Men Missing On Mount Rainier Are Found

The four, who were all in good condition except for possible frostbite, headed down the mountain on their own Tuesday afternoon, said Lee Taylor, a Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman. In addition, a five-person rescue team headed up the mountain to meet the group with supplies and help guide them down, said park spokeswoman Patti Wold.

A woman skiing in the Paradise Glacier area came across the group -- the two missing men, Christopher McGinnis, 51, of Mukilteo, and Quang Than, of Newport Beach, Calif., and two women climbers -- around 2:25 p.m. Tuesday, Taylor said. The two women had been reported overdue on Tuesday by the boyfriend of one of them.

The skier called 911 on her cell phone. After speaking with the park officials, the climbers said they would follow the skier's tracks down the mountain. They were at an elevation level of 7,200 feet, about four miles from the Paradise parking lot, Taylor said.

It was unclear how the foursome ended up together, she said.

The two men had plans to climb the Gibraltar Ledges route -- the highest reaches of the Nisqually Glacier on the southern flank of the 14,411-foot mountain. They were reported missing Sunday by one of their wives when the pair did not return Sunday as scheduled.

Rescue teams had been searching for the men.

The missing male climbers were equipped with an extra day's supply of food and four days' worth of fuel for cooking and melting snow into drinking water. McGinnis had climbed Mount Rainier three times before and had also climbed Mount McKinley and other Alaskan peaks, Taylor said, while Than had climbed Rainier once.

"It's not uncommon for climbing parties to be on the route for longer than they had anticipated," Taylor said, "especially in the winter when the weather can change quickly."