LONGMIRE, Wash. - A Mount Rainier climbing ranger has died during efforts to rescue four injured climbers from Waco, Texas.
Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher (BAA-ker) says 34-year-old Nick Hall fell 900 metres Thursday from the 4,400-metre mountain. He was dead when other rangers reached him several hours later.
A helicopter plucked three of the injured climbers off the mountain Thursday night while the fourth — a woman — was waiting out a worsening storm overnight with the aid of park rangers.
The Texas party includes two men and two women. Bacher says all four have non-life-threatening injuries.
The spokesman says the woman spending the night on the mountain is the least-injured climber and may be able to walk out in the morning.
The climbers were roped together when they fell on Emmons Glacier. The two women at the end of the rope ended up in a crevasse. Rangers who responded to a cellphone call helped them out of the crevasse.
