The deaths of two experienced climbers on Mount Rainier this month have once again drawn attention to a hard truth about Washington’s most iconic peak and the West Coast’s tallest volcano: Even for seasoned adventurers, the mountain can turn lethal with little warning.

Jiri Richter, 51, and Ben Watson, 35, were found dead near the Wilson Glacier on Jan. 20 at roughly 9,600 feet after failing to return from a January climb, according to the National Park Service. After the duo was overdue for their expected return, their families contacted authorities. Weather conditions delayed aerial access, forcing ground crews to recover the climbers days later. Investigators later said both died of blunt force injuries, and the incident remains under review.

Both Richter and Watson had been climbing for over a decade, according to a report from the Seattle Times.

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“He had an insatiable love of the mountains,” Rena Hamzey, Watson’s wife, told reporters. “I would often joke about whom he loved more, me or the mountains, to which he’d respond wholeheartedly, ‘obviously you.’”

FILE: A group of climbers are seen walking up Mount Rainier’s snow-covered slopes in Washington state. 

The men’s deaths were not anomalies. Despite its popularity and proximity to major population centers, Mount Rainier has long been considered one of the most dangerous national parks in the country during winter, with rapidly changing weather, steep terrain, glaciers, avalanches and whiteout conditions combining to create risks that are often difficult to predict — even for those who know the mountain well.

Mount Rainier is quietly one of the most deadly parks in the country. A 2024 analysis by Washington-based injury law firm Elk & Elk, which reviewed the Park Service’s fatality data from 2007 to 2023, found that 77 people died at Mount Rainier during that period — the highest number among Washington’s three national parks. While the park does not rank as the deadliest when........

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