The body of a British Columbia mountain climber has been located and recovered after the 39-year-old man was reported missing during a solo climb on Washington state’s Mount Baker earlier this week.
Whatcom County’s interim medical examiner Aldo Fusaro confirmed Friday that Sebastian Urban of Squamish died of multiple blunt force injuries caused by an accidental fall on the mountain.
The local sheriff’s office launched a search-and-rescue mission to find the climber shortly after sunrise on Sept. 29, focusing their efforts on Mount Baker’s Coleman-Deming route, where Urban had embarked on a solitary climb two days prior.
When Urban failed to check in with family on the evening of Sept. 28, sheriff’s deputies prepared a search plan with assistance from search volunteers and aircraft from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Navy’s Whidbey Island station.
Heavy cloud cover had prevented helicopters from approaching the region until conditions cleared up Monday morning, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement earlier this week.
Body found in crevasse
Volunteers from Bellingham Mountain Rescue were airlifted onto the mountain and the climber’s body was found in a crevasse, with his Garmin inReach satellite communication device nearby.
“Searchers retrieved the man, who had succumbed to his injuries, and was declared deceased at 4:24 p.m. Sept. 30,” the sheriff’s office said.
The local medical examiner took custody of the body to determine his identity and cause of death.
“We mourn with the family and friends of this intrepid climber,” Sheriff Donnell Tanksley said in the statement. “It is a heartbreaking outcome, but we are honoured to be able to bring him home.”
The local law enforcement office said the tragic outcome stands as a reminder of the importance of carrying communications devices, like the Garmin that was found next to Urban’s body, while in the backcountry.
“Its real-time location data and enduring battery life – over 70 per cent remaining upon recovery – proved invaluable in the search effort, allowing responders to locate him more quickly than would have been possible otherwise,” the sheriff’s statement said.
The U.S. Forest Service describes the Coleman-Deming route as one of Mount Baker’s most popular routes, traversing the Coleman glacier to the mountain summit, known as Grant Peak, a 400-metre-thick mound of ice that caps the mountain’s volcanic crater.
The forest service says climbing conditions on the route are most ideal between May and August, warning that “as the season progresses, the route becomes increasingly more technical as open crevasses make route finding difficult.”
