Washington state authorities continued the search on Saturday for a 70-year-old hiking expert who disappeared while conducting research on Mount Rainier three days ago.
Karen Sykes, a Seattle-based outdoors writer said to be a trails "guru," was last seen when she hiked ahead of her travel companion on Wednesday as they reached the snow level some 5,000 feet up the mountain, the Associated Press reported.
A helicopter searched the skies on Friday while nearly 30 people covered the rugged ground along the 8-mile Owyhigh Lakes Trail.
The mountain's snow bridges and slippery terrain present safety issues for Sykes and the search crews, Mount Rainier National Park spokeswoman Patti Wold told the AP. One searcher was injured on a snow bridge Thursday and was airlifted out off the mountain.
Wold also said that Sykes was traveling with survival equipment that would have allowed her to camp over night. She was doing research for a new story when she went missing.
Sykes's disappearance comes several weeks after six climbers disappeared while climbing to the top of the 14,410-foot mountain, the AP reported. They are believed to have fallen to their deaths.
Friends of the climbing expert, known in the nation's Northeast for her online hiking stories and photography, say they are hopeful she will be located.
"She is the guru of the trails," Lola Kemp, a close friend of Sykes, told the AP. "I find it difficult to imagine that she would get lost. I think it's more likely she's injured and waiting, perhaps impatiently, to be rescued."
Another associate, Greg Johnston, said Sykes is a regular hiker with extensive knowledge of the mountain.
"She's the last person anyone would expect to get lost, particularly on Mount Rainier," Johnston, a former writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who worked with Sykes when she wrote for the newspaper.
"If anybody can survive it, it's her. She's really tough and really savvy."
