Missing Snowshoe Hiker Found Alive on Mount Rainier - East Idaho News
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Missing Snowshoe Hiker Found Alive on Mount Rainier

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GETTY N 010312 MtRainier?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1326799649758Purestock/Getty Images(ASHFORD, Wash.) — A trio of rescuers found snowshoer Yong Chun Kim alert and conscious on Monday after he went missing Saturday during a hike on Mount Rainier in Washington state.

Kim, 66, was cold but otherwise in stable condition, according to National Park Service spokeswoman Lee Taylor, who added that rescuers were trying to send in a Sno-Cat vehicle to complete the rescue amid weather too harsh for helicopters.

A team of more than 70 people and two teams of rescue dogs earlier had narrowed their search for Kim, of Tacoma, Wash., officials told ABC News.

Kim was leading hikers in the Paradise region of Mount Rainier National Park when he slipped down a steep slope.  Instead of climbing back up to rejoin the group, Kim continued on to meet the group further down the trail. When he did not arrive 30 minutes after he radioed the group to tell them he was on his way, the park service launched a search.

Taylor told ABC News that one of the members of Kim’s group went along on Sunday’s search and took the team to the point where Kim was last seen. One of the searchers also on Sunday noticed snowshoe tracks in an area called Stevens Creek, which was where the rescue team then focused its search.

Rescuers then found Kim in the upper Stevens Creek basin, Taylor said.

The search for Kim was the second one in Mount Rainier Park in less than two weeks.  A manhunt was launched earlier this month to find Benjamin Colton Barnes, 24, after he shot and killed park ranger Margaret Anderson on New Year’s Day.

The body of Barnes, an Iraq war veteran, was found the next day; he apparently drowned in a creek after suffering from hypothermia.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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