The body of a female skier was recovered from the base of Pebble Creek’s Moraine Falls above Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park, according to a news release from the park.
The body was recovered on June 8.
The skier had not been heard from since May 18 when she set out for a ski tour above Paradise. Park rangers began searching for her May 19.
According to the news release, a ground team of two rangers searched Deadhorse Creek Basin, Panorama Face and Alta Vista, looking for tracks over the Nisqually drainage. A team of two climbing rangers from Camp Muir looked over the Nisqually and Paradise glaciers and searched the Muir Snowfield to Pebble Creek and Panorama Point. A team of two volunteers conducted a visual search of the Nisqually drainage.
The park’s contract helicopter conducted a reconnaissance flight during a window of favorable weather and located an unresponsive person who appeared to have fallen approximately 200 feet to the base of a waterfall, according to the release.
The area was surrounded by a large, unstable snow moat that was subject to rock and ice fall, which posed too high of an immediate risk to recovery teams, the release stated.
Rangers were able to recover the body using traditional crevasse rescue methods during another period of favorable weather. The park’s contract helicopter transported the body to Kautz Creek Helibase for evaluation by the Pierce County medical examiner.
For more information on Mount Rainier National Park, visit the park’s website.
