By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A recovery effort is underway to retrieve the body of a Mount Rainier National Park climbing ranger who yesterday fell more than 3,000 feet to his death.
Nick Hall / Courtesy photo by Mount Rainier National Park
Nick Hall, 34, died during a rescue attempt on the mountain’s northeast side of a party of four climbers from Waco, Texas, according to park spokesperson Kevin Bacher.
Hall, a native of Patten, Maine, is unmarried and has no children, according to Bacher. He is a four-year veteran of the park’s climbing program.
A ground team is enroute to Hall’s location, but currently at Camp Schurman at 9,500 feet encountering heavy precipitation and thickening clouds, park spokesperson Patti Wold said today just before 2 p.m.
Air operations are grounded and it’s not known if they can complete their mission today, according to Wold.
Yesterday the group from Texas were on Emmons Glacier at the 13,700 foot level when two climbers fell into a crevasse. They called for help by cell phone and during the rescue just before 5 p.m. as Hall was assisting the other climbers for extrication by helicopter, he fell to about the 10,000 foot level, according to the park service.
Three were flown out, but one of them overnighted on the mountain with climbing rangers.
Stacy Wren is walking down today with a team of climbing rangers. The others, Stuart Smith, Ross Vandyke and Noelle Smith are hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to Wold.
Mount Rainier has had 117 climbing-related fatalities since 1897, according to Wold. In 1995, two climbing rangers fell 1,200 feet during a rescue on the same Emmons Glacier.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter