MONROE – The climbers were working their way out of a crevasse when the snow came.
It wasn’t a huge rumble and didn’t hit with a slam.
“It was fairly gentle,” said Matt Little, the climbing companion of Aaron Koester, 21, the Monroe volunteer firefighter who died Sunday on Mount Rainier. “It just kind of slid our feet out from under us.”
Little, 23, spoke Tuesday about the tragedy in which his friend lost his life.
The snow carried the two climbers about 150 feet to the bottom of the crevasse. When they stopped, Little was buried except for his head and left arm. Koester was nowhere in sight.
“I happened to be at the top end of the rope,” Little said. “That’s why I didn’t get buried as much.”
It took Little about half an hour to dig himself out, he said.
Because of the time that had passed, he knew his friend probably hadn’t made it.
Little used an electronic avalanche beacon to find Koester. When he dug down far enough to take his friend’s pulse, his fears were confirmed.
“‘Well, buddy, I’ll see you in heaven. I gotta go now,’” Little said about leaving Koester and going to find help. “There’s a lot of peace knowing that he’s with his creator.”
The two, both devout Christians and dedicated climbers, had met through Little’s sister. They became close friends and roommates.
“She knew we would get along perfectly,” Little said.
They climbed together for about a year and a half, including a five-day period in which they scaled Oregon’s Mount Hood and California’s Mount Shasta and Mount Whitney. They skied down two of the mountains.
“I skied, Aaron snowboarded,” Little said. “He would make sure to point that out.”
The two had gone up mountains in the winter before, Little said. He said fall and winter are not necessarily a riskier time to climb, because while there is more snow, in the summer there are deeper crevasses, melting ice and falling rocks.
He said the conditions were very good on Sunday. “It was cool and crisp, and it was a perfect day.”
Koester’s father, Bruce, spoke at a news conference with Little at the Monroe Fire Station on Tuesday. He said when he and Koester’s mother, Kathy Howe, first saw Little after the accident, “we both walked up to him and gave him a big hug and told him we loved him and don’t hold him responsible for any of this.”
Little and Koester were training to climb Alaska’s Mount McKinley, Little said. Their hope, he said, was that “our climbing would bring glory to God.”
Little said he plans to keep on climbing.
“I have moments of sadness where I miss him,” Little said of his friend. But he said “there’s no question that if he was in my shoes, he would go on living life to the fullest. That’s the only thing I can do. It would be a shame and an offense to him if I did anything different.”
What Little wants people to remember most about Koester is “his love for God and his zest for living every minute to the fullest. And that’s what we were doing.”
A public memorial service for Koester is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at the Rock Church, 17146 147th St. SE in Monroe.
Herald reporters Katherine Schiffner and Diana Hefley contributed to this story.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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