Park rangers returned to a glacier on Mount Rainier Saturday to search for a fourth victim of a series of winter storms, a day after recovering what they presume to be the second and third bodies.

The climbers _ two parties of two _ vanished during unrelenting storms on the 4,392-meter volcano in mid-January. The summer snowmelt last month revealed one of the bodies not far from the climbing route on the Muir snowfield _ that of Mark Vucich, 37.

But there had been no sign of the others until Thursday, when a helicopter crew ferrying supplies to Camp Muir spotted a woman's body hanging over the edge of a large crevasse, buried in about 1.5 meters of snow, near the 2,500-meter level, Mount Rainier National Park spokesman Kevin Bacher said.

Climbing rangers arrived Friday to find a snow-buried campsite, with supplies belonging to several different people strewn about the bottom of the crevasse, he said. Aided by a helicopter, they recovered the woman's body Friday afternoon and discovered a sleeping bag in the snow that led them to a male victim.

Officials were awaiting a medical examiner's determination to confirm that they were two of the missing climbers from January. In addition to Vucich, of Agoura Hills, California, the missing were his friend Michelle Trojanowski, 30, of Atlanta; Sork “Eric” Yang, 52, of Springfield, Oregon; and Seol Hee Jin, 52, of South Korea.

They were last seen by a climber who reported that all four were heading up the mountain as he descended it with the storms approaching. Yang and Jin were in the lead, followed by Vucich and Trojanowski, on a separate rope but following the same track.

“We have suspected that as things turned ugly up there they might have joined forces, and now we're certain that was the case,” Bacher said.

The campsite is about 400 meters east of, and over a ridge from, the standard climbing route, which is likely why visitors to the mountain had not seen the woman's body earlier, Bacher said.

Though climbing gear from both groups appears to have been found together at the campsite, Vucich's body was found some distance away, and it wasn't clear if the fourth body would be in the immediate vicinity.

About a dozen climbing rangers spent Friday night at Camp Muir, at the 3,000-meter level, and were out early Saturday to carefully probe and dig in a grid pattern for signs of the last victim, Bacher said.

“It's always a positive thing to find someone after so long,” Bacher said. “To come across a second body yesterday, they were pretty upbeat, and they were anxious to get back out there today.” (AP)

<관련 한글 기사>

실종됐던 한국인, 시신으로 발견?


지난 1월 미국 워싱턴주 레이니어산을 오르다 실종된 한국인으로 추정되는 시신이 발견됐다고 레이니어 국립공원 관리들이 8일(현지시간) 밝혔다.

이들은 지난 4일 보급품을 운송하던 헬리콥터 승무원이 약 2천500m 지점에서 여 성의 시신을 발견했고, 이어 지난 7일 눈 속에 파묻혀 있던 남성의 시신을 찾아냈다 고 설명했다.

관리들은 발견된 시신이 지난 1월 실종된 미셸 트로자노스키와 한국 출신인 에릭 양, 진설희 중 누구인지를 확인하기 위한 신원 확인 결과를 기다리고 있다고 말했다.

이들과 함께 등반하다 실종된 마크 뷰시치의 시신은 지난달 실종 지점 부근의 눈이 녹으면서 등산로에서 멀리 떨어지지 않은 지점에서 발견된 바 있다.

따라서 새로 발견된 시신 중 남성은 에릭 양일 가능성이 높고 여성은 트로자노스키 혹은 진설희일 것으로 추정된다.

케빈 바커 레이니어 국립공원 대변인은 이들이 실종되던 당시 같은 등산로를 따 라 산을 오르던 이들 네 명의 모습을 하산하던 다른 산악인이 목격했다고 전했다.

그는 시신들을 새로 발견한 곳이 통상적인 등산로에서 동쪽으로 약 400m 떨어진 지점이었고 네 번째 희생자의 시신을 근처에서 발견할 수 있을지는 장담할 수 없다면서도, 공원 순찰대원들이 근처를 구획으로 나눠 정밀 수색하고 있다고 말했다.