UPDATE - The two survivors have been rescued this morning. A military Chinook helicopter picked up the pair at 6:15 and took them to the hospital at Fort Lewis. The body of the 3rd man was left behind due to agreements between the Park Service and the military. Apparently recovery operations are not in the agreement. The identities of the hikers are still being held.
One hiker died last night and another two are waiting to be rescued on Mt. Rainier. The group was out for a day hike when they were caught in bad weather and were trapped overnight Monday near Anvil Rock, below the popular base camp of Camp Muir at 10k feet. One of the hikers was able to make his way back up to Muir, where there were several guides. Luckily some doctors were waiting out the storm too.
A team of guides and climbers went back down to Anvil Rock and brought back the three hikers to the relative safety and comfort of Camp Muir. One of the hikers, a man, later died. The other two, a man and a woman are stable but suffering from frostbite. They are currently waiting for a break in the weather for a helicopter.
The weather has been quite nasty this week up on Rainier and this storm dropped 2 feet of snow yesterday. The National Weather Service has been calling out for unusually bad weather for a while now. It's bewildering why this team went up with such a bad forecast, but who knows what happened really.
I've been watching the weather a lot as I'll be attempting to summit Rainier in a few weeks.
Wish me luck!
For more see the Seattle PI
1 comment:
You're not allowed to die
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