MOUNTAINEERING -- A search for an ailing climber left high on Washington’s Mount Rainier was suspended late Tuesday due to strong winds and evidence that he likely fell 2,000 feet, the Associated Press reports. 

National Park spokeswoman Lisa Lombard told The News Tribune of Tacoma that Rob Plankers, 50, of Olympia, would not have been able to survive such a fall.

An aerial search showed a 2,000-foot slide path leading down a steep ice-and-snow-covered slope from the point where Plankers was last seen, park spokeswoman Patti Wold said. The aerial search found no sign of the man, although ground searchers found some of his equipment where his companions left him, at 13,600 feet on the 14,411-foot mountain. 

The operation “is now considered a body recovery,” Wold said in a statement. 

Read on for details.

The slide path ends in a dangerous icefall area, Wold said, adding only limited visual searching from the ground will continue in future. 

Plankers and two friends had been climbing the challenging Liberty Ridge route. Lombard said they were experienced and well-prepared but encountered high winds and cold temperatures that left Plankers suffering from hypothermia and frostbite, unable to walk. 

The other two, described by park officials as a married couple in their 40s from Colorado but not identified by name, went for help Monday. 

The couple met climbing rangers about 5 p.m. Monday while descending the Emmons Glacier and the rangers were able to launch two rescue teams from separate staging areas on the mountain. One team was forced to turn back due to 55 mph winds and the other spent Monday night in a snow cave until the search could resume early Tuesday. 

A Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and another aircraft from Olympia-based Northwest Helicopters searched for most of Tuesday, The News Tribune said. 

Plankers worked at The Alpine Experience, an outdoor equipment store in Olympia. He taught mountaineering courses and was in great shape, store co-owner Joe Hyer told The Seattle Times.