NYC Climbers Rescued From Mount Ranier In Washington

NEW YORK — Two New York City men were among four climbers rescued Thursday from a treacherous route up Mount Ranier in Washington after they spent three days stranded, according to the National Park Service.

Vasily Aushevand and Constantine Toporov were taken off the saddle between the Liberty Cap and Columbia Crest by helicopter around 9:15 a.m. Thursday along with fellow climbers Yevgeniy Krasnitskiy of Portland, Oregon and Ruslan Khasbulatov, of Jersey City, N.J.

The four men started their trek up the mountain's Liberty Ridge route on May 31 from the White River Campground. On June 3, the Mount Rainier communications center got a 911 call that the men had become stranded at about 13,500 feet.

Rangers attempted rescues by helicopter on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — including one with a Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord — but were stopped by bad weather. A brief window of good weather on Thursday morning allowed the rescue to move forward. About 33 people helped with the rescue.

The rescue was the second along the Liberty Ridge route since May 29, when a rockfall smashed into a climbing camp, killing an Alaskan climber and injuring two others.

The Liberty Ridge route is considered the most advanced climbing route to the summit, according to International Mountain Guides, which is based at Mount Rainier. In May 2014, six climbers fell thousands of feet to their deaths while climbing Liberty Ridge at an elevation of about 13,000 feet.

Patch editor Neal McNamara reported this story.