NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
MORNING REPORT
Monday, August 5, 2013
INCIDENTS
North Cascades NP
Stranded Climbers Evacuated From Black Peak
On Sunday, July 28th, a party of four mountaineers from the Seattle area attempted the Northeast Ridge of 8,970-foot-high Black Peak.
The climbers split into two rope teams and quickly found that the first rope team was ascending at a faster pace. The teams became separated along the Northeast Ridge, with one summiting the peak and then descending the south face route back to their camp, having lost contact with the other two climbers.
The two climbers who had summited could see their friends about midway up the ascent route, and observed that they were stationary for hours, well into the night. The two stranded climbers began flashing headlamps, presumably to alert their friends. The climbers at camp asked other visitors who were leaving the area to call 911 when they got into cell phone range and request assistance. Rangers received this call for assistance at 2 a.m. on Monday morning, with it unclear if either of the stranded climbers was injured.
Early on Monday, rangers made a recon flight to Black Peak, making visual contact with the stranded climbers but unable to rule out injuries to either of them. By then, they'd been stranded at the same location for almost 24 hours, just before a steep pitch on the most technical part of the route.
A ranger team, using the park's contracted HiLine Helicopters MD500D, evacuated each climber individually by short haul to their base camp. The rescued climbers appeared to be shaken up by the experience, but were uninjured. All parties agreed that steep technical mountaineering routes with thousands of feet of exposure above massive glaciers are much more difficult than the same level of climbing difficulty in a gym, which they were more accustomed to.
[Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger]
OTHER NEWS
The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. To see the full text, including images, NPS employees should go to the InsideNPS home page ( HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index). Non-NPS employees can see most of them on the NPS Digest page ( HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/):
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters NHS - The Revolutionary War returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 14th as George Washington took command of the fledgling Continental Army at a commemorative event at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS.
Today's Almanac - Severe weather and flash flooding will be possible across portions of the Great Plains today.
Office of Human Resources - The Office of Human Resources will be presenting webinars on August 7th and August 21st on the extension of benefits to married gay and lesbian federal employees, annuitants and their families.
Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs - This week's update on past and upcoming hearings, newly introduced bills, and the status of legislation of interest to the National Park Service. This report covers the week ending on Friday, August 2nd.
Mount Rainier NP - Eric J. Walkinshaw, park civil engineer and project manager, retired on July 31st with over 37 years of service with the National Park Service.
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The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov).
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