Climbers ascending Mount Rainier rescued by helicopter after one falls into 80-foot crevasse

Two climbers ascending Mount Rainier were rescued by helicopter Friday after one fell into an 80-foot crevasse, according to the National Park Service. The man in the chasm was stranded for about 29 hours.

The rescue took place on the south side of the mountain at an elevation of 12,200 feet, about 2,200 feet from the summit. According to a news release, the rescue required multiple attempts due to heavy and erratic winds. The first climber was hoisted from the Kautz Glacier surface to a U.S. Army Reserve Chinook helicopter, and a team of four climbing rangers from Mount Rainier National Park were dropped onto the mountain to save the second.

Neither of the climbers — both men in their mid-20s — have been publicly identified.

Park spokesperson Patti Wold said Western Washington’s unseasonably cold spring has made for particularly poor weather conditions on Mount Rainier so far this year. She said good timing with windows of decent weather Friday helped with the successful rescue.

“We’re still in winter conditions so people need to be aware of that and be very experienced and skilled in order to even consider going up on the mountain right now,” Wold said. “We always tell people do your research, be prepared.”

The climbers’ trouble began Wednesday at about 8:10 p.m. when the party called 911 to report that poor weather had forced them to halt their ascent at 12,800 feet on the Kautz Glacier climbing route, just below the Wapowety Cleaver. According to a news release, the climbers did not initially request assistance.

On Thursday about 7:30 a.m., the climbers were able to get moving. According to the release, they were planning to descend via the Disappointment Cleaver Route, a route that is considered to be less difficult than Kautz Glacier, according to the National Parks Service.

Within hours, the descent took a disastrous turn. At 10:30 a.m., the party reported that one member had fallen into a large crevasse and had sustained arm and leg injuries. According to the release, the person was able to establish cell phone contact with the national park’s dispatch and his partner on the glacier’s surface.

The climbers were not able to rescue themselves, and immediate rescue efforts weren’t possible due to terrain and weather, the parks service said.

On Friday, a Chinook helicopter from the USAR F Company, 2-135th general support air battalion was flown by the 304th Air Rescue Squadron out of Portland, Oregon. The team attempted an early-morning rescue but was unsuccessful. The rescue team returned several hours later and extricated the first climber from the glacier’s surface.

That afternoon, a National Park Service contract helicopter inserted a team of four climbing rangers on the mountain at 13,000 feet. The team descended to the location of the second climber, where they accessed and removed him from the deep crevasse. The man was taken from the glacier’s surface by helicopter. Both climbers were taken to Madigan Army Medical Center.

About 460 climbers attempt to summit Mount Rainier from the Kautz Glacier route each year, according to a park service route description from 2018. It’s an 11-12 mile journey that takes an average of 1 to 3 days to complete. The park service said the route has a summit success rate of 52 percent.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported which military unit the CH-47 Chinook helicopter came from.