Mount Rainier Ranger Falls to Death Trying to Save Climbers - East Idaho News
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Mount Rainier Ranger Falls to Death Trying to Save Climbers

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GETTY N 062212 MtRainier?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1340366067178iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONGMIRE, Wash.) — A climbing ranger fell to his death Thursday afternoon while he was trying to extract four injured climbers off of Mt. Rainier in Washington state.

Nick Hall, 34, plummeted over 3,000 feet as a military helicopter assisted in the rescue.

“We were in the process of effecting that extrication with the help of a Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-Mcchord when one of our climbing rangers Nick Hall fell,” said Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher.

Hall, who was an experienced climber and had been a ranger for four years, was unresponsive after the fall.  When rescue teams reached him, he was already dead, Bacher said.

“We’re stunned. This is.. this is absolutely the worst possible outcome,” Bacher said.

Three of the injured climbers have since been removed from the mountain, but one remains there along with two other climbing rangers as they wait for a storm to pass.  Once the weather clears up, rescuers can safely go back in to extract them.

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