Double-amputee killed by falling rock while training

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. -- A double-amputee training to climb Mount Everest was struck and killed by a falling rock on Mount Rainier early Monday, a park spokeswoman said.

Ed Hommer, a 46-year-old pilot from Duluth, Minn., was killed instantly when he was struck by a basketball-sized rock, spokeswoman Maria Gillett said.

Gillett said rangers received a cell phone call just before dawn from team leader Jim Wickwire of Seattle. He said a member of the party had been killed on Disappointment Cleaver, at the 11,700-foot level of the 14,411-foot mountain.

Park spokeswoman Lee Taylor said Hommer's body was removed by helicopter. The three other members of the party hiked down to Camp Muir, where they were met by a helicopter and taken off the mountain.

Three years ago, Hommer became the first double-amputee to climb Alaska's Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America at 20,320 feet. He had lost his legs to frostbite on McKinley after a 1981 plane crash during a mountaineering trip.

Hommer used carbon-fiber and titanium prostheses and had hoped to be the first double-amputee to scale Mount Everest.