Rainier accident
Another hypothermia story. Last spring, two climbers were going up Rainier-not particularly technical, from what I read. They had all the right gear, but one was inexperienced. The weather closed in on them after leaving one of the lower huts. They got lost in a whiteout and were found next to their packs with some of their gear out. Unfortunately, they were both dead from exposure. They were about 15-20 minutes from shelter, but the prevailing theory is that they didn't realize until it was too late that they were getting hypothermic and didn't get their foul weather gear on in time.
Here's a pretty detailed news account-
Rescue workers used a helicopter yesterday to recover the bodies of two hikers who possibly became lost and later died in a severe snowstorm on Mount Rainier over the weekend.
The bodies of Tim Stark, 57, of Lakewood and Greg Stark, 27, of Issaquah were discovered Monday afternoon at about 8,000 feet during an afternoon helicopter flyover to search for them. The men had been reported missing that morning after they hadn't returned from a weekend hike.
The powerful storm dumped 2 feet of snow on the mountain in five hours Saturday afternoon and evening and then continued off and on through Sunday.
"It was as bad as it gets," said Mike Gauthier, head climbing ranger at Mount Rainier National Park, who hiked down with a group to the Paradise Ranger Station from Camp Muir during the blizzard. "It was epic conditions. I had to pay attention every step of the way."
Tim Stark was a retired United Airlines 777 pilot. Greg, who was Tim's nephew, worked as a Web-computing specialist for the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice at the University of Washington. They were the first two deaths on the 14,411-foot mountain this year. Five climbers died on Rainier in 2004.
The men had set out at noon Saturday, apparently intending to hike up the Paradise Glacier to Camp Muir for an overnight stay, according to preliminary accident information. The storm hit about 4 p.m.
Gauthier said he saw the pair at 4:15 on their way up to the high mountain camp. "They were prepared for an overnight stay," he said. "They followed us up for a portion of the hike. We were walking into the storm."
Gauthier said he noticed that the men both wore cotton pants -- Greg's were knee-length shorts. Outdoors experts generally advise climbers and hikers to shun cotton clothing, which quickly loses warmth when wet. The pair didn't match the pace of Gauthier's group.
After about 90 minutes at Muir, Gauthier began to take his group back down the mountain. Visibility was so limited that they used a Global Positioning System device to help guide them. On the way down, they ran into a group of hikers lost in the storm. "We got them back on track and continued down," he said.
They didn't see the Starks.
On Monday, rangers spotted the men's bodies about 100 yards apart on the Paradise Glacier east of the Muir Snowfield, about 200 yards from one of the most popular trails in the park. They were found face up in the same clothes they wore Saturday.
Their headlamps remained on.
Gauthier speculated that the men never made it all the way to Muir, more than 10,000 feet up. They probably got lost, he said, and wandered around in the snow as hypothermia set in when the temperature dipped into the low 20s.
Climbing rangers said it appeared that the pair might have tried to set up their tent because rangers found it packed inside a backpack but laced with snow. The rest of the items in their packs, such as sleeping bags, extra clothes and a stove, were dry.
"The wind was howling, so they might have tried to set up the tent and gave up," Gauthier said. "At about 10 p.m., I got a call from a ranger at the Camp Muir cabin who said the wind was blowing so hard that snow was coming through cracks in the walls."
The men, he said, probably wandered around until they "ran out of gas and sat down."
They weren't the only hikers lost on the mountain that night. A pair of hikers caught in the same storm at 6,000 feet managed to safely bivouac overnight.
By yesterday morning, family members had arrived at the Paradise Ranger Station. They declined to speak with reporters. Greg's co-workers at the university were sent home early yesterday, a school spokeswoman said.
The younger Stark was born in Royal City in Grant County -- a fact that he was proud of and where his parents remained -- and he graduated from Central Washington University, said a close friend, Bryan Chee.
"He was an avid outdoorsman, mostly a fly fisherman," said Chee, 35, who worked with Greg for five years. "It's devastating. I'm telling you, this guy had no enemies. Everyone liked him."
Chee said he was surprised that Greg was on Rainier. "I never knew him to do any mountaineering. But he loved the outdoors."
Family members told Gauthier that Tim Stark had camped overnight at Muir five or six times before.
"It's just sad," Gauthier said. "It can be a rough place when the weather turns south."
