Climber dies, partner rescued on cliff

LEAVENWORTH — A Whatcom County man died Monday in a fall from Snow Creek Wall in the North Cascades, where crews working by the light of head lamps managed to rescue of his climbing partner.

"We don’t really know for sure what went wrong," deputy Gene Ellis of the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said of the accident. "Maybe we never will."

William M. Tharpe, 28, of Glacier died of injuries suffered in the fall. Rescuers estimated he fell 300 to 400 feet. The Western Washington University graduate student suffered multiple internal injuries due to blunt impact to the head and chest, Dr. Gina Fino, the Chelan County coroner, said Tuesday.

It was the first death at the site since 1983, when two British Columbia men died in a 300-foot fall.

His climbing partner — Matt Burns, 27, also a WWU grad student — told Ellis that he and Tharpe had been climbing together for about two months, and that Tharpe had about eight years of climbing experience.

Burns was "tired and shook up" but otherwise uninjured, Ellis said.

Burns and Tharpe set out on the wall early Monday. By noon, they were about halfway up a route called Outer Space on the nearly vertical cliff that rises nearly 800 feet above Snow Creek.

"It is the five-star rock climbing route in Washington state," said Freeman Keller of Wenatchee, a member of Chelan County’s Mountain Rescue Team. "It’s difficult, but not too difficult. It’s got good exposure and good rock."

Burns and Tharpe had completed the first three pitches or climbing sections, considered the hardest part of the seven-pitch route, Keller said. Burns then waited on a ledge about 350 feet up the rock face while Tharpe started toward the top.

Meanwhile, two other climbers — Jessica Campbell of Kirkland and Ben Shrope of Redmond — began ascending the wall. They noticed the top climber was taking a long time on the fourth pitch.

Suddenly, "There was a commotion, and we heard someone yelling, ‘Are you all right?’ " Campbell said.

Tharpe, then about 50 feet above Burns, had fallen 15 to 20 feet, striking the wall and slightly injuring his shoulder, said rescue climber Tom Clausing of Leavenworth.

He decided to rappel back to the ledge with Burns, who disconnected himself from the rope so Tharpe could rig the rope for the rappel, Clausing and Keller said.

But Tharpe fell.

"It appears as if either his anchor failed or he got disconnected somehow from the anchor," Clausing said.

His fall dislodged loose rocks that sprayed Campbell and Shrope, then 150 feet up.

"I thought I was done for," Shrope said.

Tharpe struck a ledge just a couple of feet from Campbell, then fell to the base of the cliff, taking the rope with him and leaving Burns stuck on the ledge.

Shrope climbed up to the ledge where Campbell sat and called 911 on his cell phone. They waited several hours, talking to Burns as they waited for help.

Nick Runions, a medic for Cascade Ambulance and a member of the Mountain Rescue Team, was among the first to reach the scene. The Chelan County Sheriff’s Office enlisted three rescue climbers from Kittitas County and six U.S. Forest Service firefighters from Leavenworth for the difficult rescue and body recovery.