American Cop Missing on Russia's Tallest Mountain

A police officer and national guardsman from Colorado is missing on Russia's tallest mountain, the Denver Post reports. Steven Beare, attempting his first solo climb without a guide, was due at a checkpoint June 16 but never arrived. "We know that there was a really bad storm that came in really quick out of nowhere," his wife Olivia Beare tells ABC 7. "We're thinking that's when he got lost." According to Russian media, an eight-person rescue team tried to follow Beare's route on Mount Elbrus but gave up the search Sunday. Olivia Beare is currently paying a private rescue team $2,500 an hour to continue looking for her husband. The Colorado Police Officers Foundation is collecting donations.

Beare, an Army veteran with a young child and another on the way, has been climbing for five years, KDVR reports. His goal was to summit the world's seven highest peaks; he had already climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Olivia Beare, who hasn't spoken to her husband since he arrived in Russia on June 12, says he has the skills to survive a blizzard but may be injured. "I'm really scared," she tells ABC 7. She adds to KDVR: "I can’t raise two babies by myself." Littleton Police Chief Doug Stephens says cops "fight through and win" when things seem hopeless, and he's sure Beare is doing just that. (More missing climber stories.)