BAD WEATHER, INADEQUATE EQUIPMENT

Washington, Mount Rainier

On January 20, 1981, two missing mountain climbers were successfully airlifted from the summit of Mount Rainier to safety. They had been nearly four days overdue in returning from their climb.

Brian Sullivan (23) and Dan Stage (26) self-registered for climbing the Liberty Ridge route on Mount Rainier by completing climber registration cards at the unmanned Carbon

River Entrance Station at the northwest corner of the park. At 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 14, they began hiking from the trailhead at the Ipsut Creek Campground. Traveling into the night, they eventually reached the Mystic Lake area of the backcountry where they made camp. By 8:00 a.m. on January 15, they were hiking again and soon reached and crossed the upper Carbon Glacier to the base of Liberty Ridge. By nightfall, they had climbed to the Thumb Rock area of the ridge, at 10,000 feet, where they camped for the night. On Friday, January 16, the climbers ascended the most difficult portion of the route. By late afternoon they were approaching the false summit of Liberty Cap when the weather, which had been mild and mostly clear until then, suddenly worsened. Strong winds developed together with, a summit cloud that enclosed the upper section of the mountain in a thick veil. As visibility was reduced to a few yards, the climbers decided to camp until the weather improved. On Saturday, they attempted to climb the remaining distance over Liberty Cap in order to begin their descent via the Emmons and Winthrop Glaciers. However, they were only able to move a short distance before poor weather again forced them to camp and wait for improved conditions. By this time they were overdue from their climb as they had indicated that they would return on Friday, January 16. The poor weather conditions on the summit continued through Monday, and it was not possible to climb again until early Tuesday morning, January 20. As the climbers prepared to descend the Emmons Glacier, a US Army Chinook helicopter with park rangers on board arrived and flew them to Ashford, near park headquarters. (Source: John Wilcox, Ranger, Mount Rainier National Park)

Analysis

Upon interviewing the overdue climbers, the park rangers learned that they were experienced climbers, were well equipped, and used common sense in waiting out the bad weather rather than continuing to climb. However, there were circumstances that caused their situation to become somewhat more serious as time went on. They had run out of fuel for their gasoline stove on Sunday and were unable to melt snow for drinking water except by placing the snow in containers within their sleeping bags which was a very slow process. Their food was exhausted to the point where nothing was left except some cheese and sausages. Several more days spent under such conditions would most likely have led to exhaustion and made them less able to contend with the rigors of the descent and to ward off hypothermia. The parents of the two climbers were most anxious that park personnel proceed with the search efforts without delay. The climbers themselves remarked that they thought that their evacuation via helicopter was warranted and that NPS actions were appropriate. The total cost of the evacuation came to $6,758.40. (Source: John Wilcox, Ranger, Mount Rainier National Park)