A snowshoer spent a cold night at Mount Rainier but was rescued Sunday afternoon/Rebecca Latson file

A snowshoer who became separated from a friend spent a cold night in the backcountry of Mount Rainier National Park before being spotted by searchers in a helicopter who guided his rescue.

The unidentified man and his partner had been on the Muir Snowfield at an elevation of 9,500 feet Saturday. The two separated shortly before 2 p.m., with the snowshoer intending to head down to Paradise while his friend was on skis and headed for Camp Muir. When the snowshoer failed to reach Paradise, rangers were contacted.

Three National Park Service teams conducted an initial search for the missing snowshoer until early Sunday morning in winter conditions that minimized visibility. The overnight low at Paradise dropped to 16 degrees Fahrenheit with 5 inches of new snow.

NPS search managers and Mount Rescue Association ground teams began searching again on Sunday morning. Clouds prevented launching air operations until afternoon, when a contract helicopter from Hi Line Helicopters with park rangers aboard joined the search. The helicopter team located the snowshoer in the Nisqually River drainage on the west side of the river a mile upstream from Glacier Bridge. Ground teams reached the snowshoer an hour later. Searchers worked to warm him while a helicopter from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island responded. The military Seahawk helicopter hoisted and transported the patient directly to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

According to Mount Rainier Superintendent Chip Jenkins, this search-and-rescue mission was either the 64th or 65th in the park this year, or about 10 more than usual.

“We are definitely up, and we have two months to go,” he said Monday.

As Traveler contributer Rita Beamish noted in a recent feature story, Mount Rainier's conditions can quickly change and disorient hikers any time of year.

“It’s an interesting thing, because on a reasonable nice day it just seems so obvious where you would go. But when the clouds move in and you can’t see 50 feet, it’s easy to get disoriented,” Jenkins said Monday. “The weather can change with shocking speed.”