Search for missing climber on Rainier resuming Saturday



MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. (AP) — Mount Rainier National Park officials looking for a climber missing on Liberty Ridge above 14,000 feet said the search was resuming Saturday.

Park spokeswoman Patti Wold says 25-year-old climber Kyle Bufis disappeared during "extreme weather" at about 9 p.m. Thursday as his group of three was descending the mountain in high winds and low visibility. She says search efforts on Friday were focused in the confluence of the Winthrop and Emmons glaciers.

His two companions — Derek Gavelis and Mathew Wiech — made it safely to a base camp Friday afternoon with park climbing rangers.

They had climbed Liberty Ridge on the north flank of Mount Rainier Thursday, Wold said.

Each year, about 10,000 people try to climb the 14,410-foot glaciated peak southeast of Seattle.


The search began Friday morning with air reconnaissance flights, officials said, but it was suspended in the late afternoon.