Search for missing climbers scaled back

A view of Mount Rainier in Washington state. Ice and rock falls and poor visibility are likely to hold up for several days a search for six climbers believed to have fallen to their deaths while ascending Mount Rainier.

AFP/Washington

The search, already held up by ice and rock falls and poor visibility, has not been called off. But it will be limited to efforts to spot the missing climbers from helicopters, said Patricia Wold, a spokeswoman for Mount Rainier National Park.

“Due to the extreme danger of rock and ice fall at the bottom of the fall area we are not able to do a ground search,” she said.

Officials believe the six climbers, caught in an avalanche of snow, rock and other debris, likely fell about 3,300ft (1,000m) from the north face of the mountain in what would be the worst accident on Mount Rainier in three decades.

Helicopter crews found climbing and camping gear in snow more than 3,000ft (900m) below the climbers’ last known position and also picked up distress signals from the group’s avalanche beacons.

The climbing party, including two guides from Seattle’s Alpine Ascents International, set off on Monday for a five-day trek intended to take them up one of the toughest ascents of the ice-covered 14,100ft (4,298m) massif.

They were last heard from via satellite phone on Wednesday evening, when they had reached a height of 12,800ft (3,900m).

The climbers indicated they were fine and planned to reach the summit on Thursday but noted bad weather seemed to be moving in. A rain and hail storm swept through the area Wednesday and produced snow at higher elevations.