Littleton Police officer Steven Beare is missing from a solo ascent of the tallest mountain in Russia. 
 
 Beare, a Colorado National Guardsman who has deployed multiple times, went missing while climbing Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus region of southern Russia, according to his wife, Olivia Beare. 
 
 Tass, the Russian news agency, reported that Beare was supposed to return to a checkpoint on June 16, but did not report in. Tass reported that an eight-person, high-mountain search and rescue team was retracing Beare’s route, but Olivia Beare said they stopped looking on Sunday. 
 
 Mount Elbrus, at 18,510 feet, is also the tallest mountain in Europe. 
 
 Olivia Beare told Denver7 that she spoke with her husband on June 12 when he first arrived in Russia. 
 
 Beare last attempted phone calls from the mountain on Saturday, according to the Colorado Police Officers Foundation, which is raising money to finance a private search team. His exact location is unknown due to a severe blizzard. 
 
 CPOF described Beare as an experienced alpinist who was climbing Mount Elbrus in pursuit of bagging the seven highest peaks in the world. He has extensive training, including in cold weather situations. 
 
 The Beares have a 20-month-old son and Olivia is 11-weeks pregnant with their second child. 
 
 “We need him to come home to his wife and family and your help in this effort is both needed and greatly appreciated,” the CPOF’s website said. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. -- The search continues for a Littleton police officer who went missing while mountain climbing in Russia last week. 
 
 Steven Beare hasn’t been heard from since Friday. He was attempting a solo climb of Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe. 
 
 “His goal is to complete the seven world summits,” his wife Olivia Beare said. 
 
 The high school sweethearts have been together 14 years. They have a toddler and another baby on the way in January. 
 
 “That’s not the only reason I need my husband home, but it’s definitely a big reason," she said. "I can’t raise two babies by myself. He is everything in the world to me.” 
 
 Beare is an Army veteran, a member of the Colorado National Guard and has been an officer with the Littleton Police Department for 1 1/2 years. 
 
 "We are keeping officer Beare and his family in our thoughts and prayers. Steven is a highly respected officer for the LPD and all of us are hopeful he will be located quickly," police said in a statement. 
 
 “When circumstances appear hopeless, you fight through and win, no matter what,” Chief Doug Stephens said. “That’s what cops do and I am confident that Steven is doing that now.” 
 
 Beare developed a passion for mountain climbing five years ago and has summited difficult peaks such as Mount Kilimanjaro. 
 
 “He was ready for this climb,” Olivia Beare said. “He felt confident in his skills and his equipment that he has.” 
 
 She said the two have a rule that Steven Beare always calls home when he is finished climbing a mountain. He was due back down Friday but never called. 
 
 A massive snowstorm blanketed the mountain while Beare was climbing. A nearby group has reported seeing him go up but lost sight of him when they were forced to turn back because of low visibility in the snow. 
 
 “He does have other equipment for getting water and through all of his military training, he’s got a ton of mountaineering experience and survival skills," Olivia Beare said. 
 
 "He knows how to hunker down in snow and make a hut. But if he’s injured, I don’t know if that’s happening." 
 
 She said she is hopeful, but worried. 
 
 “The biggest obstacle right now that my husband faces is the cold and the 4 feet of snow that was dumped in this blizzard,” she said. “I’m just worried he’s going to freeze to death.” 
 
 Now it’s a race against the clock. Olivia Beare has been coordinating overseas rescue efforts from her living room in Highlands Ranch. 
 
 There happens to be another climber from Littleton at Mount Elbrus who has been able to facilitate communication between Beare’s family and Russian rescue teams. 
 
 Search and rescue had to call off the search on Sunday because of poor weather. 
 
 “They’re conservative in their search and rescues to protect their own men,” Olivia Beare said. 
 
 Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman sent a letter to the Russian ambassador to the U.S. on Wednesday asking for additional help. 
 
 In the meantime, Olivia Beare has also hired private rescuers to continue the search. However, progress is slow. 
 
 The man she hired to search by foot hasn’t been approved for a visa to enter Russia. And the helicopter teams she hired haven’t been able to deploy because of whiteout conditions on top of the mountain. 
 
 “They are hoping to go out at sunrise (Thursday). The storm is not fully cleared but it’s getting clearer,” she said. 
 
 The only thing Olivia Beare has left to do is hope. 
 
 “I hope he knows that I’m doing everything I can do find him,” she said. “I hope that he’s really pushing himself to be stubborn and strong and stay alive.” 
 
 The private rescue helicopters cost $2,500 per hour. They have already paid for five hours of searching, but might need more. 
 
 The family is asking for donations to help cover costs. ||||| LITTLETON, Colo. — A Colorado officer and National Guardsman is missing in Russia and his family, friends and coworkers are working feverishly to locate him on a remote mountain. 
 
 Olivia Beare, wife of Steven Beare, said her husband, a Littleton Police Department officer, went missing while climbing Mount Elbrus in Russia on June 16. 
 
 She said it was her husband's first solo climb without a guide. 
 
 The last time Beare spoke to him was on Monday night when he first arrived in the country. 
 
 "We know that there was a really bad storm that came in really quick out of nowhere," Beare said. "We're thinking that's when he got lost." 
 
 A few days after he first went missing, Beare said a blizzard hit the mountain. 
 
 "My biggest fear is that he's freezing to death, and he's alone somewhere in the snow, and I don't know if he's going to make it," Beare said. "I'm really scared." 
 
 Beare said a Russian team began looking for him on Sunday, but had to call off their search due to weather. 
 
 She is currently working with family and friends to deploy private search crews, along with two helicopters who will fly above the mountain once the weather permits. 
 
 "My husband was deployed multiple times and I never have worried about him, or worried for him to come home like I have the last three days," Beare said 
 
 Beare said her husband traveled to Russia to take on his second of the world's seven highest peaks — he has already climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He's an avid climber who has taken on more than 20 of Colorado's 14,000 foot mountains. 
 
 As Beare continues to organize efforts to search for her husband, her friends and Beare's fellow officer's are raising funds to help pay for expenses on the ground. 
 
 Those interested in donating to the efforts can make donations here, or send a check to the Colorado Police Officers Foundation at 2701 W. 84th Ave. #211 in Westminster, CO 80031. In both instances, write Steven Beare's name in the notes section of the donation. 
 
 "I just picture him walking out of the storm into clear skies, I don't know if it will happen," Beare said. "He's on the mountain somewhere." ||||| A Texas man's attempt to find the perfect isolated spot to pop the question atop a Colorado mountain on Saturday ended with newly engaged couple having to be rescued after an hours-long, harrowing experience. 
 
 The Boulder County Sheriff's Office said that Joshua Mason, 27, and his girlfriend, Katie Davis, 28, flew from Denton, Texas to Denver on Friday before setting out on a hike at the Fouth of July Trailhead to Jasper Peak on the Continental Divide the following day. 
 
 “Mason was hoping to find an isolated scenic location ‘away from any other people’ to propose to Davis,” the sheriff’s office said. “They found exactly such a location, and Davis happily accepted the surprise proposal.” 
 
 After hiking more than 8.2 miles and ascending 3,000 feet to the nearly 13,000-foot summit, the newly engaged couple discovered the carefully planned engagement took an abrupt turn. 
 
 “As it started getting dark, there’s no trail to see. It’s not clearly marked,” Boulder County Sheriff Mountain Deputy Dan Walter told FOX31. 
 
 The sheriff's office said the couple was not wearing warm clothes, was carrying little water and was not acclimated to the higher terrain. The two ended up getting "disoriented" and lost until about midnight, when a camper hiking in the area heard their screams. 
 
 SELFIE NEARLY TURNS DEADLY AFTER MAN FALLS INTO POTOMAC RIVER, RESCUED BY WITNESSES 
 
 “They had come down a ridge line and cliffed-out. They came to a cliff and couldn’t go any further and were yelling for help," Walter told FOX31. "By the grace of God, (the camper) happened to be hiking by where he could hear them." 
 
 The man told authorities the couple was showing signs of altitude sickness and severe dehydration when he discovered them. He led the pair to a group of his friends that were camping at a nearby lake. 
 
 "One of them recognized this is a serious situation that they were in," Walter said. 
 
 One of the campers in the group hiked down to her vehicle in the middle of the night to then drive to call 911 for help. Rescue crews were able to reach the couple by 4:30 a.m., and walked the two of them down to the trailhead by 6:30 a.m. on Sunday. 
 
 "Mason acknowledged that he did not allow enough time to complete the hike before dark, and they did not carry enough water or food," the sheriff's office said. 
 
 Despite the harrowing ordeal, the newly engaged couple appear to be ready to start planning the big day. 
 
 "Last thing I said, 'So is the engagement still on?'" Walter told Fox31, "and she said, 'oh yes.'"
– 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.