Team fans out in mountains seeking Steve Fossett’s body

BRIDGEPORT, Calif. -- A 10-member team of elite athletes and expert mountaineers fanned out on foot Monday in rugged mountains on the Nevada-California border, hoping to find what search planes and satellite imagery couldn't -- Steve Fossett's body.

The first day's efforts yielded some cans, empty cigarette packs and other debris, but no sign of the multimillionaire adventurer who was declared legally dead in February, five months after he was last seen taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton.

"The stuff they came across today was the normal debris that you would find in any search area," said Keith Szlater, the team's base camp manager. "It wasn't anything special."

The search team, led by Canadian geologist and adventure racer Simon Donato, is focusing on remote, wooded areas in the Sweetwater Mountains and Bodie Hills, near where Fossett was last seen. The areas could conceal wreckage not visible to the many private and military planes that searched last year.

Szlater said team members were "in good shape" despite the rough terrain. The mountain ranges, about 110 miles south of Reno, have peaks higher than 11,000 feet.

Because the area is close to Hilton's ranch where the 63-year-old Fossett was staying, Donato believes it's the best place to search. Team members, paying their own way, will continue looking through Friday and possibly Saturday, covering 15 to 20 miles a day depending on the terrain.

Previous searchers provided maps and other detailed information on the harsh landscape. With planes and high-tech equipment, about 20,000 square miles was covered from the air. Some ground searches also were conducted, and thousands of amateur volunteers scoured high-resolution satellite photographs over the Internet of the rugged Nevada landscape where Fossett disappeared.

Fossett gained worldwide fame for his scores of attempts and successes in setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon.

Donato, who never met Fossett, considers him a hero because of his achievements. He has said he arranged to take time off from his job as an oil company geologist because Fossett "just deserves to be found."

In late August, Robert Hyman, a Washington, D.C., investor and alpinist, plans to bring in a team of as many as 15 climbers, mountain guides and others with backcountry expertise to check an area just east of the section where Donato will search.

Hyman said he will focus in and around the Wassuk Range, dominated by 11,239-foot Mount Grant. When Fossett took off Sept. 3 from Hilton's ranch in a borrowed plane on what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight, he headed toward Lucky Boy Pass in the Wassuks.

The area is so rugged that to some a continued search may seem hopeless. In some cases it has taken decades to find missing people and planes crashed in the area.

Fossett's widow, Peggy, issued a statement saying she's not involved in the latest search activity and has "no further plans for additional searching."