A break in the weather Thursday allowed for the rescue of four climbers who had been stranded high on Mount Rainier/NPS

Four climbers stranded high on Mount Rainier since Monday, reportedly with little gear, were rescued Thursday morning when a break in the weather allowed the park's helicopter to land near Liberty Cap and ferry them to safety. The four, suffering from exposure to the wintry weather, were taken to area hospitals for checkups.

Shortly after 9 a.m. local time the helicopter, conducting aerial reconnaissance, spotted the climbers in the saddle between Liberty Cap and Columbia Crest. The whirlybird landed, confirm the climbers’ identities, and flew them to safety in two groups. All four were off the upper mountain by 10:05 a.m.

The climbers -- Yevgeniy Krasnitskiy of Portland, Oregon; Ruslan Khasbulatov, of Jersey City, New Jersey; Vasily Aushev, of New York, New York; and Constantine Toporov, of New York, New York -- began their ascent of Mount Rainier last Friday from the White River Campground. On Monday, word got to the park's communications center that the four needed help.

According to park staff, high winds had either blown away their tent, or damaged it. Efforts Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to rescue the four were beaten back by high winds and poor visibility. Even a Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord with three Pararescue Jumpers out of the Air Force’s 304th Rescue Squadron in Portland, Oregon, and five members of the 2-135th General Support and Aviation Battalion out of JBLM was thwarted by sustained 50 mph winds.

The climbers initially had been pinned down without their tent at an elevation of 13,500 feet, not far below Liberty Cap on the north side of Mount Rainier. The location where they were found was approximately a half-mile from the site where they had last been seen two days ago, and in a place better protected from the wind and more accessible to rescue. The route between the two sites requires expert and technical climbing, and the climbers contributed greatly to their own successful rescue, a park release said.