Climbing community honors Bellingham mountaineering guide who died in North Cascades fall
A mountaineering guide who lived in Bellingham but was most at home in the North Cascades and on mountains throughout the U.S. reportedly died in a fall climbing in southern Whatcom County earlier this month.
RMI Expeditions (or Rainier Mountaineering Inc.) — an Ashford, Washington, company that leads mountaineering, ski mountaineering and ice climbing trips on Mount Rainier and other area mountains — reported the death of Luke Wilhelm in Facebook and blog posts made March 11. He reportedly was 26 at the time.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share with you that our fellow RMI Guide, colleague, and friend Luke Wilhelm died on Sunday, March 6th,” the posts read.
“Luke was climbing with a friend and fellow RMI Guide in the North Cascades when he fell. His climbing partner was able to safely descend. A search and rescue flight was able to locate and recover Luke the following day.”
The Bellingham Herald has reached out to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office for more information on Wilhelm’s death.
The accident occurred on Colonial Peak, a 7,771-foot peak just north of the Whatcom-Skagit county line, east of Newhalem and south of Diablo Lake, according to a story about Wilhelm on climbing.com. The accident reportedly occurred after Wilhelm had unroped after reaching a piece of easier ground, climbing.com reported.
Wilhelm grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, but moved to the West to pursue his love of climbing, according to his RMI Expeditions’ bio page. Among his accomplishments were more than 20 summits of Mount Rainier, climbing Denali in Alaska utilizing the West Buttress route, ski descents in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Washington and several ski mountaineer, rock, ice and alpine climb competitions in several states.
Wilhelm also was certified as a wilderness first responder, American Avalanche Institute Professional Level 1, on the alpine skills course by the American Mountain Guides Association and as a Leave No Trace Master Educator Instructor, his bio page states.
But Wilhelm was best known for his easy-going personality and infectious sense of humor, according to RMI Expeditions’ posts, which said he joined the team in 2018.
“Luke – Your smile lights up every room you enter,” the posts read. “ You have impacted all of us at RMI. May your smile, compassion, and zest for life continue on in each of us.”
Climbing.com wrote that describing Wilhelm was “an impossible task given the fact that his mind was a total mystery,” and that he was “someone who would be cracking terrible jokes and saying phrases like ‘Holy halibut’ in all seriousness, bumping reggae while sprinting upslope like there’s never enough time for all the mountains in the world, and then sipping and sharing yerba mate as if time and moments are eternal.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 11:06 AM.
