SEQUIM — A day after falling to his death while climbing Mount Rainier, Jefferson County firefighter Mike Beery returned home Saturday, his body escorted to a Sequim funeral home by a procession of fire trucks and ambulances.
Beery, 29, of Port Angeles, was climbing to the mountain’s summit Friday morning when he fell about 800 feet down a 45- to 50-degree slope near the Gibraltar Ledges on a popular route to the summit.
There is no indication of what caused the fall, Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Patti Wold said.
Beery was climbing with Ryan Tillman, 45, a friend and fellow member of Jefferson County Fire District 1 in Chimacum.
Tillman used a cell phone to contact Jefferson County Dispatch and then descended to Beery’s location. He found no pulse and administered CPR to Beery for more than two hours until park rangers and a rescue helicopter arrived.
Beery was pronounced dead at the scene.
“He [Tillman] was very dedicated,” Wold said. “He did everything he could.”
Tillman, who is a volunteer captain with the fire district and lives in Port Hadlock, was not injured.
A similar fall off a porch or deck would have resulted in a bruised knee, Wold said, but the mountain is unforgiving.
“There’s really nobody at fault here except the mountain,” Wold said.
Family thanks community
Beery’s family was not ready to comment on the death, a spokesman said.
But Chris Beery of Sequim, Mike’s brother, said the family is grateful for the outpouring of support they have received from the community to which Beery gave so much.
In 2004, Beery organized a procession of fire trucks, ambulances and law enforcement vehicles to drive a 16-year-old boy dying of muscular dystrophy back to his house for the last time.
“One of many,” Chris Beery said. “He did a lot for the community.”
“It’s a little bit unusual,” said Patrick Young, a spokesman for Jefferson County Fire District 1, of the procession.
“But that’s the way he touched the community.”
