Mount Rainier rescuers search for climber lost in fierce storm

One climber is missing and is believed dead, while two other people are awaiting assistance on Mount Rainier after getting caught in a storm Saturday, park officials said Monday.

A Chinook helicopter crew and other rescue teams were working Monday to reach the 58-year-old man from Norway. He and a 41-year-old Canadian woman apparently took shelter at about 11,000 feet when a fierce winter storm hit the mountain Saturday evening, park spokeswoman Patti Wold said.

The woman descended the mountain alone on Sunday, and climbers who saw her escorted her to Camp Muir, a base camp at 10,188-foot on the peak’s south slope. She’s doing OK and will be taken to a local hospital, Wold said.

“It’s hard to see how he would have survived,” Wold said, noting that temperatures were in the single digits with lots of wind and blowing snow.

The Saturday night storm brought single-digit temperatures and strong winds. Search crews also encountered similar conditions Sunday.

While conditions were improving, the risk of avalanche is listed as considerable Monday by the Northwest Avalanche Center.

Crews are assessing weather and snow conditions to determine if it is possible to extract the people by air from Camp Muir. And if conditions permit, an air search will be conducted for the missing climber. An earlier attempt by a Chinook CH47 from Joint Base Lewis-McChord with two climbing rangers was turned back by extreme weather on Sunday.

The two climbers left Paradise on Thursday to attempt to reach the summit via Gibraltar Ledges. They spent Friday night at Camp Muir, according to their permits. The park started the search Sunday when other climbers reported unattended overnight gear in the area.

On Sunday afternoon, searchers found a 41-year-old Canadian woman descending from the ledges. She was assisted back to the Camp Muir public shelter.

In a separate incident, a 26-year-old man from Lacey reached Camp Muir on Sunday. The snowshoer’s locator beacon signaled throughout Saturday as he wandered through the storm. A statement from the park said he was “ambulatory with some frostbite.”

Groups assisting with the operations include Seattle, Olympic, Tacoma and Everett mountain rescues, the park’s volunteer Nordic patrol, US Army Reserve B Company of the 1-214th Air Battalion and Northwest Helicopters.

This story was originally published March 28, 2016 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Mount Rainier rescuers search for climber lost in fierce storm."