jesus christ...
Saturday, June 11, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Mount Rainier claims third life this year
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
Jefferson County firefighters Mike Beery and Ryan Tillman spent the past six months training for a climb up to Columbia Crest, the 14,411-foot peak on Mount Rainier's southeast side.
They tried to summit earlier this spring, but were thwarted by foul weather. On Thursday, they set out again.
Yesterday, with calm, clear weather and a cloud deck below them, the men were less than 2,500 feet from their goal when Beery apparently slipped and fell about 1,000 feet to his death.
"He lived for the outdoors. He was an adventurous type of personality," said Patrick Young, a spokesman for East Jefferson Fire-Rescue in Chimacum, Jefferson County, where Beery worked the past five years.
Climbing Mount Rainier "was just one of the things on his checklist to get accomplished," Young said.
Beery and Tillman spent Thursday night at Camp Muir. Beery, a 29-year-old father of two from Port Angeles, and Tillman were traversing the snow-and-ice-covered Gibraltar Ledges yesterday when Beery lost his footing and fell down Gibraltar Chute, said Patti Wold, Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman.
Both men were experienced climbers and were well-prepared for the trek, she said.
"They were feeling very relaxed and comfortable. ... They were really enjoying themselves," Wold said. "The weather was great - breezy, but nothing harsh - and the next thing Ryan knew, Mike was slipping over the side and he didn't even see what caused it."
Beery is the third climber to die on Mount Rainier this year. Two men died last month after they were caught in a heavy snowstorm near Camp Muir, at the 10,000-foot level of the mountain.
Gibraltar Ledges, a perennial snowfield and debris chute for loose rocks from above, is a moderately difficult climb, Wold said. Still, it's a hazardous spot where climbers are discouraged from connecting to each other with a length of safety rope because of the potential "dire consequences" of a fall.
"It's a dangerous place to be and they knew what they were doing," she said. "Fortunately, they weren't roped up, because if they were it probably would have resulted in two deaths."
At about 6:15 a.m., Tillman, a 45-year-old command officer for Jefferson County Fire Rescue's volunteer firefighters, used a cellphone to call a fire-department dispatcher in Jefferson County, who was able to relay a message to park rangers, Wold said. Tillman then climbed down to Beery and tried to revive his friend. When rangers arrived, Tillman was still performing CPR, she said.
Around 10 a.m., a helicopter reached the ledge and brought Beery's body off the mountain.
Beery is survived by his parents, wife, a 6-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter. His family declined to comment yesterday.
Beery seems to have spent his life preparing to be a firefighter. As a student at Sequim High School in Clallam County, he was a member of the Sequim Fire Department's Explorer program for junior firefighters, Young said.
In 1995, Beery went to work as a firefighter at a scientific research facility in Antarctica. When he returned, he worked as a firefighter in Sequim before he was hired by the Jefferson County department in 2000.
A 6-foot-2 man with a muscular frame, Beery was a big-hearted guy who dedicated himself to his community and family, Young said.
In 2002, Beery - wearing nearly 40 pounds of firefighting gear - raced up 69 flights of stairs to the top of Seattle's tallest building in 29 minutes and 13 seconds. The stair-climbing race up the Bank of America Tower is an annual firefighters' fund-raising event for charity.
Beery, who also was an emergency medical technician, transported a 16-year-old boy who was suffering from muscular dystrophy to a local hospital in October, Young said. Beery was touched by the boy's strength, calling him a "proud warrior worthy of respect," according to a story in The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader newspaper.
When the terminally ill youth was preparing to return home for hospice care, Beery was compelled to show him that his community cared, Young said. Beery organized a 21-vehicle escort of fire trucks and ambulances from around the Olympic Peninsula to accompany the boy's ambulance home. The boy died two days later.
"He really was serious about the job, but he knew how to take the lighter side of what we do and enjoy life," Young said of his friend, who always seemed to have "a kind of perma-grin on his face."
"If Mike wasn't here dedicating himself to the people of this community, he was enjoying his family and the outdoors of the area," Young said.
he was my favorite uncle.
I stayed at their house for weeks last summer.
I remember him reading harry potter to his kids while I helped his wife make dinner.
why does this always happen?