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Search launched for missing US climbers

Two elite US mountain climbers are presumed missing in southwestern China, and search efforts are focusing on a remote region near Tibet where they apparently wanted to climb two isolated mountains, including an unnamed 7,010m peak.

The two US citizens, Charlie Fowler and Christine Boskoff, were last heard from early last month, when Fowler sent an e-mail message from the city of Litang in Sichuan Province saying they planned to climb two unnamed peaks in the region. They later missed their Dec. 7 flight back to the US.

Friends and fellow mountaineers have since retained a US climber familiar with China to lead an independent team in search of the missing pair. Meanwhile, the authorities in Litang have organized a 13 member search group but have found no trace of the climbers.

The search presents an enormous challenge, given that no one is certain which mountains the two intended to climb, or in what sequence.

They were climbing in or near the Hengduan Mountains, in a region that extends across eastern Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Friends say Fowler and Boskoff had planned to tackle several mountains that had never been climbed.

Fowler and Boskoff are considered accomplished mountaineers and have each climbed many of the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest.

"Christine is still probably considered the top female high-altitude climber in the world," said Mark Gunlogson, president of Mountain Madness, an adventure travel company in Seattle owned by Boskoff. "Charlie is among the most well-known and experienced climbers in North America."

Gunlogson described the pair as climbing partners and said they left the US in October. He said southwest China attracted the most experienced and adventurous climbers in the world because the difficult terrain remained relatively uncharted.

Fowler, a writer and photographer who also has been involved in making films about mountain climbing, is considered an experienced climber in this section of China. On his Web site, Fowler said this would be his fifth trip to the region.

"Charlie has a rather extensive list of peaks that he would love to climb," Gunlogson said. "They both together probably had quite a hit list."
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