OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — A 28-year-old hiker has been killed in a fall on Mount Olympus in Olympic National Park.
Richard Grey Liston, 28, of Portland, Ore., was climbing with a companion near the summit on the east face of Mount Olympus when he fell to an area of rocks and glacier below, said park spokeswoman Barb Maynes today.
“Other climbers saw it happen and were able to call it in,” Maynes said.
Emergency services got the call around 7:45 a.m. Saturday.
One of those climbers, a paramedic, reached the location where Liston had landed among rocks and glacier ice, and reported that he had died, Maynes said.
NorthWest Helicopters of Olympia flew Liston’s body to the base of the mountain by about 8 p.m. Saturday, according to Tami Uttecht, wife of the helicopter’s pilot, Doug Uttecht of Bonney Lake.
A representative of the Jefferson County coroner’s office was waiting in a parking lot at a staging area at the foot of Mount Olympus, she said.
The retrieval was complicated by snow conditions on the summit, Maynes said.
According to ABC News, Liston was living in Portland, Ore., but originally was from Raleigh, N.C.
Mount Olympus, 7,980-feet in elevation, is the tallest and most prominent mountain in the Olympic Mountains and is a central feature of Olympic National Park.
It is rated as a moderate Grade II climb on the American Alpine Club’s six-grade classification system, six being the most difficult.
Though located only 20 air miles southwest of Forks, the mountain is in a remote area of the national park.
Climbing Mount Olympus is often a five-day trek, requiring a wilderness camping permit and two days to hike in through the lush Hoh Rain Forest to a base camp at Glacier Meadows, at the toe of the Blue Glacier at the mountain.
The ascent involves glacier mountaineering, snow climbing and rock scrambling.
The mountain was first successfully climbed in 1907. Scaling the mountain is considered a rite of passage for many Northwest mountaineers.
[This story will be updated as details become available.]
