Fatality at Muir

Condolences to all those involved this tragedy.

As I read the newspaper account, I thought about other tragedies on the Muir snowfield. It occurred to me that the Muir snowfield may be the most dangerous place in the Cascades, based on the number of deaths that have occurred there. Does anyone know if this is true?

It's a sobering thought. The most dangerous place in the Cascades is not the Willis Wall, SE Mox Peak, Lincoln Peak or any of those fearsome climbs. It's the good old Muir snowfield. I'm going to let that sink for in a while.

As I read the newspaper account, I thought about other tragedies on the Muir snowfield. It occurred to me that the Muir snowfield may be the most dangerous place in the Cascades, based on the number of deaths that have occurred there. Does anyone know if this is true?

My guess is that it would be Stevens Pass, although perhaps that doesn't count.

It's such a sad story, condolences to all friends and family. So tragic.

Condolences to all those involved this tragedy.

As I read the newspaper account, I thought about other tragedies on the Muir snowfield. It occurred to me that the Muir snowfield may be the most dangerous place in the Cascades, based on the number of deaths that have occurred there. Does anyone know if this is true?

It's a sobering thought. The most dangerous place in the Cascades is not the Willis Wall, SE Mox Peak, Lincoln Peak or any of those fearsome climbs. It's the good old Muir snowfield. I'm going to let that sink for in a while.

If you include number of people taking a risk, how could it not be, even if the risk of falling, rock fall, avalanches, etc. is low on the snow field itself? It's so well known and so popular with climbers, skiers, serious hikers, and casual tourists. I've "saved" more than one up there by persuading them to turn around, informing them there is no restaurant at Camp Muir, and informing them of where they were and how to get down (in sunny weather).

As everyone here recognizes, it is very easy to get caught by bad weather/poor visibility up there and I have been up above Pan Pt. and even Pebble Creek intentionally in high winds, heavy snow, fog, etc. But I would not go very far onto the snowfield with the kind of weather that was forecast; that's foolhardy. Compassion makes it hard to criticize people who have been through harrowing and deadly tragic events, but that is the way to make the less wary, more wary. Of course, the clueless won't even read the reports.

My guess is that it would be Stevens Pass, although perhaps that doesn't count.

I'm not aware of that many fatalities at Stevens Pass, but maybe I haven't been paying attention. I assume you're talking about skiers, not people driving the highway.

It would be interesting to draw a one-mile wide corridor straddling the route from Paradise to Camp Muir and tally all the fatalities that have occurred there. I would also count incidents where people wandered out of that corridor because they were lost and later died. I flipped through Molenaar's "Challenge of Rainier" and here's what I found:

1897, Edgar McClure, fall on rocks
1915, C.W. Ferguson, ice cave accident
1917, Dorothy Haskell, crevasse fall
1940, Sigurd Hall, skiing crash
1957, Lowell Linn, disappearance
1967, Louden family (3), fall into snow covered stream
1967, Elmer and David Post, crevasse fall
1968, Edith Anderson, exposure
1968, James Reddick, exposure
1969, John Aigars, avalanche

Molenaar's tally peters out after 1969. I know that Mike McNerthney died in an avalanche near Panorama Point in 1977. Kirk Reiser died in an avalanche in Edith Creek basin last December. I remember that several people disppeared or died of exposure in 1999. I'm sure there are more I've forgotten.

I suspect that if you were to tally them all up, they would exceed even the Ingraham Glacier tally, which is skewed by the 1981 icefall avalanche that killed 11 climbers.

Here's two more that come to mind, Lowell:

John Repke was lost in May of 1999 or 2000? and found in late summer/fall of the same year in his sleeping bag on the upper Paradise Gl.

Kirk (or Kirt?) ?? a young doctor from Georgia that traveled to Seattle to begin his residency at one of our major hospitals left Camp Muir in the clouds on a snowboard in 2001 or maybe 2002, and was found, I think two years later (i seem to recall it being a low snow year) down below the Pebble Creek falls in the drainage going down into the Nisqually Gl moraine.

I'm sure there's others...

I'm not aware of that many fatalities at Stevens Pass, but maybe I haven't been paying attention. I assume you're talking about skiers, not people driving the highway.

It would be interesting to draw a one-mile wide corridor straddling the route from Paradise to Camp Muir and tally all the fatalities that have occurred there. I would also count incidents where people wandered out of that corridor because they were lost and later died. I flipped through Molenaar's "Challenge of Rainier" and here's what I found:

1897, Edgar McClure, fall on rocks
1915, C.W. Ferguson, ice cave accident
1917, Dorothy Haskell, crevasse fall
1940, Sigurd Hall, skiing crash
1957, Lowell Linn, disappearance
1967, Louden family (3), fall into snow covered stream
1967, Elmer and David Post, crevasse fall
1968, Edith Anderson, exposure
1968, James Reddick, exposure
1969, John Aigars, avalanche

Molenaar's tally peters out after 1969. I know that Mike McNerthney died in an avalanche near Panorama Point in 1977. Kirk Reiser died in an avalanche in Edith Creek basin last December. I remember that several people disppeared or died of exposure in 1999. I'm sure there are more I've forgotten.

I suspect that if you were to tally them all up, they would exceed even the Ingraham Glacier tally, which is skewed by the 1981 icefall avalanche that killed 11 climbers.

Yes, there's John Repka and Tres Tjeiten (summer 1999), Tim and Greg Stark (spring 2005) Ray Valkili, Chris Hartonas (fall 1999), and a number of "close calls." I'm sure there are more, that I'm not remembering.

I don't know if it statisically the muir snowfield would be rated that "hazardous overall," as thousand and thousands successfully make it up and down, which would skew the rate.

As noted, if you've hiked or skiied the snowfield that much, it's quite likely that you've had a close call with getting off route, or know someone who has.