MIT student is missing near Mount Rainier

PARADISE, Wash. -- Rangers yesterday followed tracks they believe were made by a 22-year-old Connecticut hiker and MIT student who was reported missing during a camping trip in Mount Rainier National Park.

Searchers were focusing in an area north of Van Trump Park and east of the Kautz Glacier.

Tracks matching Zachary Weston's hiking boots were found Saturday, officials said. ''They have been following those up to an elevation of almost 10,000 feet," said Lee Taylor, a park spokeswoman.

The terrain that Weston apparently was on is a rocky ridge line. Park officials said he bought an icepick, but was not prepared for hiking on the glacier, Taylor said.

Rangers began searching for Weston on Friday. The car Weston was in was found at the Comet Falls trailhead Thursday night.

Weston, of Meriden, Conn., is an aerospace engineering student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had been camping and hiking in the park since since June 22, and he reportedly had planned to leave on Aug. 21.