Tacoma Man Dies After Injury On North Cascades Mountain

A Tacoma man died Sunday after he fell while climbing Goode Mountain in the North Cascades.

Bob Nelson, an experienced mountain climber, was roped up to a climbing partner on Saturday afternoon when he fell after being struck by falling rock at the 7,500-foot level of the 9,200-foot mountain.

Nelson was not killed immediately, and rescue was attempted but hampered when two other climbers hiking down to get help also fell, said Capt. Pete Peterson of the Chelan County Sheriff's Department.

Goode Mountain is in the North Cascades National Park about 100 miles northeast of Seattle.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at the Tacoma Branch of the Mountaineers Club, 2302 N. 30th St.

Nelson's survivors include his wife and two children.

The service is scheduled because of the Nelson accident, but it is also in recognition of several Tacoma-area climbers who have been killed on mountains in the past few years, said Jeff Johnson, president of the Mountaineers' Tacoma branch.

Johnson said Nelson was well-known in the club, was active in the club's climbing program and also taught cross-country and telemark skiing for the organization.

Johnson and Roger Fick, another climber friend of Nelson's, described Goode Mountain as a challenging climb.

"It takes a long time to climb, it's difficult, it's remote, it's very far from any road," Fick said.

One of four men climbing in two pairs, Nelson was roped to climbing partner Tim Hartman, of Tacoma, when the two ascended a rocky area on the mountain's Northeast Buttress route.

"It was an area where you have to use your hands but you're not hanging from a wall," said Peterson. "Rock climbers would call it a `scramble.' "

A rock apparently dislodged and struck Nelson, who tumbled the length of the rope attached to Hartman - 50 to 100 feet. Hartman managed to lash the rope to the mountainside to brace himself.

Nelson suffered a severe head laceration and possibly some broken bones. The climbing party left one man, Randall Keys, of Port Orchard, to stay with Nelson.

Hartman and Mitch Miller, also of Tacoma, began their trip down late Saturday afternoon to get help for Nelson. When Miller and Hartman started down, Nelson was unconscious.

Miller and Hartman stopped their descent, however, when they fell at about 2 a.m. Sunday on Goode Glacier, said Peterson.

Details remained sketchy, but one of the men may have fallen into a crevasse. "It was quite a fall, but they got only bumps and bruises," Peterson said. "They stayed on the glacier that night because it was dark and they couldn't see."

The two contacted park officials Sunday and a rescue operation for Nelson began at about 3:30 p.m. A rescue helicopter dispatched by the sheriff's office found Nelson and Keys at about 6:30 p.m.

Rescuers lowered a radio to Keys, who told authorities that Nelson had died during the night.