June 22, 2012 - 2:30 AM
LONGMIRE, Wash. - A Mount Rainier climbing ranger has died during efforts to rescue four injured climbers from Waco, Texas.
Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher (BAA-ker) says 34-year-old Nick Hall fell 900 metres Thursday from the 4,400-metre mountain. He was dead when other rangers reached him several hours later.
A helicopter plucked two of the injured climbers off the mountain Thursday night while two others were waiting out a worsening storm overnight with the aid of park rangers.
The Texas party includes two men and two women. Bacher says all four have non-life-threatening injuries. None was immediately identified.
The climbers were roped together when they fell on Emmons Glacier.
The two women at the end of the rope ended up in a crevasse. Rangers who responded to a cellphone call helped them out of the crevasse.
News from © The Associated Press, 2012