Rescuers to start renewed search for missing adventurer Fossett

The hunt for multimillionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished in September after taking off by plane from a remote Nevada ranch, resumes today as a team of elite athletes and expert mountaineers starts hiking through rugged mountains on the California-Nevada border where he may have crashed.

The 10-member team is headed by Simon Donato, a Canadian geologist whose avocation is adventure racing through wilderness areas around the world.

He's focusing on remote, wooded areas near where the 63-year-old Fossett was last seen -- areas that could have hidden wreckage from the small air force of private and military planes that searched for Fossett last year.

Donato said Fossett, declared legally dead in February by an Illinois court, is a hero to many, and he dismisses speculation that his disappearance might have been staged.

"We're here on the premise that he did crash, unfortunately," he said. "I really respect him. He has done so much."