I am very sad about the recent death on Mt. Rainier. Certainly, skiing or doing anything above ten thousand feet is possibly dangerous. A while back we had some people die from exposure on the Muir Snow Field. Last time I was up there I had a hard time relating to that even though I was hot footing it out of there as a storm was descending the mountain.
Anyway, I didn't want to jack the other thread... they were talking on TV about how many folks had died on the mountain. And I was thinking of a childhood friend who died so long ago on Rainier. I was only about twelve and was too horrified to ask questions. I remember how we sat around just stunned. I have made occasional inquiries about what happened, but have never gotten a response from Rainier staff. Today, I just started to do a little Google search and found the answer... fifty-one years later.
They had said back then that he fell forty feet while hiking. In all my hikes I could never understand that. I would always look around while hiking Rainier and wonder how a kid could simply fall off the trail. From what I read today, June 10, 1960 Brian glissaded over a cliff. Now that sounds like something a fourteen year old would do. We easily did things that dangerous while on our Boy Scout hikes. He came from an outstanding family totally active in scouts. As a younger kid I looked up to him. Anyway.... when good people die doing what they love, I guess I wish they didn't love it so much.
This is an interesting read, a historical list of fatalities in Rainier NP:
mountrainierclimbing.us/sar/fatalities.php
It seems to me the list however, is incomplete. I didn't see the latest Muir fatality.
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