Ranger Dies Saving Injured Mt. Rainier Climbers

A ranger has died during a mission to rescue four injured climbers stranded on Mount Rainier. The 34-year-old ranger slid more than 3,000 feet to his death as he helped prepare the climbers to be taken from the 14,400-foot Washington mountain, reports AP. The four climbers from Texas were roped together when they fell on a glacier on their way down from the peak. The fall left the two climbers at the end of the rope in a crevasse.

A Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord rescued two men and a woman while another woman remained on the mountain overnight, waiting out a storm in the company of park rangers. All four had non-life-threatening injuries. The ranger's death is the fourth in the park's 113-year history. But 2012 has been as deadly for rangers as the previous 112 years together: Ranger Margaret Anderson was shot dead in January by a man who was later found dead. (More Mt. Rainier stories.)