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Show No. 39- 1 DEMING GLACIER. MT. BAKER, WASHINGTON 22 July 1939 ACCIDENT SUMMARY On this Saturday, a group of 25 college students were ascending Mt. Baker, a glaciated volcano of 10,750 ft. elevation in northern Washington State. At about 1: 30 p. m. the party was climbing in zig- zag fashion the steep upper slope of the Deming Glacier, known as the Roman Wall, and were about 15 minutes from the summit. The survivors later reported there was a " sudden swishing sound, and a fine layer of loose snow began to slough off the steep slope." The entire climbing part/ was within the moving snow, and " found themselves all sliding with it as though standing on a moving carpet." In spite of their efforts to anchor themselves, all 25 climbers were carried with the avalanche. As it gained speed, it descended the long face of the Roman Wall, and crossed ice cliffs and crevasses of the Deming Glacier, travelling a total distance of about \ mile. After the moving snow had come to rest, the survivors gathered on a nearby rock ridge, where a check showed five of their number to be missing. ( A later check showed the number to be six.) While the shaken survivors were thus occupied, the two men who had been leading the group made a hasty search for the missing victims, probing with ice axe and alpenstock in likely places. They discovered one survivor, Miss B., clinging by her fingers in a chute between two ice cliffs, from where she was rescued. Random probing discovered the body of Miss J. buried under three feet of snow on a bench at- the foot of a 100- ft. ice cliff. She was immediately dug out ( this occurred about three hours after the accident), but an hour and a half of steady artificial respiration failed to revive her, and she was given up as dead. RESCUE The survivors then retired to Kulshan Cabin, a climbing hut below timberline, from where two persons were dispatched to report the accident and seek help from the Forest Service ranger station several miles distant by trail. These persons reached the station at 8: 00 p. m., and a rescue party was immediately organized. The rescue group set forth that same evening, reached Kulshan Cabin about 3: 00 a. m. on the 23rd, and were able to reach the accident scene after daylight. They discovered Miss J.' s body where the survivors had left it, and proceeded with a search of the area. Shortly the body of Mr. D. was discovered, also buried under three feet of snow, in a large crevasse below Miss J.' s burial point and near the bottom of the slide. No further bodies were discovered. The search was now organized on a large scale, with the aid of additional manpower, packhorses, supplies and radio communication. A thorough search of the slide debris, including systematic probing and trenching, continued for five more days, but the bodies of the four remaining victims were never located, though various items of clothing and equipment were uncovered. 12 |