Not a good start to the week

[jfreeburg]

Climber dies on Rainier

 

Any beta?

 

My thoughts are with the family.

[ivan]

pretty common occurence - and might help to remind folks these WEREN'T climbers, but day hikers

[counterfeitfake]

That is very sad. I generally don't like to armchair-speculate. But I can't understand going up there with way the weather has been.

[JosephH]

"The three have not been identified, but Bacher said they are couple and a friend, all in their early 30s from Bellevue. Bacher said all three were experienced climbers, with two having summated Mount Rainier before and all three had made several trips to Camp Muir."

 

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/19723464.html

[JoshK]

:-(

 

So sad...but I challenge them being "experienced climbers." Having done something before does not mean you learned from it and gained experience. The weather forecasts were VERY obvious in predicting huge amounts of snow and wind for several days before they would have left. Why they chose to leave their shelter and head for a hike rather than pack up and begin navigating down to the safety of Paradise is the real question.

[billcoe]

Cause it's nice to challenge yourself.

 

Wishing the survivors well.

[korup]

Considering how nasty the weather at sea level was last night, it must have been horrific at 9500 ft. Best wishes for the survivors.

[Bug]

Please remember that there may be friends and family who read this site.

[JoshK]

Cause it's nice to challenge yourself.

 

Wishing the survivors well.

 

Walking in to a snowstorm unprepared is not challenging one's self.

 

I absolutely feel for the friends and familiy of the survivors and the victim, but this *is* a climbing site and it's hard to avoid commenting on a news service's typical misrepresentation. It doesn't seem productive to lead people to believe that accidents such as this occur despite "experience." Granted, I have no clue what actually occured, but every sign available to climbers/hikers, experienced or not, indicated unusually severe weather was basically guaranteed.

[plexus]

Here's the latest that has crossed the wires at my work:

 

Kinzer says a helicopter is standing by to bring the hikers off the mountain, but officials are waiting for the weather to break.

After a winter of heavy snowfall that forced repeated closure of mountain passes, unseasonably cold conditions have continued long into spring in Washington's Cascade Range.

Bacher says Paradise received 2 feet of fresh snow overnight, with 5-foot drifts at Camp Muir.

Bacher says the three hikers were all experienced in the

outdoors, and two had reached the summit of Rainier previously.

Bacher says three doctors were at Camp Muir with the two

remaining hikers, who are suffering from frostbite and hypothermia.

Both were in stable condition. Bacher says the third hiker had been unconscious before dying at Camp Muir.

[Raindawg]

Cause it's nice to challenge yourself.

 

Wishing the survivors well.

 

Walking in to a snowstorm unprepared is not challenging one's self.

 

I absolutely feel for the friends and familiy of the survivors and the victim, but this *is* a climbing site and it's hard to avoid commenting on a news service's typical misrepresentation. It doesn't seem productive to lead people to believe that accidents such as this occur despite "experience." Granted, I have no clue what actually occured, but every sign available to climbers/hikers, experienced or not, indicated unusually severe weather was basically guaranteed.

 

You don't know the whole story yet so how about toning it down until you do.

So easy to speculate from one of these:

[mzchristy]

Please remember that there may be friends and family who read this site.

Thank you SOOO much for this thoughtful reminder! Families and friends reading this thread, looking for more information, are most certainly sensitive and emotionally charged.

 

Sending good vibes to friends and family.

[ClipStick]

Condelescence for the families/friends...

 

Weather reports were obvious to the conditions...There is a reason people train for the Himalayas in the Northwest...cause it's rough out there...

[Doug]

Crappy news. I don't think the news media or any of you resident experts know if the individuals involved were hikers or climbers. Personally I believe the tragedy associated with the loss of life trumps anyone's opinion. My condolences to the survivors and all of the family and friends touched by this.

Edited June 11, 2008 by Doug

[Off_White]

Please remember that there may be friends and family who read this site.

 

For instance, a doctor I know happens to be on Mt Rainier right now. A quick phone call to his son determined that he's in fact on the other side of the mountain, hunkered down, and recently phoned home and is okay. Between the likely dead person being a doctor and the party of three doctors at Camp Muir, I stood a pretty good chance of being uncomfortably close to this even.

 

While I'm relieved my friend is not involved, I'm pretty damned sad to hear about this and join others in urging some respect and circumspection, especially given the little information actually available.

[denalidevo]

"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." - Evan Hardin

 

As climbers, I'm sure we've all experienced this truism on some level. The difficult thing is to refrain from injecting our own judgments into someone else's experience, especially those of tragic proportions. Until the facts are known, the most helpful thing we can do is support and encourage those who suffer in our thoughts and prayers.

[JoshK]

FYI, this story is now linked on the CNN website's front page.

 

[sobo]

Climber dies on Rainier

 

Any beta?

 

My thoughts are with the family.

Mine are too, and with the surviving wife and the deceased's friend.

 

RE: beta... As of 3.5 hours ago, MRNP has suspended the descent/rescue operation because the window of opportunity has closed. The weather is improving, but not so much as they will risk a helo evac. The forecast for tomorrow looks better, and they have two choppers on standby. A CH-47 (Chinook) from the 101st Airborne out of Camp Lewis, and a lighter, privately-operated, A-Star from WorldWind Helicopters (Renton). The name of the deceased is still not being released because the NPS is having difficulty in locating the deceased's family. His wife is one of the survivors at Camp Muir, if I didn't make that clear at the beginning of this post.

[ashw_justin]

Sure they are climbers. Climber is a relative term anyway. Let's try not get too sensitive/defensive/embarrassed here, alright? You don't have to take it personally.

[zeroforhire]

it saddens me to see the rash judgments made by some on this site... my thoughts and prayers are with those who have been personally affected by this.

 

If you are reading this, my heart goes out to you.

[AlpineK]

Sure they are climbers. Climber is a relative term anyway. Let's try not get too sensitive/defensive/embarrassed here, alright? You don't have to take it personally.

 

I've both climbed a lot and gone on trips that were only hikes/skis to Muir.

[ericb]

http://www.nwac.us/products/archive/OSOMUR.2

 

No need to speculate when you have real data...according to the telemetry, Monday at noon, the temp at Muir was 22 degrees and the AVERAGE windspeed was 46 mph.

[gary_hehn]

Conditions had to have been desperate for attempting to rescue and then treat these people. This from Mountaineering First Aid - Carline, Lentz, Macdonald: "A cold heart is very sensitive. Unnecessary movement of an extremely cold patient may cause the heart to begin beating erratically or stop completely."

 

I remember hearing about an incident were a hypothermic crew from a ship that sank in Alaska waters was brought aboard a rescue ship. I'm thinking there were at least twelve of them. They were given hot coffee, walked across the deck and down to the galley were every one of them then died!

 

I can't imagine how sad the experience at Camp Muir must have been Tuesday. My condolences to all involved.

Edited June 12, 2008 by gary_hehn

[scott_harpell]

I once learned in a far away land that when confronted with a cohort's death, often others will chalk his death up to inexperience, lack of preparedness or being foolhardy. In that world, like in the world of mountain climbing, shit happens.

 

It is good to remember that and embrace that. You never know when it will be your party getting berated on this website for paying the piper.

[111]

http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2008/06/rainier-snowsto.html

 

got the others off ok