Three climbers from suburban Seattle were killed in a fall on Sunday when their equipment failed while rappelling down a steep gully in the North Cascades range in Washington state, sheriff’s officials said.
A party of four climbers was descending the gully in the area of North Early Winters Spire when the fall happened. Sheriff’s officials presume the cause was an anchor failure but are still investigating. Three of the climbers – ages 36, 47 and 63 – were killed at the scene while the fourth person freed themselves and walked back to the trailhead then drove to a pay phone to call for help.
Sheriff’s personnel and county search and rescue volunteers responded to the accident late on Sunday morning about 16 miles (26km) west of Mazama in an area of rock formations that are popular with climbers, the Okanogan county sheriff’s office said in a social media post on Monday.
The fourth climber sustained internal bleeding and a traumatic brain injury in the fall and was taken to a hospital in Seattle, the Okanogan county undersheriff David Yarnell told the Seattle Times on Monday.
“He didn’t realize he had as significant of internal injuries as he did,” Yarnell said.
A helicopter rescue team from nearby Snohomish county helped recover the bodies from the technical, mountainous terrain.
Investigators said they would inspect the climbers’ gear to help confirm the cause of the fall.
Yarnell told the Seattle Times that all four climbers were locked in to the same anchor point which is “not preferred”. The anchor point will also be investigated to determine if it was pre-existing or their own gear.
“All we know is that the anchor point that they were all tied off to failed,” Yarnell said.
• This article was amended on 13 May 2025. An earlier version said that the accident happened in the North Cascades national park when in fact it occurred in the North Cascades range.
