Eight Climbers Rescued Near Mazama

Eight visitors from the Midwest are home safe after requiring a mountain rescue in Okanogan County this week.

The Okanogan County Sheriff's Office says it received a distress call at around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday from eight adults who had become stranded on Goat Wall about three miles west of Mazama.

The wall is a popular destination for hikers and climbers from all over the world.

Emergency dispatchers established the group's location and advised them to shelter in place and wait for help.

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A rescue team located the party about four hours later and helped guide them off the wall with the help of technical climbers from Okanogan County Volunteer Search and Rescue, Chelan County Mountain Rescue, the U.S. Forest Service, and North Cascades Mountain Guides.

Rescuers had originally planned to use a helicopter to extricate the climbers but that course was scratched due to unsafe weather conditions that included wind, rain, and snow.

The last member of the climbing party was safely removed from the wall at around 5:30 p.m. the following day (May 22).

The sheriff's office says all eight climbers were from Illinois and Indiana.