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A climbing ranger describes his work on Mount Rainier, where the difference between life and death may be a false step or a turn in the weather.
Mike “Gator” Gauthier’s life is a 14,410-foot “pile of rock and ice”—Mount Rainier, in Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park. Gauthier is the park’s only year-round climbing ranger, and his job is to rescue visitors stuck on the slopes, caught in bad weather, injured or, often, all three.
On Gauthier’s blog—mount rainierclimbing.blogspot.com—photos and commentary update climbers and park goers on mountain statistics, seasonal regulations and trail conditions, including repairs to the flood damage caused by 18 inches of rainfall in 36 hours last November.
Gauthier fell in love with the mountains when his family moved to the Pacific Northwest from the South (where his nickname originated). He began hiking at 11, became a volunteer ranger at Olympic National Park at 15 and embraced climbing the following year.
In his 17 years climbing, Gauthier has been involved in more than 200 rescues, has been caught in at least five avalanches and was once struck by lightning three times—on a single climb.
“I was on Grand Teton with my buddies Fletcher and Dave in 2002. We were approaching the summit when the weather turned.
“Normally, you get some kind of warning—crackling, Saint Elmo’s fire, a sizzling sound. This time there was none. I pulled onto a ledge, and suddenly the sky ignited. I was lifted off the ground and felt a jolt of electricity, from my molars to my brain. Fletcher’s eyes widened and Dave started screaming, ‘We’ve been hit!’ It was the wrong place to be in a lightning storm: a knife-edge ridge at 13,500 feet.
“As we stood there, deciding whether to push on, a second bolt struck. We could see the lightning arc between us and smell our burning hair. It burned holes in our Gore-Tex. Then 10 minutes later a third strike. I knew how tough the route ahead was. But it was even more dangerous to backtrack, so we went for the summit—and made it.
“Avalanches are a lot like lightning; you immediately realize something else is in charge. The main difference is immense fear. In an avalanche there’s total awareness of how helpless you are: trapped in a river of ice, falling over small cliffs and sliding over crevasses. There’s no way to save yourself. I was lucky. I landed in very favorable conditions—obviously.
“A number of things get people into trouble on Mount Rainier. Often they’re caught unaware. And the weather is a complicating factor—rescues take longer to complete and people are harder to find. It’s one thing to have a broken ankle; it’s worse when the weather’s bad.
“In 2004 climbers Scott Richards and Peter Cooley were on a tough route called Liberty Ridge. Richards dialed 911 to report that Cooley had fallen and fractured his skull. The weather turned bad. I had to work with Richards on the phone, coaching him to treat Cooley and dig in for the long haul because his location was extremely difficult to reach. Days later a climbing ranger was able to get there. As we watched Cooley rise into the helicopter, we thought we’d saved his life—but he died en route to the hospital. That was very, very hard.
“Things went differently in 2001, when a woman slid down a slope and onto the rocks. She sustained a very serious head injury. We called in a helicopter—but it couldn’t land. So I hopped out while the helicopter was hovering. The woman was barely alive, and the sun was going down. The only way to save her life was to evacuate her immediately. The pilot flew up to a high camp, picked up two more rangers and dropped them off with me. We placed her on a backboard and literally ran her uphill to where the helicopter could hover low enough for us to load her in. The pilot then flew down to a heliport, where she was transferred to a medical helicopter. A year later, I received a wonderful letter from her—so thankful to be alive.
More frequent and dangerous rescues may loom if global warming sends ice, snow and water crashing down steep slopes. But Gauthier plans to remain at his post so long as other climbers are drawn to the thrill of ascent that motivates him. “Mount Rainier will survive,” he says. “The glaciers might recede, but it’s always going to be majestic.”
This artile appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Parks Magazine.
