News Release

Body of missing skier recovered above Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park

Date: June 11, 2024
Contact: Patti Wold, 360-569-6563

ASHFORD, Wash. –  A team of park rangers recovered the body of a deceased female skier from the base of Pebble Creek’s Moraine Falls above Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park on June 8.

Park rangers initiated a search May 19 in response to a report of an overdue skier. The skier was last heard from May 18, before setting out to ski tour above Paradise.

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. 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.

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, please visit the park’s website.  

 
www.nps.gov

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