Dawes Eddy, the acclaimed Spokane mountain climber who went silent while on a solo expedition to summit Mount Rainier at the end of May, has died at age 80, the Pierce County Medical Examiner confirmed Friday.
The ill-fated climb would have been his 50th ascent of the 14,411-foot peak.
The exact cause and manner of death is still pending.
He had been missing since May 31, the day he had told park rangers he would return from his climb via the Ingraham Glacier route, considered by experts the best choice for early spring ascents.
Search and rescue began June 1. Four days later, on June 5, two guides from Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. discovered a body matching the climber's description in a crevasse along that path.
There is at least one prominent crevasse "midway up the Ingraham Glacier around 11,200 feet" called High Crack, according to The Mountaineers, a nonprofit that promotes exploration and conservation of the Pacific Northwest. Climbers are told to "expect a ladder crossing even in early season" here and potentially at other points on this trail, which later meets the Disappointment Cleaver route.
Park officials said crews worked Tuesday to retrieve the climber's body.
Earl Dawes Eddy III joined the elite echelons of climbers in 2009, becoming, for a moment, the oldest American to summit Mount Everest.
A 41-year-old Bremerton man also died during a Mount Rainier expedition in recent weeks. He collapsed near the summit on May 31, The News Tribune reported.
