Lynnwood snowshoer missing on Mt. Rainier

Published 10:40 pm Wednesday, December 19, 2007

LONGMIRE — Search teams spent most of the day Wednesday looking for a Lynnwood man who disappeared into a snow slide on Mount Rainier on Tuesday afternoon, park officials said.

Kirk Reiser, 22, was snowshoeing with a friend Tuesday near Paradise on the mountain’s southern slopes, Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher said.

The pair set out from Paradise, a popular staging area for winter snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and other activities. Their plan was to climb about 5,000 feet in vertical elevation to Camp Muir, at about 10,000 feet elevation, Bacher said. Heavy snow, high winds and poor visibility forced the hikers to turn around.

Around 1:30 p.m., Reiser apparently set off an avalanche and disappeared into the snow, Bacher said. The slide occurred about a mile from Paradise.

Reiser’s hiking partner, Troy Metcalf, 23, also of Lynnwood, searched for his friend for several hours before returning to Paradise to alert rangers, Bacher said.

Early Tuesday, about 17 searchers and two specially trained dogs set out to look for Reiser. They located a marker near the avalanche area that Metcalf left, Bacher said.

Bad weather and extremely dangerous avalanche conditions were limiting the search, Bacher said.

More than 2 feet of snow was forecast to fall through Wednesday night, he said.

“We will search as much as we can for any signs of Kirk and try to do as much of that as we can within the limits of the high avalanche danger,” Bacher said.

Reiser’s immediate family from Lynnwood and his father from the East Coast were with park rangers Wednesday, Bacher said.

Crews were expected to continue search efforts until dusk when they will regroup and reevaluate their plans for today, he said.

Reiser is the first hiker to go missing since snow started falling in the park this fall, park service search-and-rescue coordinator Mike Gauthier said.

It is sometimes possible for people to survive an avalanche for a short time, but nobody will know Reiser’s fate until he’s found, officials said.

“Our hopes are high actually,” Gauthier said. “Our concern is equally high.”

About 1.8 million people visit Mount Rainier annually, with up to 100,000 making the trip during winter months.

As the sun began to set Wednesday and with bad weather continuing to make search efforts difficult, officials said they were worried.

“The window of opportunity is closing rapidly,” Bacher said.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.