MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. – Three Canadian climbers were injured when they fell into a crevasse on Mount Rainier on the weekend.
Local television station – KING-TV – reports the climbers fell 15 metres at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday at Emmons Glacier.
The climbers were rescued by helicopter after another climbing party found them Sunday morning.
Two of the climbers were critically hurt and taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
A third climber was taken to another hospital. No other information about the accident or the climbers’ hometowns was immediately available.
The Seattle Times reports that rain over the weekend as high as 3,330 metres had later frozen, causing icy conditions that led one climbing team, RMI Summit Guides, to end its bid for the 4,392-metre summit at the 3,413-metre level.
Team members had encountered treacherous conditions and turned back Sunday, making their way across Cowlitz Glacier to safety at Camp Muir and back to the base.
About 10,000 people try to summit Mount Rainier every year, and slightly more than half reach the top, according to park information. The Emmons Glacier route is one of the most difficult for climbers.
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