain rescue and two people with avalanche search dogs are headed to the area. "We'll be going out today with the reporting party to try to pinpoint more exactly where that happened," aid Bacher. Bacher said searchers will be proceeding with caution due to weather conditions. "There's a lot of snow at Paradise right at the moment and pretty good wind so conditions are ripe for further avalanches," he said. Bacher said the two climbers were not wearing an avalanche beacon. Quote
iciclespyder Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 wow. this so reminds me when my brother died on pan face almost thirty years ago. Quote
sampdx Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 That's awful. Sorry to hear it. Hopefully, this time things will turn out okay. Looking forward to hearing updates as they come in. Quote
hafilax Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 That's terrible news. It seems that avalanche conditions in Washington are as bad as they are in the South Coast mountains of BC. I wish them luck. Quote
lizard_brain Posted December 19, 2007 Posted December 19, 2007 I tried to snowshoe to Pan Point on Sunday. We got to the base of it and said "No way." We could hear the WHUMP! of the layers shifting and could feel the ground move - even on the fairly flat ground at the base just before the rise to Pan Point. We turned around there. Sorry for them. It's really not a stable pace right now. Quote
dougd Posted December 20, 2007 Posted December 20, 2007 Sad to say, but if the guy's been missing at 1330 Tuesday it's a recovery effort at this point... 22yrs old... damn Quote
dmuja Posted December 20, 2007 Posted December 20, 2007 Can someone please confirm the location? Was it on Pan Point? Muir Snowfield? Altavista? Edith Creek Basin? Anecdotal: I was out playing way up on FS road 5510 (I90 exit 42) on Sunday. Found some hidden burried instability in the snow pack @ 4000 feet that I didn't expect nor see. Just diggin a pit and it looks good - until I do a compression test, got "moderate failure" in what "looked" like a very good snow structure. Hopefully things will eventually even-out and stabilize but Im gonna be extra cautious when I get up higher above Paradise in the next week or so. Err on the side of caution. It's been a bad year so far by any measure -don't tempt the dragon. Quote
Gary_Yngve Posted December 20, 2007 Posted December 20, 2007 from NWAC: A climber is missing after triggering a slide and being caught in Edith Basin above Paradise on Mt Rainer Tuesday. An early morning snowpit Wednesday in the area revealed the weak layer at the crust when failure occurred about 4 feet down on the crust with compression test 5 and Rutschblock 4. Slides not initiating down to the crust may begin in more shallow storm layer weaknesses but likely step down to the crust layer, making some large and very dangerous slides possible. Quote
sobo Posted December 21, 2007 Posted December 21, 2007 The man is deceased. We got pinged to drive up tonight and start looking for his body tomorrow morning. He is apparently in the Edith Creek Basin area, just below Pan Point. My sincerest condolences to his family and friends. Please be careful out there, people. Quote
sobo Posted December 24, 2007 Posted December 24, 2007 Kirk Reiser's body was recovered Friday afternoon, December 21, at the base of Edith Creek falls under about 8 feet of snow. He was still wearing his pack. About 3 dozen or so Mountain Rescue folks from Central Washington, Olympic, Tacoma, Seattle, Snohomish, Everett, and I believe 1 or 2 folks from Bellingham MR assisted the NPS in the probe search. My sincerest condolences to his family and friends. Quote
Bug Posted December 24, 2007 Posted December 24, 2007 RIP. My condolences to the family and friends. Quote
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