A 39-year-old man’s body was recovered after a search and rescue mission was launched on Sunday, Sept. 29 when he failed to check in with family, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.
Whatcom County deputies initiated the search operation around 7:30 a.m. Sunday after receiving reports of a missing man from Squamish, British Columbia, said Deb Slater, the public information officer at WCSO.
The man was attempting a solo climb on Sept. 26 on Mount Baker’s Coleman-Deming route, a popular climbing route that features the Coleman glacier and the Deming glacier, Slater said.
Because of thick clouds on Sunday, helicopters from Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations and the U.S. Navy were unable to get close to the location, Slater said. A ground team of SAR volunteers from Bellingham Mountain Rescue were also forced to turn back because of darkness, steep slopes and worsening weather.
On Monday, Sept. 30, search efforts started again at dawn. Naval Air Station Whidbey SAR conducted an aerial search in the morning, Slater said. Later, the Naval Air Station transported volunteers with Bellingham Mountain Rescue to the area while sheriff’s deputies and Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations did another aerial search.
Teams were able to locate the climber in a bergschrund, or a crevasse formed when moving glacier ice separates from stagnant ice, Slater said. The climber’s inReach satellite communication device was near him, which allowed rescuers to locate him more quickly by using the device’s passive signal because of its real-time location data.
Rescuers declared the man dead at 4:24 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 30, Slater said.
The Whatcom County Medical Examiner will determine cause of death.
“We mourn with the family and friends of this intrepid climber,” Sheriff Donnell Tanksley said. “It is a heartbreaking outcome, but we are honored to be able to bring him home.”
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
