Braving freezing rain following heavy snow, a search party set out Thursday to look for an Atlanta woman and three other people overdue from an excursion on Mount Rainier in Washington state.
“This morning a team of 10 is searching a portion of the intended route of the two overdue parties from Paradise up the Muir Snowfield to Camp Muir, where they will overnight,” National Park Service spokeswoman Patti Wold said in a news release sent out by email shortly before 3 p.m. Atlanta time.
Michelle Trojanowski, 30, of Atlanta and Mark Vucich, 37, of San Diego, had set out to camp on the Muir Snowfield at the 10,000-foot level and were due back Sunday, but did not return.
Meanwhile, a pair of climbers – a couple from Springfield, Ore., who have not been identified – were due back Monday from an attempt to reach the summit of the 14,410-foot mountain and also are overdue.
Wold said the search team is made up of climbing rangers and park staff, mountain rescue crews and guides – “highly skilled mountaineers who are familiar with the route and in mitigating associated avalanche exposure.” Moreover, she said, “They are at the highest level of fitness as required for this strenuous assignment.”
A helicopter is on standby, awaiting favorable flight conditions. Freezing rain continued to fall at midday local time, precluding flight operations. There is currently a winter storm watch and moderate level avalanche warning for the Mount Rainier area.
In a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday night, Wold said, “When we get those kind of conditions on the mountain … our advice to people is just to stop moving and wait it out, wait for the weather to clear so you can see where you’re going and not [get] blown off the path,” Wold said.
“Fortunately, both of the parties that are up there went up prepared for winter conditions,” she said. “That is a big, big plus in their favor. They both have four-season tents, they both have sleeping bags, so they’re prepared for this winter weather.”
Mount Rainier is about 70 miles southeast of Seattle.
Seattle itself on Thursday was experiencing the same one-two punch from Mother Nature that Atlanta went through a year ago -- freezing rain after a heavy snow that shut down the Pacific Coast metropolis.
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