SEATTLE - Mount Rainier rangers pressed forward Tuesday with their search for a climber lost in a weekend avalanche, after dangerous conditions kept crews off the mountain for more than two days, a park spokesman said.
Park officials assumed their search would be a recovery - not rescue - mission as Mark Wedeven, 29, of Olympia, was believed dead, said Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher.
Wedeven's parents said their son, the father of a 5-year-old boy, had climbed Mount Rainier numerous times.
"When Mark feels he needs to go to the mountains, he goes to the mountains," said Carol Wedeven.
Saturday's avalanche sent snow 1,200 feet down Mount Rainier's Ingraham Direct Route, overtaking 11 people climbing toward the summit. All but Wedeven were pulled from the snow by fellow climbers and some guides nearby.
A search was called off Saturday afternoon because of high avalanche conditions, and no searching was done Sunday or Monday because avalanche danger was still too high. Park officials returned to the mountain Tuesday in hopes of giving Wedeven's family closure.
Guides belonging to International Mountain Guides and Rainier Mountaineering Inc. decided against attempting Rainier's 14,411 summit Saturday after hearing avalanche warnings from park officials at Camp Muir, the guide services told The News Tribune newspaper.
They had taken their parties to a place considered safe, but were close enough to the avalanche to rush in to help those buried in the snow, Bacher told The Associated Press.
The RMI group was on Ingraham flats showing clients how to check for avalanche danger when the wall of snow began to fall.
"The guides turned and told the clients to run," Paul Maier of RMI told The News Tribune. It took the guides about 10 minutes to get in position to help and the IMG guides were right behind them.
Those caught in the avalanche included a party of three, a party of six and two solo climbers, including Wedeven. Most of the climbers were part of rope teams, which helped rescue efforts, Bacher said.
None of the rescued climbers was buried deeper than a foot, but two were blue by the time they were rescued, Maier said.
Two people pulled from the snow were seriously injured and flown off the mountain to Madigan Army Hospital on Saturday morning. Bacher said he believes the injured climbers are doing well.
Wedeven had not been contacted by rangers about avalanche conditions because he had not stopped at Camp Muir to complete a climbing permit, Bacher said. The other solo climber also did not register or get a warning.
The number of people climbing the mountain typically increases dramatically this time of year, but it also can be a dangerous time to climb, because of lingering winter storms alternating with spring or summer weather.
This pattern increases avalanche danger and the chances climbers will get caught in a storm and become lost. Those conditions have been more exaggerated this year than in previous years, Bacher told AP.
This week is a typical example of that pattern: today's weather is beautiful after two feet of snow fell over the weekend.
"It looks beautiful, but the avalanche conditions are still very dangerous," Bacher said, adding that no one was climbing Tuesday.
Although it's not considered climbing until you get above Camp Muir, the park has had more fatalities in recent years in the lower reaches than higher on the mountain. Later in the summer, the Muir ice field gets hard and slick and small crevasses open up.
"All of this is something that has seemed to get worse over recent years probably because of the warmer climate that we've had," Bacher said.
The nine-mile round trip hike to Camp Muir is a safe hike completed by thousands of people every year, he added.
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