Climbing
One person was killed and two others were injured after a rockfall tore through a campsite on Mount Rainier Wednesday night, the National Park Service said. Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher says a rescue team responded to six climbers caught in a rockfall at 10,400 feet 8 pm Wednesday.
Bacher says a climber on the Liberty Ridge route called 911 at 8 pm Wednesday, reporting that a rock fall had swept through the site where three parties of two were camping on their way to the summit. Park rangers responded in a helicopter Thursday morning, taking the most seriously injured climber to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center. Hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said Thursday evening the 37-year-old man was in serious condition.
The second injured climber was taken to a hospital in Morton, Washington, which is southwest of the National Park. The three uninjured climbers were flown off the mountain at 4:45 pm Thursday, the park said.
The climbers involved were camping in preparation for a climb to the mountain’s 14,411-foot summit and were not with a guide service, KING of Seattle reported.
Around 10,000 people a year register to summit Mount Rainier. The Liberty Ridge route has been the site of a number fatalities over the years, including in 2014 when three climbers died in a fall there.
