BY CRAIG HILL
The News Tribune

Tacoma is set to get a second indoor venue for rock climbers by the middle of October.

Vertical World, the state’s largest rock gym chain, plans to open a bouldering gym at 102 South 24th Street in the building previously occupied by Action Business Furniture.

The bouldering facility will not have roped-climbing and will be part of the company’s manufacturing facility, said Vertical World owner Rich Johnston.

“This kind of came through the back door,” said Johnston. “We were just looking at putting our wall manufacturing in Tacoma.”

Johnston wanted to move the facility in order to accommodate Ryan Spence, his wall-building specialist. Spence lives in Tacoma and was tired of commuting to Seattle, Johnston said.

The 8,000-square-foot building in Tacoma is four times larger than its current manufacturing site in Seattle and larger than Johnston needed.

“So, we said, let’s open a bouldering gym,” Johnston said.

In addition to operating rock gyms in Bremerton, Redmond, Seattle and Everett, Vertical World manufactures climbing walls for schools and other climbing gyms. Vertical World built the climbing wall for the set of MTV’s 1998 show “The Real World: Seattle” as well as Tacoma’s short-lived Thrill-Zone Extreme Sports Center.

Vertical World opened in 1989 in Seattle and claims to be the country’s first rock gym.

Vertical World will be Tacoma’s second climbing gym.
Edgeworks has been the mainstay of the Tacoma rock gym scene since 2004 when Tod Bloxham opened the 9,500-square-foot gym at 6102 N. Ninth St.

Edgeworks offers a bouldering area but also has climbing walls for roped climbing.

“I don’t want to cannibalize his business,” Johnston said of Edgeworks. “A bouldering gym is pretty limited. He’s a roped gym with full programs for schools. This is more for the bouldering crowd.”

Johnston said construction of the bouldering facility should go smoothly considering it’s in the same building as the manufacturing plant.

“No shipping,” Johnston said. “He (Spence) just has to walk a few feet.”

Rates and an exact opening date have not been set, but Johnston said the facilities progress will be updated on his website, verticalworld.com

Mount Rainier National Park officials are warning hikers and climbers that the Muir Snowfield has melted out early this season adding additional challenges to the route to Camp Muir.

According to a statement released by the park today there is exposed bare glacier ice and crevasses above 8,200 feet on the route. The steep slope - 25-30 degrees in some areas could make the route slippery and hazardous.

According to the park's statement, "There have been numerous cases this year of slips that have caused fairly severe abrasions. Also this year, the exposed ice from 9,500 feet to 10,100 feet has opened up crevasses that require skill and care in safely picking out circuitous routes which avoid the open cracks in the ice. Over the years, people have found themselves injured by falling in the crevasses or left dangling above them."

If you are planning to hike to Camp Muir, park officials recommend doing the following:

- Get the latest route conditions at the Climbing Information Center in Paradise (360-569-6009) or the Wilderness Information Center in Longmire (360-569-HIKE, 360-569-4453).

- Carry and use crampons and an ice axe.

- Cover all skin with durable full-length pants and long-sleeve shirts.

- Download the Muir Route Bearing Sheet.

- Carry a map, GPS, and compass, and know how to use them. Track your route on the way up, trackback on the descent.

- Travel to Camp Muir with someone.

- The only anchors that work in the glacier ice are ice screws, should you choose to belay over the crevasses with a short section of rope.

- Get up-to-date forecasts and prepare for cold, wet weather.

An icefall is being blamed for the death of a well known Colorado climber early Sunday at North Cascades National Park, according to a news release just sent out.

Craig Luebben, 49, of Golden, Colo., and Guillermo Benegas of Sandy, Utah, were beginning the Torment-Forbidden Traverse, which is an alpine rock ridge traverse connecting the two peak summits. The climb begins with an ascent of Mount Torment.

Having ascended most of the Taboo Glacier on approach to Mount Torment’s southeast face, the two climbers were negotiating a huge gap between two sections of ice called a bergshrund. When Luebben moved onto the upper section of glacier, a 100-foot tall, 20-foot wide and 10-foot deep piece of ice broke off taking Luebben with it.

While a single cam device held his fall, Luebben still fell approximately 40 feet and was critically injured by falling ice. Pieces of ice also hit Benegas, but he was able to position Luebben on a ledge and scramble to a location where he could call 911 with a cell phone.

National Park Service rangers were transported to the scene by via helicopter and preceded with a recovery and rescue of the two climbers.

Luebben was a well known and accomplished climber, Everest guide and author, having first ascents in Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, Zion and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Parks.

Jeff and I teamed up to write a story about our favorite food stops after a day in the outdoors.

No fine dining here. Just fine burgers, fries, shakes and cherry pie a la mode (Twede's famous pie pictured to the right).

Check it out and see if your favorite was included. If not let us know about your favorite. We'd love to check it out.

(Picture by Drew Perine)

J.T. Wilcox of Wilcox Farms recently celebrated the family business' 100th anniversary by climbing Mount Rainier. He learned that the mountain can be ruthless.

Wilcox passed along a story about the trip, which pushed him to the limit.

By J.T. Wilcox

Why do you climb a mountain?

"Because it is there," said Mallory, but he's been lying frozen on his mountain since 1924, so this is an unsatisfactory answer for a happy, middle-aged father of three.

"To prove I am tough enough to do it," would be a more accurate answer for me, if I was honest enough, or maybe if I had a few tumblers of Laphroig, but wasn't yet at the verbose philosopher stage. Yes, I might have said that before I climbed the mountain.

"Do not take the mountain lightly," was Bill Vipond's frequent advice. Bill is a slightly older guy whom I met a couple of years ago. Bill is a nearly perfect friend, not just to me, but also to a multitude of others. In fact, he's been like a brother over the last year. Although he has a slight tendency towards pontification, Bill's unusual personal openness, enthusiastic desire to help and the sense that he has a mission in life make him one of the most endearing people I have ever met.

It would be hard to exaggerate the respect that I have for him, but this story is about the mountain, so I'll leave my relationship with Bill for another time after just adding that he has climbed in many areas across the world and is one of those who believes strongly in the spiritual aspects of being in danger with guys in exposed places. The rope team, Bill, John Colleran, Rob Coyne, Henry Liebman and I had been training hard for more than three months. We'd meet twice a week to do the Cable Route, an agonizing climb straight up Tiger Mountain, a couple of miles long but with around 2,500 feet of vertical gain. We did this with at least 20 lbs on our backs and our times went from about 65 minutes to around 50 minutes at best for me.

=> Read more!

Noted mountain climber Ed Viesturs is scheduled to appear on tonight’s “The Colbert Report.” The show airs at 11:30 p.m. on the Comedy Channel and is repeated at 2 a.m.

Viesturs recently reached the summit of Mount Everest for the seventh time. The Bainbridge Island resident also has climbed all 14 of the world's highest mountains, without the use of supplemental oxygen. In doing so, he was the first American and the fifth person in the world to accomplish this.

From the Portland Tribune:

A 27-year-old Seattle man was airlifted off Mount Hood Sunday afternoon after falling and breaking his leg near the Sandy Glacier area.

Clackamas County sheriff’s search and rescue members said Kristopher R. Haskins was taken off the mountain before 2 p.m. by an Oregon National Guard helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital. Haskins is an employee of the University of Washington in Seattle.

Read the entire story here.

Hope you got a chance to read today's articles about Scott Richards' heroic 2004 attempt to save his best friend's life on Mount Rainier's Liberty Ridge.

As promised, here's the account of the incident from the perception of climbing ranger David Gottlieb who shared his story with The News Tribune in 2004, just days after Peter Cooley died.

By Craig Hill
THE NEWS TRIBUNE, 2004
The first sign he was getting close was the sound of a distress whistle piercing the thin mountain air.

After more than 40 hours on the precarious Liberty Ridge route up Mount Rainier, climbing ranger David Gottlieb finally was closing in on a critically injured climber and his partner.

As Gottlieb and fellow ranger Charlie Borgh approached the scene Monday afternoon, they were stunned by what they saw.

"It was an incredible situation," Gottlieb said.

Scott Richards, a veteran climber, had chipped a ledge into the icy face of the mountain and set up a small tent that hung over the edge. Inside, his partner, Peter Cooley, was wrapped in three sleeping bags and had an inch-deep wound on the left side of his head.

"Scott was excited to see us," Gottlieb said. "His situation was nothing less than desperate. ... His entire motivation was to get his friend out of there."

A climb that started May 13 went wrong about 6 a.m. Saturday when Cooley tripped and fell an estimated 30 feet down a cliff, injuring his head.

Richards called for help on his cell phone, launching a rescue attempt that involved more than 50 people at a cost of more than $100,000. After two days of fighting through rain and snow storms, the weather broke long enough Monday for an Oregon National Guard helicopter to pluck Cooley from the mountain.

But it was too late.

The 39-year-old married father of three died during the 15-minute flight to Madigan Army Medical Center.

The trip

Climbing brought Cooley and Richards together in the tiny southern Maine coastal town of Cape Elizabeth. Their mutual interest gave them an instant bond in a town where most of the 9,000 residents rarely climb anything higher than the steps of their famous lighthouses.

Together, they traversed areas more challenging than the place Cooley fell Saturday. In fact, they'd climbed this route previously, only to be turned back shy of the summit by nasty weather.

They were lured to Liberty Ridge by the same attraction that draws as many as 200 climbers to the route each year.

"It is a classic," said Mike Gauthier, the ranger who organized the rescue.

The steep ridge reaches pitches of 50 degrees in some places and splits two towering ice walls near the summit. Those ice walls - Liberty Wall to the right and Willis Wall to the left - are the edges of glaciers that are being pushed to the edge of the summit.

As often as three times each day, chunks of ice and rock "the size of houses fall off the wall and explode into smaller chunks" as they careen down the mountain, Gottlieb said.

What happened to Cooley, however, had little to do with terrain and much to do with bad luck.

Cooley apparently caught his crampon on his pant leg and tripped, something Gottlieb says is common. "It happens to me probably once a week," he said.

When it happens at 12,300 feet, it can be deadly.

Cooley was climbing the east side of the ridge, ahead of Richards, who was below him on the west side, attached with a 50-foot rope.

Richards told Gottlieb that after Cooley tripped, he cart-wheeled over a cliff and fell at least 30 feet, hitting his head on a rock at a point below his helmet line and sustaining an inch-deep wound that ran from above his left eye to his left ear.

The fall pulled Richards several yards toward the top of the ridge before he stopped. His friend's motionless body dangled from his harness.

What happened next shows how skilled an alpinist Richards is, Gottlieb said.

While holding his friend with one hand, he wedged ice screws into the ridge with his other hand. He transferred Cooley's weight to the screws, then rappelled down to inspect him. He moved his friend near a rock outcrop where he chiseled out a shelf about 2 feet wide. He then pitched a small tent.

Cooley was bleeding profusely and appeared to have a separated shoulder.

Richards spent the next 72 sleepless hours in the cramped tent, caring for his dying friend.

First crew out

Gottlieb was at a friend's house in Seattle on Saturday morning when he got a call from Gauthier.

The two, close friends since 1995, had returned Friday night from a climbing trip in Alaska. When Gauthier told him what had happened, Gottlieb picked up supplies, then met fellow climbing ranger Chris Olson at Longmire. The two packed light for a quick ascent, then drove around the mountain to Ipsut Creek and started climbing at 9 p.m.

The weather was uncooperative, and snow made it hard to discern sky from mountain. The conditions cost them at least an hour as they twice found themselves heading in the wrong direction.

At 1 a.m., and at about 7,000 feet, the weather forced Gottlieb and Olson to stop. They ate, melted snow into drinking water and waited for safer conditions. But the weather would not relent, and by Sunday night, the rangers were still 3,500 feet from the stranded climbers.

The next waves

At 3:30 a.m. Sunday, five climbing rangers led by Glenn Kessler, Greg Johnson and Borgh began their ascent.

They carried packs loaded with 90 pounds of gear needed to lower Cooley. They moved quickly in the trail broken by Gottlieb and Olson, and frequent radio contact made sure they didn't make the same missteps.

They and other rescuers established camp at the foot of Liberty Ridge in whiteout conditions and waited for the weather to moderate.

Helicopter-borne rescuers failed to reach the climbers Sunday night but were able to drop a radio, sleeping bags and food.

During another aborted attempt Monday, rescuers dropped an orange litter.

Monday morning, Gottlieb assessed the exhausted rescue crew to find the most prepared partner for a speedy two-man climb. He chose Borgh.

Soon four other climbers, including Kessler and Johnson, began climbing to Thumb Rock at 10,300 feet with heavy loads of gear.

They planned to climb to the injured climber Tuesday morning and set up an elaborate six-man lowering system that might have had Cooley at a hospital by Thursday.

That plan was never used. Around 1 p.m. Gottlieb and Olson reached the climbers. Two hours later, the weather finally broke.

The rescue

Gauthier was explaining the complicated rescue plan to the media at Longmire at 3:30 p.m. Monday when he was rushed into the building and told the weather was suitable for an airborne rescue.

Because of the gear dropped during the earlier attempt, it took just seven minutes to get Cooley inside.

The doors in the belly of the Chinook weren't wide enough to lift Cooley horizontally, so he had to be hoisted vertically. Still, it was a better option than carrying him down. There was no cheering when the Chinook pulled away.

"We weren't out of the woods yet," Gottlieb said.

Richards and the rescuers were fatigued and still needed to get down the mountain themselves. They descended 1,600 feet to Thumb Rock to spend the night.

The bad news

The news that Cooley had died hit the television and radio airwaves before it reached the mountain. Kessler was the first rescuer to learn of his death.

"It was a huge letdown," Kessler said.

Because Gottlieb had spent the most time with the climbers, he took responsibility for telling Richards. At 10,700 feet, both men wept.

"He didn't totally break down, because he knew if he did he would be a liability to us," Gottlieb said.

The men spent Monday night at Thumb Rock and started descending Tuesday, lowering the physically and emotionally drained Richards by rope. At 9 a.m., the weather cleared enough for a helicopter to lift them all off the mountain.

From Kelly Bush, North Cascades Wilderness District Ranger:

On Saturday, May 23rd, a commercially-guided party of three mountaineers took a tumbling fall down Mount Shuksan's summit pyramid while roped together. The trio had reached the summit and were descending when the accident occurred. The guide had belayed his two clients individually down the first pitches of steep snow, then descended himself. As he was doing so, he fell and, unable to arrest his fall, pulled the other two with him for about 400 feet. Luckily, there was only one significant injury ­ one of the clients injured an ankle and was unable to continue. Climbing rangers on patrol lower on the mountain were picked up by the park¹s on-call SAR helicopter, an MD 500 from HiLine Helicopters, and flown to the accident site. The rangers were able to carry the injured climber across a section of the Sulphide Glacier, then fly her off the mountain. She was transported to a Bellingham, Washington, hospital for evaluation.

Dave Hahn, an Ashford-based mountain guide, extended his record for trips to the top of Mount Everest on Friday night by summiting the 29,035-foot-high peak for the 11th time.
No non-Sherpa climber has climbed the mountain more.
Hahn has guided for Rainier Mountaineering Inc. since 1986 and has participated in climbing expeditions all over the world.

He also holds the record for climbing Antarctica’s highest peak, Vinson Massif, with 25 summits.

Saturday the party he led to the summit included RMI guides Melissa Arnot and Seth Waterfall and cameraman Kent Harvey.
This was the second RMI group and fourth expedition led by local guide services to reach the summit. Ashford’s

International Mountain Guides has place 30 climbers on the summit this month.

The Everest climbing season is now winding up and guides services successfully removed their gear from the mountain before a storm arrived, according to IMG expedition leader Eric Simonson’s blog.

From Rainier Mountaineering Inc.:

Rainier Mountaineering, Inc.(RMI) announced today that at 6:00 am, Nepal time, RMI's second team of climbers reached the highest point on earth, Mt. Everest, at 29,035'. The summit team was led by Dave Hahn. Joining Dave are two accomplished RMI Guides Melissa Arnot and Seth Waterfall, and cameraman Kent Harvey.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn has climbed Everest an astounding eleven times, and holds the record for the most ascents by any non-Sherpa climber. A guide with Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. since 1986, he has received prestigious awards for rescue work. In 2001, he was named Denali Pro Mountaineer of the Year for his aid on Denali. That same year, the American Alpine Club gave him the David A. Sowles Memorial Award for his involvement in a rescue on Mt. Everest. During the winter months, Dave works as a ski patroller in Taos, New Mexico.

The RMI Everest Expedition is led by Peter Whittaker. Team members on the first summit bid included Peter Whittaker, Ed Viesturs, Gerry Moffatt, Jake Norton, and John Griber. All five successfully reached the summit of Mt. Everest on May 19, 2009. The first team will wait at Everest Basecamp until the second team is safely off the mountain. Peter Whittaker, son of acclaimed mountaineer Lou Whittaker and nephew of Jim Whittaker, who was the first American to climb Mt. Everest in 1963, led the first summit team. Ed Viesturs, the only American to summit all fourteen 8000-meter peaks without bottled oxygen, reached the summit of Mt. Everest for his seventh time.

International Mountain Guides of Ashford placed 11 more climbers on the summit of Mount Everest last night raising its total for the season to 26.

Among those making the summit was local climber Justin Merle who has climbed Mount Rainier more than 100 times including a round trip to the summit that took just 4 hours, 49 minutes, 35 seconds last July.

This was Merle's third Everest summit.

Here's a list of the IMG climbing party members that made the 29,035-foot summit.

1. Ms. Petya Stanimirova Kolcheva (Bulgaria)
2. Ms. Mei Ying (Joanne) Soo (Singapore)
3. Ms. Peh Gee Lee (Singapore)
4. Mr. Jonathan Michael Shae (USA)
5. Mr. Justin Reese Merle (USA)
6. Mr. Kamen Marinov Kolchev (Bulgaria)
7. Mr. Danuru Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu—this is his 7th Everest summit
8. Mr. Nima Karma Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu—this is his 3rd Everest summit
9. Mr. Phinjo Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu—this is his 5th Everest summit
10. Mr. Pasang Rinji Sherpa of of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu—this is his 3rd Everest summit
11. Mr. Datenji Sherpa of of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu—this is his 5th Everest summit

International Mountain Guides placed 15 people on the top of Mount Everest last night. The group include astronaut Scott Parazynski and Spokane resident Dawes Eddy, 66, who is believed to be the oldest American to climb the 29,035-foot peak. Here's a link to a Spokesman Review article on Eddy.

The Discovery Channel is documenting IMG's season on Everest. A second IMG team is heading to the summit right now.

Here's a list of the summiters I pulled from the IMG website:

1. Mr. Scott Edward Parazynski (USA)
2. Mr. E Dawes Eddy III (USA)
3. Ms. Zhen Zhen (Jane) Lee (Singapore)
4. Ms. Li Hui Lee (Singapore)
5. Ms. Yin Xuan (Esther) Tan (Singapore)
6. Mr. Michael Aaron Hamill (USA)
7. Mr. Edmund Philip Wardle (UK ) (Tigress Productions / Discovery producer, cameraman)
8. Mr. Danuru Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu — this is his 11th Everest Summit
9. Mr. Panuru Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu — this is his 8th Everest Summit
10. Mr. Mingma Chhiring Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu — this is his 8th Everest Summit
11. Mr. Kancha Nuru Sherpa of Khumjung VDC Ward #9 Phortse, Solukhumbu — this is his 2nd Everest Summit
12. Mr. Ang Chhiring Sherpa of Khumjung VDC ward #8 Pangboche, Solukhumbu — this is his 9th Everest Summit
13. Mr. Sanduk Dorjee Tamang of Khumjung VDC ward #7 Pangboche, Solukhumbu — this is his 4th Everest Summit
14. Mr. Kancha Nuru Sherpa of Khumjung VDC ward #8 Pangboche, Solukhumbu — this is his 1st Everest Summit
15. Mr. Jamling Bhote of Hattiya VDC Ward #1, Sankhuwasaba — this is his 4th Everest Summit