Search efforts to decrease
After six days of searching with no success, the effort to find a missing hiker in Glacier National Park is being scaled back.
Search managers said they continued to hope that additional information would be discovered about the whereabouts of Yi-Jien Hwa, a 27-year-old from Kentucky and Malaysia. But without any developments, they would scale back the operation, a Monday park press release states.
The decision comes as Hwa's family members started to arrive in the area over the weekend. Park officials are meeting with them to discuss the search and "assure them that efforts to resolve the questions of his whereabouts and condition would continue," the release states.
"We know that Yi-Jien's family is going through a most difficult time," said Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright. "We want them to know how deeply we feel for them and support them."
The search and rescue incident management team intends to continue directing searchers through areas listed on a backcountry permit obtained by Hwa before he embarked on his trip Aug. 11. But it was a route that was planned to extend through 90 miles of rugged country, starting at the Sperry Glacier trailhead and ending at Kintla Lake Aug. 18.
His family reported him missing Aug. 19 and the search got under way that day. At its peak, more than 25 people, plus search dogs and two helicopters, were involved in the effort.
"We are still hopeful that additional information will eventually surface that will lead us to Yi-Jien," said Patrick Suddath, incident commander for the search. "But we know that the odds for that outcome are reduced with each day that goes by. In the absence of a promising development, we will be scaling back the operation."
For the next seven days, two search teams will be assigned to broader areas along Hwa's planned route.
The search for Hwa has largely focused on "high probability" areas along the first leg of Hwa's planned trip, in the Sperry Glacier and Floral Park areas.
Flathead County Search and Rescue coordinator Jordan White and 14 others returned late Sunday from a two-day mission that concentrated on Sperry Glacier.
The search turned up "nothing but wolverine and grizzly bear tracks," White said Monday.
The group, which included eight people on the county's mountain rescue team, was flown in by helicopter with their gear delivered in a net sling. They spent considerable time using technical climbing gear to explore crevasses on the glacier.
"We had some of our team members that were able to lower themselves into the crevasses," said White, who is also a deputy with Flathead County Sheriff's Office. "Most of the crevasses we were able to see down into."
White said the glacier itself presented a substantial search area, estimating that it is about 1.3 miles across and about three quarters of a mile from the toe up to cliffs at the head of the glacier.
No human tracks were seen on the glacier, which was not surprising to White.
"The likelihood of picking up tracks would have been slim because we got three inches of snow on the glacier from the time (Hwan was scheduled) to go through the area and when we were on the glacier," White said. "It's difficult to gauge tracks based on the melt process and the new snow."
White said he is "very confident" in the thoroughness of the team's search.
Sunday, the team extended its search into the Floral Park area, with efforts to explore cliffs overlooking the Avalanche Lake basin. But White said those areas have already been repeatedly searched by other teams.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com