The National Park Service Incident Response Team organizing the search for four missing people on Mount Rainier has left the park, spokesman Kevin Bacher said this morning.
The incident command role has been turned over to Steve Winslow, a district ranger from Black Canyon National Park.
The search for two climbers and two campers more than 10 days overdue has been greatly scaled back. The park visitors were trapped in severe storm conditions on the mountain. It is so far unclear if searchers are taking advantage of good weather today to search.
Mark Vucich, 37, of San Diego and Michelle Trojanowksi, 30 of Atlanta, planned to conclude their camping trip on the Muir snowfield on Jan. 15. Sork Yang of Springfield, Ore., and Seol Hee Jin of South Korea, planned to finish their climb Jan. 16. Both climbers are 52.
The NPS incident response team organizing the search was the same incident response team dispatched to the park to assist in the aftermath of the Jan. 1 shooting death of ranger Margaret Anderson.
What’s happening here? It’s Feb 1st 2012 and there’s no update on the situation.
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We’ve reported that this search is no longer active. All four people are presumed dead and park officials hope to find their bodies in the spring and winter when snow melts.
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