MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — Quick Facts:
- Group of 6 climbers presumed dead after 3,300-foot fall on Mount Rainier
- Missing guide was from Seattle, another man reportedly from St. Paul, Minn.
- Names of four remaining climbers expected to be released late Sunday
- Group is with Alpine Ascents International, based in Seattle.
- Searchers are focusing at the Liberty Ridge area, the northwest side of the mountain
It's too dangerous right now to search for the bodies of six climbers who likely plummeted to their deaths while attempting one of the more technical and physically grueling routes to the peak of Mount Rainier in Washington State, park officials said Sunday.
The effort to locate the climbers is now moving into a passive search. That means future recovery efforts will depend on the weather and the search could take weeks or even months. Officials acknowledge that it is possible the bodies of the two guides and four climbers will never be found.
"People are very understanding that we cannot risk another life at this point," Patti Wold, a Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman, said Sunday.
Under safer conditions, crews could go in after the bodies. "The families, I'm sure, would like that closure," Wold said. But continuous falling ice and rock make the avalanche-prone area too dangerous for rescuers, she said.
KIRO 7 asked Wold if the families could hire a third party recovery team. The park ranger wasn’t sure, but said that would be a very bad idea due to the danger.
Two professional guides from Alpine Ascents, based in Seattle, led four clients up Mt. Rainier on Monday. They intended to follow the Liberty Ridge route to the summit. They didn't return Friday as scheduled. The last contact with the group was by satellite phone at 6 p.m. Wednesday when the party was planning to spend the night 12,800 feet up the mountain.
From the chopper Saturday, park rangers spotted climbing and camping gear at 9,500 feet. That's more than 3,000 feet below the climbers' last reported location.
They are presumed dead in one of the worst alpine accidents on Rainier since 1981, when 11 people were struck and killed by a massive ice fall on the Ingraham Glacier.
Family and friends of the dead climbers arrived at the mountain Sunday to meet with park officials, but declined to speak with media that had gathered at the park's headquarters.
"They're just devastated," Wold said.
It's unclear whether the climbers were moving or camping at the time of the accident, Wold said. Searchers located camping and climbing gear and detected signals from avalanche beacons buried in the snow at the top of the Carbon Glacier at 9,500 feet in elevation.
It's also not known what caused the climbers to fall from their last known whereabouts at 12,800 feet on Liberty Ridge, whether it was rock fall or an avalanche.
Glenn Kessler, the park's acting aviation manager, said "they are most likely buried," making recovery efforts even more challenging. They may be in an area too hazardous for rescuers to reach on the ground.
The area will be checked periodically by air in the coming weeks and months, Wold said. They will also evaluate the potential for a helicopter-based recovery as snow melts and conditions change.
Wold initially said that the park on Sunday would release the names of the six who died but later said the park cannot release the names for privacy reasons.
Rob Mahaney told The Associated Press that his 26-year-old nephew, Mark Mahaney, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was among those presumed dead. He said the climber's father and brother flew to Seattle on Saturday after learning what happened.
Mahaney said his nephew had climbed Rainier before.
"He just loved to climb, he loved the outdoors, he loved the exhilaration of being in the wide open," Rob Mahaney said. "Even as a toddler he was always climbing out of his crib. His parents couldn't keep him anywhere — he'd always find a way to get out of anything."
Last year, about 10,800 people attempted to climb the 14,410-foot glaciated peak southeast of Seattle, but only 129 used the Liberty Ridge route, according to park statistics. The vast majority use two other popular routes.
Gordon Janow, director of programs for Alpine Ascents International, said the group was on a five-day climb of the Liberty Ridge route.
The climbers had to meet certain prerequisites, and their ice and technical climbing skills as well as their biography were evaluated by a three-person team, Janow said.
The company's brochure says, at a minimum, those interested in the guided climb were required to be able to physically carry a 50-pound backpack on steep snow and icy slopes, ranging from 30 to 50 degrees in slope.
The guiding service lost five Nepalese guides in a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest in April that killed 16 Sherpa guides.
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Le reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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