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DEM #98-1102 June 14, 1998 |
The Unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of
Emergency Management at 9:30p.m. Sunday the 14th of
June. Mount Rainier National Park had requested 12
Mountain Rescue volunteers at the White River Ranger
Station at 6:00 a.m.. They had received a 911 call phone call
around 7:30p.m. from two climbers trapped by high winds
and whiteout conditions at 13,000 feet on the Winthrop
Glacier.
The two climbers, Geoffrey McGrath, 33, and Martin Bullard, 34, had climbed the Liberty Ridge route on the mountain and were descending to Camp Schurman when McGrath fell into a crevasse. Bullard arrested his partner's fall and then sat in 65mph winds for two hours and became hypothermic while McGrath climbed out of the crevasse..
Eleven members responded to the Rescue Cache at 4:00 a.m.; they were: Chris Berryman, Roger Ternes, Bill Weber, Mike Mixon, Fran McFarland, Dave Dahl, Darrell Cherry, Tony O'Brien, Juan Ridout, John Kirkman and Tom Miner. After a briefing at the Ranger Station they split into two teams. Mike Mixon, Roger Ternes, John Kirkman and Tom Miner would try to fly to the summit of the mountain on an Army CH47 Chinook helicopter along with 4 members from Olympic Mountain Rescue. A team of Rangers had already set out from Camp Schurman to climb to the stranded climbers. Another team from Seattle Mountain Rescue would climb up to Camp Schurman to assist the Rangers in carrying the climbers out if needed. A TMR team consisting of Fran McFarland, Dave Dahl, Darrel Cherry, Tony O'Brien, Juan Ridout would climb up to Glacier Basin to relieve the Seattle team if a carry-out was needed. Chris Berryman and Bill Weber stayed at the Ranger Station as operations.
A small Long 208 helicopter took Tom Miner up to determine the exact position of the climbers on the mountain. At the same time the CH47 with a team of Park Rangers tried to land on the summit. After a close call trying to land in the high winds the CH47 returned to the Ranger Creek helipad to await the ground teams arrival at the stranded climbers's position. Tom Miner returned to the area with the smaller helicopter and directed the ground team to them.
By the time the ground team had reached the stranded climbers they were both suffering from hypothermia after spending the night in a trench they had dug. Though one was able to walk, the other had to be dried off and warmed up. It was decided that since neither climber had life threatening injuries a helicopter evacuation would be too risky in the high winds. Both climbers were escorted to down to Camp Schurman. They would spend the night and walk out the next day. Four TMR team members returned to the Cache Monday evening while the rest waited till Tuesday morning to ensure the climbers would be able to walk out on their own.
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