4 Rescued From Mount Rainier's Liberty Ridge Route

ASHFORD, WA — Four climbers were rescued from Mount Rainier on Thursday after becoming stranded on Monday night, according to the National Park Service. This is the second rescue along the mountain's Liberty Ridge route since May 29, when a rockfall smashed into a climbing camp.

The climbers rescued on Thursday were taken off the saddle between the Liberty Cap and Columbia Crest by helicopter around 9:15 a.m. Thursday. They were suffering from exposure, but were in relatively good health.

The four men rescued Thursday include Yevgeniy Krasnitskiy of Portland; Ruslan Khasbulatov, of Jersey City, N.J.; and Vasily Aushevand and Constantine Toporov, both of New York City. They started their climb 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.

Last Wednesday, a rockfall swept through a camp, killing Arleigh W. Dean, 45, of Alaska, and injuring two others. The incident happened at about 10,000 feet along the Liberty Ridge route on the north side of the mountain.

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.