Backcountry climb ends in fatal fall in Okanogan County

Okanogan County Sheriff's deputies and search and rescue volunteers at the scene of a fatal climbing accident, west of Mazama, May 11.

Three hikers died in a fall during a descent down steep terrain in the area of North Early Winters Spire off highway 20, west of Mazama.

Okanogan County Search and Rescue reports volunteers responded to the call for assistance late Sunday morning, May 11, from a surviving member of the climbing party.

The deceased are from Renton. Their names have not been made public.

Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team assisted in extricating the deceased members of the party from the technical, mountainous terrain. The presumed cause of the accident is an anchor failure while rappelling.

Chelan County Mountain Rescue, Chelan County Volunteer Search and Rescue and Chelan County Sheriff's deputies participate in calls for assistance in Chelan County. Some of the volunteers were recently called in to rescue two hikers who couldn't get across a swift running French Creek in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, April 28.

"We're not going to look past our volunteers," said Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison. "If we didn't have them, search and rescue efforts within Chelan County would not happen. We're talking about a county of 2,900 square miles with 87% of that not being inaccessible by road."

Sheriff Morrison says the Chelan County Sheriff's Office is equipped to be able to reach many locations.

"Running a helicopter program is expensive, but if we didn't have it, we wouldn't be able to reach a lot of these locations quickly like we can now," the Sheriff noted.