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Climber Rescued From Crevasse At Mount Rainier National Park

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Published Date

May 28, 2017

A young woman who fell into a crevasse on Mount Rainier while descending the mountain was airlifted to a hospital Sunday/NPS

A 24-year-old woman was medevaced off Mount Rainier on Sunday, a day after rangers rescued her from deep within a crevasse that she fell into while descending the mountain with two friends.

The three climbers were descending on skis and a snowboard. The unidentified woman was retrieved from 12,300 feet elevation on the Emmons Glacier, on the mountain’s east side, by the park’s exclusive-use A-Star B3 helicopter.

Mount Rainier National Park officials received word of the accident Saturday afternoon via a 911 cell phone call. The three climbers had ascended the mountain that morning, and were descending by skis and snowboard when the young woman fell into a crevasse. Park rangers responded by helicopter, inserting six rescuers to the site, who used rope rescue techniques to raise the injured but responsive climber 100 feet to the surface of the glacier by nightfall. Two rangers spent the night with her on the mountain while the rest descended with her companions.

On Sunday morning the A-Star helicopter returned to retrieve the injured climber, who was lifted from a 35-degree slope using short haul techniques and delivered to a waiting medical unit at White River Ranger Station around 11 a.m. The patient has unspecified pelvic and back injuries and head lacerations, and was delivered by ground transportation to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington.

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