Olympic National Park rangers responded to two unrelated incidents involving visitor deaths yesterday, Saturday, July 20.

At 7:45 a.m. on Saturday, the Olympic National Park dispatch office was notified that a climber on Mount Olympus had fallen a considerable distance and appeared to be seriously injured. A short time later, park staff received word that other climbers, including a paramedic, had reached the injured party and confirmed that he was deceased.

The deceased climber is identified as 28-year old Richard “Grey” Liston of Portland. He was on the east face of the summit peak of Mount Olympus, climbing with one companion at the time of his fall. The fall was witnessed by members of another climbing group who were on the mountain at the time. 

Rangers were flown via helicopter to Snow Dome on Mount Olympus and climbed through melting and challenging snow conditions to reach and recover Liston’s remains late yesterday afternoon; Liston’s remains were airlifted to Port Angeles at about 8 p.m. Saturday night. 

In a separate incident late early yesterday evening, Philip Q. Ramirez, a 53-year old Renton man, suffered an apparent heart attack while fishing on the beach at Kalaloch. Park staff responded and provided CPR and emergency medical care, but Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene at about 7:30 p.m. by paramedics from Forks and Seattle Life Flight.