A Mount Rainier ranger slid more than 3,000 feet to his death on Thursday as he helped in efforts to rescue four injured climbers who fell on a glacier, a National Park spokesman said.

Ranger Nick Hall was helping to prepare the climbers to be taken off the 14,411-foot Cascade Range peak when he fell before shortly before 5 p.m., said Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher.

Bacher said Hall, 34, didn't respond to attempts to contact him and was not moving, and he was dead when other rangers reached him at the 10,000-foot level several hours later.

Park officials notified relatives and other rangers before announcing Hall's death late Thursday.

A Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord plucked three of the injured climbers off the mountain Thursday night while one member of the party from Waco, Texas, remained overnight, waiting out a worsening storm in the company of park rangers.