Mount Rainier ranger killed in rescue; four climbers safe

A Mount Rainier ranger involved in the rescue effort to
pull four climbers off Mount Rainier has died. Rescue
efforts continued through Friday afternoon until the last climber safely descended the mountain.

“We’re stunned,” Mount Rainier National Park spokesman,
Kevin Bacher tells CBS. “When we try to do a rescue on the
mountain, the last thing that we want to have happen, and
the thing that is always forefront in our minds, is to
make sure we don’t make the situation worse.”

A Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord plucked
three of the injured climbers off the Cascade Range
mountain Thursday night while a woman from Waco, Texas,
remained overnight, waiting out a worsening storm in the
company of park rangers.

“The woman who remained last night was the last one that
they attempted to rescue off the mountain because based on
the field assessment she seemed to be the least injured.
She is coming out under her own power,” explained Bacher.

Ranger Hall, 33, was helping prepare the climbers to
be
taken from the 14,411-foot Washington state peak when he
fell shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, Bacher said.

Hall slid more than 3,000 feet to his death as he helped
in efforts to rescue four injured climbers who fell on a
glacier, a National Park Service spokesman said.

Hall didn’t respond to attempts to contact
him and wasn’t moving, and he was dead when other rangers
reached him at the 10,000-foot level several hours later,
Bacher said.

The park is investigating exactly how Hall fell, Bacher
said.

“We don’t want what happened to Nick to happen again,” he
said.

Safety was stressed at the Friday morning briefing for
rangers.

“There’s no urgency today; nobody’s life is at risk today.
Let’s take it slow and make sure nobody else is hurt,”
Bacher said.

Hall’s family said they were proud of him for his
involvement in mountain rescues.

“We sincerely hope the loss of our son will draw
appropriate attention to the hazards and safety
requirements and commitment to be involved in the
profession and sport he so loved,” said his father, Carter
Hall, from the family home in Patten, Maine.

The family said it was “grieving and celebrating” his
life.

Rangers started down Friday morning, but the park still
hoped a helicopter would be able to pick her up and also
recover the body of ranger Nick Hall, said Bacher. Six
rangers went to recover Hall’s body, but that could take
several days if the helicopter can’t fly.

Rain was falling at Longmire, and the National Weather
Service said it was snowing above 10,000 feet, the level
where Hall landed after the 3,000-foot slide.

A helicopter airlifted the three hikers to Madigan Army
Medical Center at the military base near Tacoma. They were
battered and bruised with possible broken bones, but none
of the injuries seemed life-threatening, Bacher said.

About 10,000 people attempt to summit the massive volcano
each year, with most doing so in the summer.

The Texas climbers were roped together when they fell on
Emmons Glacier on Thursday. The two women at the end of
the rope ended up in a crevasse. Rangers who responded to
a cellphone call helped them out.

Hall is originally from Patten, Maine, the park spokesman
said. He had been with Mount Rainier National Park’s
climbing program for four years.

His death comes during what has proved to be a difficult
year for park staff.

On New Year’s Day, ranger Margaret Anderson was fatally
shot as she tried to stop a man who drove through a tire
chain checkpoint near Longmire. The 24-year-old man,
Benjamin Colton Barnes, was suspected in a shooting early
New Year’s Day in Seattle, and his body was found the next
day about a mile away in the snow.

In mid-January, an elite mountain rescue team went up the
mountain in search of two campers and two climbers who
failed to return during a storm. The four weren’t found.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.