The Nation - News from June 7, 1987

The bodies of two mountain climbers missing for a week on Mt. Rainier in Washington were recovered from a tent where the men had sought refuge from a storm, a national park official said. The tent, at the 13,000-foot level, had been almost buried by a heavy snowstorm. The two climbers, Don Wiltberger and John Weise, both 31, and from Olympia, Wash., were experienced climbers and had been going on such trips together for years. The cause of their deaths was not immediately known. Cy Hentges, a Mt. Rainier National Park spokesman, discounting a preliminary report that an avalanche had hit the tent, said: “There was probably heavy snow drifting around and finally burying the tent.” The tent was sighted by other climbers.