Vancouver police officer dies while mountain biking in Columbia Gorge

http://home.nps.gov/applications/morningreport/

THE MORNING REPORT
Thursday, July 29, 2010

Mount Rainier National Park (WA)
Climber Dies In Fall Into Crevasse

A climber died Tuesday on Mount Rainier high on the Emmons Glacier. Lee F.
Adams, 52, of Seattle was descending from the summit as part of a four-man team
when the last person on the rope caught his crampon on the snow, tripped and
fell. The four climbers were swept off their feet and, despite attempts to
arrest the fall by digging their ice axes into the snow, they fell 100 feet and
plummeted into a 35-foot-deep crevasse. Adams, the last person into the
crevasse, died in the fall. The three surviving climbers scrambled out of the
crevasse and made their way back to Camp Schurman, the high camp at 9,450 feet,
arriving at 3:00 p.m. They spent the night there in the company of a climbing
ranger. On Wednesday, climbing rangers were dropped off by helicopter on the
summit of Mount Rainier and climbed down to the accident site at 13,000 feet.
They retrieved Adams’ body from the crevasse and it was airlifted off of the
mountain by helicopter. Two of the surviving climbers were able to hike out on
their own (accompanied by a climbing ranger) and the third was flown off of the
mountain. The incident commander was Nick Hall. [Submitted by Lee Taylor,
Information Officer]