Fire crew rescues stranded rock climber at Whatcom County’s Larrabee State Park
A rock climber on the Larrabee State Park cliffs needed to be rescued after the rocks broke below him, preventing him from getting back down.
Realizing he had no other options, the climber called emergency services to help get him down, as he was stuck about 60 feet up the cliff, according to Fire Chief Mitch Nolze with the South Whatcom Fire Authority. No injuries were reported.
Crews responded to the call around 5:18 p.m., and the rescue took about an hour with 17-20 people on scene providing support. A fire boat also was deployed to provide lighting support when the sun started to set.
Crews responded with technical rope rescue gear and lowered an operator down from above to secure the climber in a harness, Nolze said.
Usually in similar situations the climber is lowered into the water, Nolze said, but because the tide was out he was lowered safely to the beach below.
“We train on this for these exact scenarios and it all worked. Nobody was hurt,” Nolze said. “We practice that all over our district. We do rope rescue operations and technicians on our staff so we have areas all over the county where those types of skills are used.”
This story was originally published February 14, 2024 at 2:00 PM.
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