Fatality on Mt. Rainier

[14erFred]

Climbing fatality reported on the Disappointment Cleaver route on Rainier:
https://apple.news/AOJWveig0TuaD1ODImY2D-Q

[WVMountaineer]

Very unfortunate and sad to hear. I had an unsuccessful summit of Rainier via the DC route turning around at 13k. I'm curious to understand how this person was part of a climbing group and fell unprotected or unroped. It seems way too late in the season for a ski descent. My only guess is there was some type of gear failure/misuse or maybe happened in the area of the "bowling alley" where the DC route is climbing on steep rocky cliff bands where some teams choose to go off rope.

[ellenmseb]

second hand info from a PNW fb group:

* He fell unroped on the actual Disappointment Cleaver section of the DC route, which is a loose rock scramble.
* The slight consensus among climbers is that the wisest decision is usually to unrope on the DC. The rope will increase rockfall, and people don't generally bring rock pro to protect this, so being roped up will just bring down your teammates with you if you fall. that being said, plenty of teams (including all guided groups) do stay roped up there.

[Conor]

second hand info from a PNW fb group:

* He fell unroped on the actual Disappointment Cleaver section of the DC route, which is a loose rock scramble.
* The slight consensus among climbers is that the wisest decision is usually to unrope on the DC. The rope will increase rockfall, and people don't generally bring rock pro to protect this, so being roped up will just bring down your teammates with you if you fall. that being said, plenty of teams (including all guided groups) do stay roped up there.

Not sure there would be much in the way of gear placements in the cleaver. It is a pile of loose pumice and it is enough for me to avoid it if I ever climb rainier again from that side.

[bsiegs]

Really sad news. We chose to short rope the Cleaver section when my team climbed a few weeks ago. This is what the rangers recommended and I believe it's what the guided groups did as well.

[Wildernessjane]

second hand info from a PNW fb group:

* He fell unroped on the actual Disappointment Cleaver section of the DC route, which is a loose rock scramble.
* The slight consensus among climbers is that the wisest decision is usually to unrope on the DC. The rope will increase rockfall, and people don't generally bring rock pro to protect this, so being roped up will just bring down your teammates with you if you fall. that being said, plenty of teams (including all guided groups) do stay roped up there.

Not sure there would be much in the way of gear placements in the cleaver. It is a pile of loose pumice and it is enough for me to avoid it if I ever climb rainier again from that side.

I also didn’t feel like this was an area where one would feel the need to place gear. It’s rotten and loose but not super exposed. We chose not to unrope because it’s such a short section (albeit miserable mostly because you are walking on loose scree in crampons and there is a bottle-neck so you feel the pressure to move fast) that it’s not worth it. We short-roped mostly to save time and so that we could keep the rope off the ground. Many other parties were doing the same. The article I saw said he fell in the area of the Cleaver. I have to wonder if there’s more to this story.

[pvnisher]

That's always so sad to hear.
I've been on that section 3 times, always roped, but we kept it short for rockfall.

Rainier is an amazing mountain, my favorite in the 48, but is not a thing to be taken lightly.