July 9, 2013 Skier fatality on Mt. Rainier (Emmons

I missed this one, it happened on July 9, unfortunately he never woke up, leaves behind wife and three small kids. The funeral was this past weekend. Not many details known I imagine the conditions that weekend might have been already quite icy with all that sunny hot weather.

Rainier Rescue: Injured B.C. climber plucked off glacier by U.S. army chopper

Rainier rescue: Injured B.C. climber now recovering in Vancouver hospital

Peter Almerling In Memoriam

RIP

Looks like he fell on Sunday, July 7, but wasn't reported in any media accounts until July 8 and July 9.
(Then died in a hospital July 11.)

Timeline seems to be that members of his own party reached him by 2:30 pm, then sometime later climber rangers were alerted (sounds like indirectly, whether by phone or by some sort of satellite-enabled device -- accounts differ), and the helicopter extrication was at 9:10 pm.

So the fall occurred early afternoon, during peak snow softening, right?  But if the fall occurred @~13.5k, it's never very soft up there is it?  (I've skied that same route only once, exactly four years and four days earlier, and I vaguely recall that the first few hundred vertical were pretty solid.  Although does it also depend on exactly where the route is in put in each season?)

Let's see, mid-40s, had at least one kid aged 3, and worked in some sort of financial analysis-related field.  That sounds a lot like someone I know...

Another interesting piece of info:
www.nwguardian.com/2013/07/18/15942/rese...e-to-the-aid-of.html
"The group flew up the mountain where the pilots inserted two climbing rangers at Liberty Saddle, approximately 300 feet above the scene."

One of the originally linked articles refers vaguely to, "Trapped on a crevice at the edge of the glacier, Almerling was rescued by medically trained members of his nine-person climbing party at around 2:30 p.m."

No mention in the official park climbing blog:
mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2013/07/fully-summer.html

Now I see that the accident was discussed at the end of a TR here:
www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=28980.0
"We heard from two rangers that there had been a bad skiing accident the weekend before, involving a fall from above the top bergschrund."
"Hope Peter is doing okay, we met that group up there. They were having some group dynamics issues and were arguing over safety and garbage during a rest stop...I guess that happens when on a big route with 9 of your best friends. It's too bad that someone got hurt though. I'm surprised we never saw/heard the Chinook, but I guess we were down on the Interglacier around 2:30."

This is really sad.  We all know it could happen.  The one time I did the Emmons it was definitely icy up there, as Jonathan S. points out.

     There is some odd stuff in the media accounts he posted. 
In the first "Rainier Rescue" link, isn't the mountain in the photo actually Hood?
     More significantly, The Province article stated that:
"An Internet search determined the climber was Peter Almerling, who has taught mountaineering courses over the years for the Vancouver-based B.C. Mountaineering Club",
but the BCMC "In Memoriam" stated that Almerling joined the BCMC in 2012. 

Either way, I feel for his family and all who knew him. 

The "editor's note" in this TR had me curious; I couldn't find any reporting at the time. Perhaps this is the same incident?
www.wildsnow.com/10311/rainier-edmunds-headwall-ski/


Heartfelt condolences to family and friends.

"We wish the best to anyone involved and will edit this for accuracy once we know the details."
-- Looks like they were too busy arguing about user fees to find out more details like even just correcting the route the victim was skiing.

Reminds of this discussion:
www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=29009.0
... on how some incidents receive lots of attention and analysis, and others don't even use the file photo of the correct mountain.

Back East in our little Presidential range, we've had IIRC three hiker/climber on-snow deaths in the past two seasons:  one received extensive media coverage, and the other two when I mention them even to backcountry skiers usually elicits a "wait, huh, who, when, where, what?" reaction? 

This past season here on Mt Washington we had three notable avy incidents:  one solo fatality with a full official report and moderate coverage, one direct hit on a party of 12 (4x 3-person rope teams) with a full official report and extensive media coverage, and one hit on a single skier in a large professionally guided party with only two official sentences plus just four sentences in an article mainly about the solo fatality.

Certainly some obvious reasons why certain incidents receive more attention and analysis than others.  (And maybe with some of these falls on big lines, there's just not more to say.)  But still, I'm a big believer in the potential to learn from incident reports, or even just to derive a more accurate assessment of the epidemiological risk via more publicity of these incidents.  (So yes, if I even make a mistake with such consequences -- and it will be a mistake, as these things don't "just happen" -- yes, please have it at it here and elsewhere.)

I too was surprised that the official blog did not mention it, likely because they are quite busy rescuing people.
mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.ca/2013/07/busy-busy.html

I wish the annual Accidents in North American Mountaineering paid more attention to ski mountaineering. It could be they don't because they are at heart climbers and Rockies centric. Perhaps, perhaps not. But I do find the ANAM interesting to read, even though there is definitely a pattern with most of the causes. But it does serve as a handy annual reminder of what to keep an eye on.

Anyway I am sure there is something to learn from this accident as there is from the 2013 fatality on Coleman Headwall. Maybe one day...

More significantly, The Province article stated that:
"An Internet search determined the climber was Peter Almerling, who has taught mountaineering courses over the years for the Vancouver-based B.C. Mountaineering Club",
but the BCMC "In Memoriam" stated that Almerling joined the BCMC in 2012.

Don't 2012 and 2013 count as "over the years"?
Seriously though, Google knows all:
www.accvancouver.org/events/events_led_b...eaderID=99282&PAST=y
Note that he was a conscientious mountaineer who coordinated a training session for exactly the kind of backcountry emergency care that he would later need.

Sobering and heart wrenching:

Catching an edge is the simplest, most instantaneous thing that could happen to anyone. My heart goes out to his family. Certainly a big fear of my own having a wife and 4 kids.