Avalanche-hit climbers pushed into crevasse

FOUR Japanese climbers on Alaska’s Mount McKinley might have survived a shallow avalanche but were then pushed into a crevasse more than 100 feet deep.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Jun 2012, 07:00 BST

National Park Service spokeswoman Kris Fister said the search for the group was halted after a mountaineering ranger found the climbing rope in debris at the bottom of the crevasse.

Conditions are too dangerous, however, to attempt to recover their bodies. “We believe this is their final resting place,” Ms Fister said.

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Yoshiaki Kato, 64, Masako Suda, 50, Michiko Suzuki 56, and 63-year-old Tamao Suzuki are missing and presumed dead.

The avalanche early on Wednesday also pushed Hitoshi Ogi, 69, into the crevasse but he managed to climb 60 feet out of it and reached a base camp on Thursday.

He had been attached to the other members of the team by climbing rope as they descended in an avalanche-prone section of the West Buttress Route.

The rope broke in the avalanche and fall.

A 10-person ground crew, supported by a rescue dog and handler, searched for the climbers on Saturday. The crew probed the avalanche debris zone but found no sign of the missing climbers.