How three hikers got trapped on Rainier

They left on a day hike to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier, a husband and wife and a friend, all from Romania.

Nothing prepared them, however, for the storm that took the life of the husband, Eduard Burceag, a 31-year-old Seattle software engineer who died of exposure early Tuesday after the three got caught in the fierce blizzard that produced 70 mile an hour winds and huge snowdrifts.

Burceag, his wife, Mariana, also 31, and friend and colleague Daniel Vlad, 35, were trapped by blinding snow Monday near Anvil Rock, about a half-mile from Camp Muir, which is about 10,000 feet up the mountain.

The three parked their car at Paradise about 11 a.m. Monday. They reached Camp Muir but stayed only about 10 minutes, said David Gottlieb, chief climbing ranger and incident commander in the rescue.

They knew the weather was getting bad, Gottlieb said.

"They needed to get back to their car and needed to get out. Then it (the storm) really turned up a notch," said Gottlieb.

Disoriented, the three were about a quarter-mile from Camp Muir when they got lost in the zero-visibility weather. "They spent a lot of time wandering around trying to find their way back to a camp or a trail," Gottlieb said. "But they couldn't find their way."

So they dug a trench to try to get out of the gale-force winds and, said Gottlieb, it appears Burceag lay at the bottom of the trench, put his wife next to him and Vlad on top.

They had down coats, gloves and hats but were not prepared to spend the night, Gottlieb said. The 20-degree snow melted under Burceag's body and refroze, layer by layer, eventually causing him to die of hypothermia.

"Burceag (pronounced bore-chug) was lying against the snow and ice," said Gottlieb. "Maybe he wasn't sacrificing himself, but he was protecting his wife from the snow. I absolutely believe he was a hero. He was heroic in protecting his wife and his friend."

They had no cellphones, but did have a two-way radio. When Vlad's wife, Julia, became alarmed when they didn't return from their hike, she called a friend who drove to Paradise at midnight, with his own radio. He was able to contact Vlad around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, who said the situation was dire.

Meanwhile, rangers at Camp Muir knew there were overdue hikers and were alarmed because of the drastic weather conditions. But they couldn't mount a search because there was no visibility.

About 7 a.m. Tuesday, Vlad was able to make his way back to Camp Muir, and as he hiked to the shelter he was spotted by rangers using binoculars. "My friends are down there," he said, pointing the rangers toward Burceag and his wife.

Vlad, suffering hypothermia, was left at Camp Muir. A climbing ranger, Kevin Hammonds, and a guide from International Mountain Guides, Eben Reckord, hiked down to the couple.

They found Burceag with no pulse and freezing cold, so they made the decision to put Mariana Burceag on a sled and pull her back to Camp Muir. She was suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.

"They were soaked to the skin," said Gottlieb. "There was knee-deep snow. Their clothes were soaked and the outside clothing totally frozen."

Three doctors, who were in the hut and preparing to climb the mountain instead turned their attention to helping Mariana Burceag and Vlad.

Another team went down and retrieved Burceag's body. Doctors tried to revive him and checked his body temperature and for any sign of a heartbeat, but they pronounced him dead about 10 a.m.

Mariana Burceag was incoherent, said Gottlieb, and very distraught. She knew her husband was dead.

Mariana Burceag and Vlad were kept at Camp Muir overnight. A Chinook helicopter was able to pierce the clouds on Wednesday, lowered a cable hoist and took the two to Madigan Army Hospital. They later were moved to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where they were treated and released. Doctors want to keep an eye on their frostbite, so both will return next week for follow-up care.

Burceag's body was brought down from the mountain Wednesday afternoon.

"It's surprising that anyone lived at all," said Gottlieb. "Up there you can die very quickly." He said the park service was warning people about the weather, but park officials weren't prepared for the magnitude of the storm.

"This is a wilderness area, a wilderness without handrails," said Gottlieb. He said he didn't fault the three for attempting the hike because the weather wasn't bad when they left Monday morning and they were experienced on the mountain. He said Vlad and Burceag had climbed to the top of Mount Rainier and had been to Camp Muir several times.

"It caught us by surprise and most certainly caught them by surprise," Gottlieb said. "These were reasonable people with reasonable expectations and were well equipped for a day hike."

They didn't have a stove or a sleeping bag, "but no one carries that for a day trip. You don't bring it on a day trip you expect to come down from," Gottlieb said.

Eduard Burceag, director of Linux Engineering, worked for Active Voice, a Seattle-based company that specializes in helping companies transition from voice mail to unified-computer communications and messaging. He's worked for the company for seven years.

The company's Web site says that Vlad, who has worked for Active Voice since 2000, is the general manager of its engineering department. He earned his degree from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in artificial intelligence and speech and image recognition, according to the site. Vlad could not be reached today.

"Active Voice and its employees extend their deepest sympathies to the family of Eduard Burceag. We are honoring the Burceag family by respecting their request for privacy," according to Victor Foia, Active Voice President and Chief Executive Officer.

"His loss is being felt widely across our company," said Foia in a prepared statement. "He was a natural leader who was enormously well liked and made an enduring impression on those he encountered."

Tom Cornelius, who now works for Microsoft in Denmark, said Eduard Burceag was his boss at Active Voice.

"This is devastating. I'm shocked," Cornelius said.

He said he learned much about programming from Burceag.

"He really taught me a lot about testing and software development and he was very passionate about his work," said Cornelius. "He put in a lot of late hours at work and he was so passionate about it, it was hard (for him) to delegate."

Cornelius remembers when Burceag's first son was born and said he often brought his children to work.

"It was neat to see how ebullient he was around his kids. They were something special to him," he said.

Cornelius also said Burceag was passionate about music and played the guitar. He said he was told that Burceag studied classical guitar and was so good he had to choose between a career in music and one in engineering. He chose engineering.

"We swapped CDs a lot," said Cornelius. "I listen to jazz and he was a big music fan. It was really neat sharing jazz with him."

A woman who answered the door at Eduard and Mariana Burceag's Interbay town house Wednesday declined to be interviewed. But neighbors confirmed the couple and their two young sons, ages 5 and 3, moved in about a year ago.

"It seemed she was a stay-at-home mom and he was the breadwinner. They're a super sweet family," said a woman who asked not to be identified. "They're a totally active family and really into camping."

Her husband said he often saw Eduard Burceag playing with his sons, just hanging out or racing remote-control cars in the driveway.

"I talked to him Sunday and he said he had the day off [on Monday]," said the man, who also asked not to be named. "He's a great guy. I know he managed a team of developers at Active Voice."

The man said he had noticed all kinds of "random cars" in front of the house over the past couple of days, but just thought friends were housesitting while the family was out of town.

"This is really sad news," his wife said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com