1 helicopter crew, 3 national parks, 6 people rescued. All in a day's work

The same crew carried out three helicopter rescues at Washington's three national parks in a single day Sunday.

It started at 9 a.m. when an 18-year-old backpacker in the North Cascades started having trouble breathing.

The rescue helicopter was called once clouds in the area lifted, and the crew suspended the backpacker on a line below the chopper and flew him to Marblemount.

The crew then was summoned to Olympic National Park to help a 55-year-old hiker who’d been lost in the back country for six days and was too weak to walk out.

Another hiker found the man Saturday and reported he needed medical help. Rangers decided the terrain was too difficult to carry the hiker out and asked the helicopter crew to take him to a local hospital.

After that, as the crew was flying back to Mount Rainier National Park, where the helicopter is based, it received an alert from an emergency beacon activated on the mountain’s Liberty Ridge.

Four climbers had run into trouble, so the crew shifted course and flew to a steep ridge at 9,500 feet where the climbers were waiting.

By 9 p.m., the helicopter crew and rangers touched down at home base.

“I’m proud of the way our parks are working together as evidenced by this past weekend’s successful outcomes,” Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said in a statement. “This happens through hard work and time spent together building skills and relationships.”

In the summer, the three national parks share a rescue helicopter contracted by Georgia-based Helicopter Express Inc.

This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 1:29 PM.