Tragedy on the Mountain

This week we have had a stark reminder that wilderness travel can be hazardous or even deadly.

Two men and a woman, all residents of Bellevue and in their 30's were caught in a blizzard in the area of Anvil Rock below Camp Muir.  The outcome of their ordeal was the death of one of the men.  The woman and other man escaped their ordeal suffering the effects of hypothermia and frostbite.

While it may be a bit premature to sit in judgement as a Monday morning quarterback, some details about their ordeal have come out: 

1.  All three members of the group did have at least some level of preparation for inclement weather, but was not prepared to spend the night on the mountain.
2. They started from Paradise about mid-day in poor weather but continued toward their goal of Camp Muir despite the weather.  I observed very strong winds in and around Seattle and there were power outages in the Port Orchard area as early as 3:00 PM becuase of high winds.  They would have left Pebble Creek (7300 feet) and started on to the Muir snowfield at about the same time that the winds were becoming very stong in the lowlands.  I expect that the winds above 7500 feet would have been at least as strong as they were in the valley.
3. In the face of the continued strong wind and wet snow they continued to climb toward Camp Muir arriving at around 6:00.  News reports indicate that they started their descent to Paradise, after a short stay at Camp Muir, at about 6:30 PM.
4. Shortly after they started their descent from Camp Muir the storm increased dramatically in fury.
5. They were able to descend only about 600 vertical feet before the winds were gusting above 50 mph and they were in white out conditions.
6. Feeling unable to continue down they decided to dig some form of shelter in the snow where they were and wait out the storm.

Sunday night when Elden was discussing mountaineering accidents, he made the comment that every accident involves poor decisions.  Additionally it is seldom a single bad decision that causes the accident, but almost always a series of bad decisions that cause the accident and the result might have been avoided by making a different decision at any one of a number of points in time.

I don't mean to pass judgement on this group when they are still mourning the loss of a friend and husband, but I believe that the series of poor decisions were these:

1. In poor weather, I think they started too late in the day to make their goal and return with an acceptable margin of safety
2. The weather was bad and from my experience as they left the area of Pebble Creek I'm sure it became miserable and yet they persisted.  Pebble Creek would have been a great place to turn around as that is the last area of shelter before getting onto the Muir snowfield.
3. With high winds in the valley, I expect that their entire trek on the Muir snowfield was cold, wet and miserable.  They could have chosen to turn around at any point.  You don't have to be very high on the mountain to die of hypothermia.  Three years ago two men, who did have a tent and sleeping bags, died of hypothermia at 8500 feet in a similar storm in May.
4. They arrived at the relative safety of Camp Muir too late, in my opinion, to give themselves an adequate margin of time to descend in daylight, with bad weather.  But still they chose to descend instead of asking for assistance of the people at Camp Muir in order to wait out the weather until the next day.
5. In what could have been less than 30 minutes after leaving Camp Muir they made the decision to bivouac in the snow without adequate equipment to spend a cold night in the snow.  At this point they should have made the decision to return to Camp Muir to wait out the storm.  It is reported that they were in whiteout conditions, but if they were adequately prepared, they would have had a map and compass.  If they had a compass and and map they should have been able to navigate back to Camp Muir even in a whiteout.

A friend of mine from work signed up for a Mount Rainier climb with Rainier Mountaineering months ago.  The date of his climb was to be last Friday and Saturday June 6 - 7.  The weather on the day of their climb to Camp Muir, Friday, was not great and as they got above Pebble Creek the winds picked up and the visibility went down.  Even though the group he was in had paid $850 per person for the guided climb, plus rental gear, the guides deemed the weather to be too bad to continue and they turned around at about 8300 feet.  Everyone in the group was prepared very well and could have spent the night in a bivouac if necessary, but the guide service chose to "play it safe" and descend.  No one knows what would have happened had they continued.  But it is this very type of safe decisions that make the difference between a news sensation and a disappointed, but safe, group who can come back on another day.

The mantra of my climbing hero, Ed Viesturs, is always: "Getting to the top is optional.  Coming back home safe is mandatory."  This has been and continues to be my motto in the wilderness.  I love mountains and I love to experience them, but I never underestimate how quickly a situation can become dangerous if you fail to give the mountain proper respect.