The body of a skier who went missing last month found in Mount Rainier National Park
A female skier who had been missing for a month was found dead at the base of a waterfall in Washington state’s Mount Rainier National Park, officials say. Rangers found her body Saturday.
Mount Rainier is pictured from Sunrise, Washington, in September 2023. A female skier who had been missing for a month was found dead at the base of a waterfall in Washington state’s Mount Rainier National Park. (Lindsey Wasson/AP/File via CNN Newsource)
(CNN) — A female skier who had been missing for a month was found dead at the base of a waterfall in Washington state’s Mount Rainier National Park, officials say. Rangers found her body Saturday.
The search for the skier had been ongoing since May 19, with groups of rangers and volunteers scouring the park for tracks, the National Park Service said in a news release.
An unresponsive person was spotted from a helicopter and rangers recovered the body using “traditional crevasse rescue methods,” the release said.
The woman appeared to have fallen roughly 200 feet to the base of Moraine Falls, above the area of Paradise, according to the release. It did not identify the woman.
Favorable weather was needed for the helicopter search and the recovery of the body to take place, park officials said. The skier’s body was taken to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office for evaluation.
It’s the second death reported in the park in less than a month.
Brian Harper, 41, who collapsed near the summit of Mount Rainier on May 31, was in a climbing group led by Alpine Ascents International, a licensed guide service, the park service said.
Efforts to perform CPR were unsuccessful, according to a news release.
Weather conditions did not become suitable for Harper’s body to be brought down until the next day. A cause of death has not yet been released by the Pierce County Medical Examiner.
Another man died at Mount Rainier in August 2022 while descending the Disappointment Cleaver route. Chun Hui Zhang of Surrey, British Columbia was 52.
Mount Rainier is an active volcano standing at more than 14,410 feet above sea level. Paradise is about two hours from Seattle.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the capital of Washington. The state capital is Olympia.
CNN’s Jay Croft and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.
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