Rainier Avalanche Kills Climber

A mountain climbing trip on Mount Rainier turned into a climber's worst nightmare when an avalanche rumbled down, killing one person and injuring five others.

Army helicopters airlifted five of the survivors of the avalanche to Tacoma, Wash. hospitals Thursday night. The climbers suffered injuries ranging from broken bones to severe hypothermia. A sixth member died from his injuries after the avalanche swept him and his colleagues over an icy cliff at the 11,400-foot level of the mountain.

"He did not make it," park ranger Maria Gillett told CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen. "He suffered from multiple trauma and has also been lifted off the mountain.

The avalanche along the popular Disappointment Cleaver climbing route hit two mountaineering teams, but members of the second team were able to halt their slide with ice axes. The 300-foot high sheet of rock is called Disappointment Cleaver because it is often where climbers decide to turn around.

The climbing teams, each roped together and containing five or six people, were on their way down from the summit at mid-afternoon, when the sun makes walking on the melting snow particularly precarious.

The avalanche did not affect disabled climber Pete Rieke, who is using a hand-cranked snow vehicle to ascend. His party was about 400 feet above the point where the climbers were hit. His wife saw the slide and used a cellular telephone to report it, park officials said.

Rescue workers had to hike through heavy snow to reach the party hit by the avalance. Medical teams treated them and slowly brought them to a lower altitude where they waited for rescue helicopters that had been delayed by heavy clouds.

Authorities say the weather was a major factor in the accident. Warm spring weather triggerede avalanche that caught the climbing party making its way down Mount Rainier.

The mountain is the state's highest, most challenging and perhaps its most dangerous. There have been at least 94 climbing-related deaths - including Thursday's - on the mountain since record-keeping began in 1887. The national park was established in 1899.