Searchers on Saturday got their best look yet at midrange levels of Mount McKinley where a Colorado climber has been missing for several days, but there's still no sign of 41-year-old Gerald Myers.
Clear weather allowed searchers aboard fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter to get the first good look at areas between 14,000 and 17,000 feet, a section that had been obscured by clouds during the first two days of the search. Myers was traveling along the West Buttress above 17,000 feet when he was last seen.
Also on Saturday, a Cessna 206 from Hudson Air scanned the north side of North America's tallest peak, the first time that side of the mountain had been searched.
"There's a big chunk of mountain that's only getting seen today," Denali National Park spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said Saturday afternoon. "But still no sign of Dr. Myers."
The last confirmed sighting of Myers, a chiropractor from Centennial, Colo., was on Tuesday. Initial reports put him near the 20,320-foot summit on Wednesday, but rangers now believe the climber spotted there was someone else wearing similar colors.
Myers left his three climbing partners at 14,200 feet early Tuesday morning and was making a solo attempt to summit North America's tallest peak. He grabbed a pair of skis from a cache at 17,200 feet, but it's believed he was carrying little other gear, including a stove or a sleeping bag, as he made his solo summit attempt.
A friend in Colorado familiar with Myers' plans said on Thursday that Myers intended to ski down the mountain. Such intentions may have put him on one of two very steep and risky routes that require skis to descend -- the Orient Express or the Messner Couloir.
McLaughlin said the search will continue today. A privately owned twin-engine Conquest is returning to its Anchorage base, but two Army Chinook helicopters, capable of high-altitude flying and hovering, are being brought in from Fairbanks, she said.
"We're still actively searching," McLaughlin said.
One climber has died on McKinley this season -- a 61-year-old New Yorker who collapsed from apparent natural causes while on the approach to the 14,200-foot camp.
Some 404 climbers were on the mountain Saturday, according to park service statistics. So far this season, 129 climbers have concluded their expeditions, with 63 of them reaching the summit. Usually about half of McKinley's climbers reach the summit.
Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com