The Flapjack Lakes area was our base camp site. It had two separate lakes connected by a short stream. It's a gorgeous area with nice views of the rock ridge we were going to approach for our summit attempt on Mt. Cruiser. After exploring the area for some time we found a campsite. One needs to have a reservation far in advance to camp at Flapjack Lakes because it is a pristine area and overuse could cause a lot of damage. Our campsite was a bit small and next to another party's two-person tent along the shore of the upper lake. We hung our food on "bear wire" provided by the National Park Service.

Randy, Jack and Anna decided to continue to Gladys Pass to scout out our route to Mt. Cruiser while Teresa and I tended to her blisters. I finally got to use my first aid kit! After a while it was time to eat and we still had not met the other two climbers. The ranger (a member of the Olympia Branch) came by and chatted with us. He had a huge tent and basically camped there during the climbing season. He got all our information and asked if we had seen our neighbors. He mentioned that they were attempting Mt. Cruiser as well but had inadequate gear. We told him that we would let him know if we saw them. There was still no sign of them at 9 p.m.

At 1 a.m. I heard what sounded like a truck roaring by. I thought it was part of my dream; but then the sound came again 5 minutes later. I woke up and realized that this was the sound of a helicopter searching for the missing two climbers. This went on for 2 or 3 hours. We all woke up at 4:30 a.m. and prepared for our Mt. Cruiser climb. At 5:15 a.m. the ranger came to our area and told us that "as you know from the sound of the helicopter, there has been an incident." He told us that we could not climb Mt. Cruiser because Search And Rescue was looking for these two climbers, but we could climb The Horn instead. We were glad that Randy decided to move on to another rock climb and not cancel the climb altogether. We were also very concerned for the two climbers and were hoping they were fine.

After some route finding we got to a wide-open area at the base of the face of the rock ridge. All along the way we heard the chopper. We took a break at an open area and the Blackhawk hovered right next to us. It was so close you could almost make out the face of the individual looking out the side. We waved to tell them that we were fine. They slowly took off only to come back again after a while to scan the whole area trying to find the two missing climbers. We successfully climbed The Horn, a 5.2/5.3 climb with much exposure and hardly any places to place pro, a more difficult climb than Mt. Cruiser. I was quite relieved to sign the summit register. The views of Mt. Olympus and Mt. Washington were tremendous.

We finally reached base camp around 5:45 p.m. and noticed that the two-person tent was gone; the ranger had left a note on Jack and Anna's tent asking if we could return the two missing climbers' food bag to the ranger station employee house, since he did not know which bags were theirs. This obviously meant they were still missing. Anna hauled their food bag out and by the time we got back to the ranger station it was 9:00 p.m., a very long day.

After finding the ranger station employees' home, Jack went in to return the food bag. When he came back to the car, he had no details other than the fact that one climber had died and the other was okay. We were shocked and concerned. We do know that it was two young men with inadequate gear for a climb of Mt. Cruiser. The dangers of climbing really hit home when you realize that you have camped next to the tent of someone who has just perished on a climb you were about to attempt.