Rangers will be offering Fireside Chats, a new informal winter program at Mount Rainier National Park, beginning this afternoon at the National Park Inn.

Staffers will be giving the free, informal presentations at 1:30 p.m. each Wednesday at the hotel at Longmire. The topics of the short presentations will vary from week to week.

The chats begin today with a program by Karen Thompson on the park’s wilderness area.

Park visitors are reminded that the road from Longmire to Paradise is not open Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The program, from noon-4 p.m. at Paradise, is part of the park’s effort to educate visitors on wildlife and the impacts we have on them. The day will focus on wildlife protection and education to keep Mount Rainier’s wildlife wild.

The event will include presentations and educational programs. Interpretive rangers and guest experts will present talks on native wildlife throughout the afternoon. There will be several activities for children to explore the world of Mount Rainier’s wildlife.

For more information, contact Kirsten Anderson at Kirsten_Anderson@partner.nps.gov or 360-569-6578.

Salazar was returning from Alaska and was next scheduled to be in Milwaukee today. So the decision was made to make a visit to Mount Rainier.

That left his advance planner scrambling to find a place for the secretary to spend the night. She found out, like so many other tourists, that find rooms at the last minute can be difficult at best.

As Salazar explained to the crowd of park partners Tuesday morning, there were no rooms at Paradise Inn or National Park Inn at the park. There also were no options in Ashford. So Salazar and his small traveling party spent the night in Eatonville.

During introductions, Ray Harper, the mayor of Eatonville, got plenty of laughs when he thanked Salazar for visiting his community.

Wold said the recovery went smoothly in clear weather. Hall’s body was flown to the Sunrise ranger station and will now be driven to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office in Tacoma.

Hall fell to his death on June 21 during a rescue operation. Snow, clouds and avalanche danger had hampered earlier recovery efforts.

“One of Nick’s goals was full-time, year-round outdoor recreation employment. Mount Rainier helped make that happen,” said Aaron Hall, the climbing ranger’s brother. “He loved this place. He felt comfortable here.”

Nick Hall, 33, died Thursday while attempting to rescue four climbers on the Emmons Glacier. He fell about 2,500 feet as he helped pulled one of four climbers out a crevasse. Hall’s body came to rest at 11,300 feet on the north side of Mount Rainier, in an area prone to
avalanches.

While weather conditions Wednesday allowed helicopters to fly for the first time since the accident, the risk of falling ice, snow and rock were preventing attempts to recover Hall’s body.

 “We’re worried about avalanche hazards,” said Rick Jones, spokesman for the incident command team in charge of the recovery effort. “It’s extremely frustrating.”

Snowstorms and high winds have prevented rangers or helicopters from reaching that location since the accident.

Climbing rangers based at Camp Schurman on the northeast face of the mountain have been assessing conditions at and above the location where Hall’s body came to a rest, said chief ranger Chuck Young.

If weather conditions allow, an attempt to recover the body will be made Thursday, although the forecast calls for worsening conditions.

In the meantime, a second National Park Service team should complete its preliminary investigation by week’s end, Young said. Investigators have talked with eyewitnesses and reviewed the climbing program’s safety procedures. The program was honored in 2009 for its safety record.

As for Nick Hall, Aaron Hall and his father, Carter, spoke about his passion and commitment to the outdoors with the media Wednesday morning at Longmire.

His brother’s love of the outdoors was sparked by a day on the slopes of a small ski area, Big Rock, near their home in Patten, Maine, Aaron Hall said.

“When we were kids, Nick wasn’t an athletic kid. Then one day my dad took us skiing,” Aaron Hall said. “Nick went skiing that day and he ever stopped.”

Nick plastered the wall of his bedroom poster of the Rocky Mountains and ski areas after that trip, his brother recalled.

“He also was a climber from that day.”

Those passions led Nick Hall to spots across the West, including working on the ski patrol at Stevens Pass. For the last four years, he has worked as a climbing ranger at the park.

Remembering past conversations, Aaron Hall said Nick never wavered from his desire to work in the outdoors, even when there were opportunities to make more money.

“Nick was a quiet outdoorsman. He aggressively pursued his passions,” Aaron Hall said. “He made a lot of sacrifices in his life to get to the mountains.”

In his brother’s eyes, Nick Hall lived a different version of the American dream. He wasn’t driven by big bank accounts and houses and the other accoutrements of the rich.

“He was about cutting straight to the spirit of what he wanted to accomplish in his life,” Aaron Hall said. “His empty pockets had a lot of wealth in them. He didn’t wait for retirement to enjoy his life. He was a happy, happy man.”

Aaron Hall admitted the last week has been emotional.

“Thursday I was so angry, I could have run through walls,” he said. “I was so frustrated that they couldn’t get Nick. But there’s no need for any other climbing ranger to be hurt in the incident.”

Anger gave way to contemplation when the family saw Mount Rainier for the first time before landing at Sea-Tac International Airport Monday and on the drive to the park Wednesday.

“It’s bittersweet, it’s beautifully painful,” Aaron Hall said. “There’s some deep, humbling moments to look at that mountain.”

In talking about his son, Carter Hall said, “The family grieves his loss of life and I want to state we have been sustained by the grace of God.”

He said there were two calls that fateful Thursday, one for the rescue of the climbers and one from a higher power.

Citing Revelations 3:20 from the Bible, Carter Hall said, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in.

“Nick — our son, brother, brother-in-law – answered both of those calls,” he said.

“Reflecting as any father would, I think Little Nick, how did you get so big? We have been so proud of you. Yes, you are a hero.”

The public memorial service for Anderson is set for Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. Details of the event have not yet been released.

The 34-year-old mother of two was married to another Mount Rainier law enforcement park ranger and lived at Eatonville.

Details of the program are still being worked out.

Park officials said Tuesday that the park would reopen on Saturday, but a specific time was not set.

King said he understands people’s desires to visit the park again, but managers wanted to give staffers adequate time to deal with their feelings following Sunday’s shooting death of law enforcement ranger Margaret Anderson.

The park has been closed Sunday as the search for the suspect extended into the discovery of his body Monday.

King said the decision to keep the park closed was done in part because some staff members have been involved in the investigation, the road to Paradise is a major part of the crime scene and staffers have needed time to deal with the death of their coworker. He said the vehicles involved in the investigation were finally taken from the park earlier today.

Still, King said Saturday’s opening will be good.

“I will welcome them back,” he said. “The park belongs to the American people. It will help Mount Rainier get back to where it needs to be. It will be a good thing and certainly welcome.”

The current snowpack level is 64 inches, according to weather telemetry this morning.

The park announced a short time ago that the snowplay area has not opened yet.

I’m awaiting word from the park’s chief ranger on whether a target date has been set.

Mount Rainier National Park officials said this morning, however, that the snowplay area at Paradise remains closed. The area was scheduled to open Dec. 17 but there was not enough snow.

They like to have a minimum of 60 inches on the ground so they can create safe sledding runs, and also to protect the vegetation beneath the snowplay area.

If the forecast holds true, the area could open soon. The National Weather Service is calling for 7-15 inches of new snow today, and another 10-18 inches on Wednesday.

We’ll post any announcement on an opening date as soon as we find out.

If you are headed to the park today, the gate at Longmire is expected to open between 10-11 a.m., according to the latest info from the park.