In Mount Rainier National Park, the missed skier's body was recently discovered.
Search for missing skier continues as helicopter finds unresponsive person on May 19 at Mount Rainier National Park
Authorities have been looking for a missing skier since May 19, with teams of park rangers and volunteers combing the park in search of any signs. The Park Service announced in a news release that they had finally located an unresponsive person from the air. Rangers then retrieved the body using "traditional crevasse rescue techniques."
The woman appeared to have fallen approximately 200 feet near Moraine Falls in the Paradise area, though her identity was not disclosed. Favorable weather conditions were necessary for a helicopter to conduct the search and for the body to be recovered. Once the body was retrieved, it was transported to the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office for further examination.
This is the second fatality reported within the park in less than a month. Brian Harper, 41, a member of a climbing party led by licensed guide service Alpine Ascents International, collapsed near the summit of Mount Rainier on May 31. Rescue attempts shortly after were unsuccessful, with his body recovered the following day. A cause of death has still not been determined.
Prior to Harper's case, another death occurred in August 2022, where Chun Hui Zhang, a 52-year-old man from Surrey, British Columbia, passed away while descending along the Disappointment Cleaver route.
Mount Rainier is a volcano towering over 14,410 feet above sea level. The town of Paradise is about a two-hour drive from Seattle.
(A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the capital of Washington as Olympia; the correct capital is Tacoma).
CNN reporters Jay Croft and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.
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The Park Service stated that they are working closely with the missing skier's family and will hand over the body to them once the necessary procedures are completed. The authorities expressed their concerns and extended their sympathy to us, the friends and loved ones of the deceased skier.
