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1 missing in avalanche while descending from Muir


OlympicMtnBoy

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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