Concern rises over missing American who aimed to climb Peak of Love

Police have failed for the third day to locate the US citizen after he left a guest house in Arshan at around 3am on Sunday and vanished. The case has been put under the 'special control' of the Moscow department of the Russian Invesigative Committee, sometimes called the Russian FBI, and the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Madsen, a postgraduate student, had come to the thermal tourist resort in Buryatia with friends, including another American, from the Irkutsk State Linguistic University.

The group had agreed to rise at 5am to climb the 2412-metre high Peak of Love (7,913 feet), a mysterious mountain in the Eastern Sayan range. But he left two hours earlier, not suitably dressed for night time subzero temperatures.

'He has not been seen since,' said a source at the institute. His cellphone remained at the guest house. Madsen is described by the source as leading a 'healthy lifestyle' and did not drink alcohol. 

'He liked to walk at night in Irkutsk, often talked about it - all the students knew about this hobby,' he said.

Mr Madsen is from Jefferson City, Missouri, and is understood to speak good Russian.

A representative of local Investigative Committee Yuri Yerentuev said: 'We held a large-scale survey on the village, walked down the Kyngarga River, and in the nearby forest, but nothing so far.'

Even local shamans - who blame tourists for getting into trouble because they do not respect ancient traditions and honour 'sacred' sites - are helping with the search. The Republic of Buryatia is a Buddhist region. 

Poor weather is preventing helicopter searches. Friend Vlad Rasputin said: 'With the money that we are able to collect, we would like to order an aerial search for Colin, but today the weather is terrible, very cold.

'It snows and there are strong winds, so the flight was moved to tomorrow. I asked the police whether they were looking for Colin with dogs. They said that in the morning when Colin vanished, it began to snow. So dogs cannot pick up the trace.'

The Peak of Love is the focus of ancient beliefs about the power of spirits.