Rockfall Kills 1 Climber, Injures 3 on Mount Rainier, WA

A rockfall on Mount Rainier’s Disappointment Cleaver route killed a local Washington climber and injured three others early Sunday, July 19. It struck two independent parties climbing without guides, low on the mountain’s standard summit line.

Where Mount Rainier Rockfall Concentrates on the DC

Climbers call it the DC. It is Rainier’s standard summit path, rebuilt and maintained through each season by the mountain’s permitted guide services, and it carries more traffic than every other route on the peak combined. Climbing ranger Stefan Lofgren told The Tacoma News Tribune that close to 6,000 people climb it annually. Peter Whittaker, co-owner of RMI Expeditions and a guide with more than 50 years and 256 Rainier summits behind him, puts the DC’s share at approximately 66% of all summit attempts on the mountain.

Popularity is not the same as safety. The route runs roughly nine miles one way with about 9,000 feet of gain, and the American Alpine Club lists its hazards as crevasses, avalanches, icefall, rockfall, and altitude illness. Fatalities remain statistically very low. Lofgren said they average fewer than two per season across a route that sees thousands of climbers.

The accident happened low on the cleaver, in terrain Rainier’s climbing rangers had flagged six days prior. A July 15 route update described the traverse from the ladder above Ingraham Flats out to the base of the cleaver as having “significant overhead hazards,” telling teams to move fast and limit their exposure. Rangers also warned climbers not to stop at all between Cathedral Gap and Ingraham Flats, and to inspect any rest spot by looking up first.

The Response

Jason Houck, 48, of Issaquah, Washington, was descending with his 17-year-old son when the rockfall struck a group he estimated at 100 vertical feet below them, on the scree near the bottom of the cleaver. Houck told The News Tribune that he and his son waited roughly an hour while rangers brought in a helicopter and short-hauled a climber with a broken leg off the mountain, around 7:45 a.m. Rangers then radioed parties waiting above the accident site to descend while the helicopter returned for the body recovery.

The park later said the uninjured climbers were assisted back to Camp Muir and flown with their equipment to the park’s helibase, where they received medical care before returning to their vehicles. It was Houck’s fourth climb of the Disappointment Cleaver route. He told the paper it will be his last.

What Climbers Should Know

Late July is an active and busy time on the DC route. As the summer solar rays melt the snow and ice off the ridge, the rock beneath is left loose and unsupported. The rangers’ July 13 report described the cleaver as roughly half snow and rock, with a warm high-pressure system moving in and the expectation that it would go mostly rock within days. That report remains the most up-to-date DC conditions the park has published.

• Related: Local Guide Sets New Fastest Known Time for Mount Rainier, WA

The guidance rangers gave before the accident is the same guidance they would give today: start early, wear a helmet, move continuously through overhead-hazard terrain, and never take a rest break somewhere you have not looked up first. Route conditions on the volcano change daily and sometimes hour to hour. Climbers should always check in at the Paradise Wilderness Information Center for current beta before committing to a plan.