Late on the morning of September 9th, park dispatch was notified that there were three injured climbers on Ruth Mountain, which is just outside the park’s northwestern boundary. The climbers had fallen into a crevasse in mid-morning; one managed to climb out on his own, reached a location with cell phone reception, and dialed 911. Whatcom County SAR was notified and alerted park dispatch to the situation. Rangers accepted a request from the sheriff’s office for an agency assist on the incident. Meanwhile, a ground team of Bellingham Mountain Rescue volunteers started up the trail toward the mountain. Two climbing rangers were transported to the scene in a contracted helicopter from HiLine Helicopters and located the injured climbers. They found that a separate climbing party had already extricated the remaining two critically injured and hypothermic climbers from the crevasse.  They were separately short-hauled from their location on the glacier to a lower staging area.   Two Airlift Northwest medical helicopters landed at this staging site, received the patients, and flew them to hospitals in Seattle and Bellingham.  The third party member was flown by HiLine Helicopters to a roadside staging area and was met there by an ambulance for transport to Bellingham.  Bellingham Mountain Rescue volunteers assisted by retrieving gear left behind by the injured party and hiked back out to the trailhead.

Contact Information
Name: Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger