Avalanche danger suspends search for missing skier near Snoqualmie

Avalanche danger suspended the search on Monday for a missing skier, who disappeared over the weekend.

Crews will re-evaluate on Monday night to see if the search can resume on Tuesday.

If, as Monty Busbee's girlfriend says, he is an experienced back country skier, he will surely have to rely on his knowledge of the cold and the snow to survive a second night on Snoqualmie Summit. 
 
"Hopefully, he's built a snow cave," said Alan LaBissoniere, a spokesman for King County Search & Rescue. "Or he's got a tarp he's hunkered under."
 
LaBissoniere says the search for 43-year-old Maple Valley man was called off at about 3:30 Sunday afternoon because the avalanche danger was considered too great.  They didn't want to risk the lives of the 30 volunteers and four teams of dogs who spent the day looking for him.
 
"We're doing voice checks," said LaBissoniere. "We have people on skis, skiing the areas that we know typically skiers go.  We have people on snow shoes hiking the PCT trail.  We have people all over the place."
 
Busbee's girlfriend says he left home at 10 Saturday morning and planned to ski alone near the Kendall Tree area in the Commonwealth Basin at Snoqualmie Summit.  When he didn't return home by 7:45 Saturday night, she reported him missing. 
 
Searchers looked for him Saturday night and most of Sunday. And they found some skiers who remembered seeing him at about 1:30 Saturday afternoon.  But there was no trace of him.
 
Now the threat of extreme avalanche danger means he is on Snoqualmie Summit alone at least one more night.
 
"We can't be searching at night with the avalanche being as high as it is," said LaBissoniere. "It is too much risk for our volunteers."
 
Despite the danger, the search will resume at 6 Monday morning.
 
The volunteers are also asking if anyone sees Busbee on the summit, to please call 9-1-1-.