Search for woman called off

A lengthy high-altitude emergency rescue attempt has been suspended, after searchers were unable to locate a missing woman.

Efforts have been made to locate a 33-year-old Seattle woman, who had fallen while climbing in the Waddington Mountain range this past Sunday.

RCMP say that on July 25 at 8:50 a.m., the Alexis Creek RCMP was notified of a climber who had fallen west of Alexis Creek.

Police were told that Laurel Fan fell during an ascent of a peak known as "Serra Two" in the Waddington Range near the Stiletto Glacier, at an altitude of approximately 11,000 feet.

The fall occurred on Sunday afternoon at approximately 3 p.m.

“The woman had been amongst a group of three climbers who had commenced their climbing in the area on July 22nd after being flown in,” explains Cpl. Dan Moskaluk.

“Following the witnessed fall, and unable to visually locate Laurel Fan, the remaining two climbers descended from the area to summons help.”

Moskaluk says the pair made it to a base camp with communications services early Monday morning.

Upon receiving the information, the Alexis Creek RCMP initiated and coordinated an effort to attend the area with properly trained and qualified rescue technicians.

Although the search was outside of a Canada National Parks area, specific qualified technicians were identified amongst Parks Canada resources following the initial canvas of SAR technicians.

On Tuesday July 26, a Parks Canada Mountaineer team flew into the area and surveyed the site.

Following further canvassing of available resources in B.C. and Alberta, a search team of three Parks Canada professional climbers, an Alberta Provincial Parks technician and a BCSAR technician from Whistler SAR conducted a search on the mountain on Wednesday July 27, followed by another search today.

On July 27, the group selected two crevasses to search which had the highest probability of locating the victim. Moskaluk says avalanche probe sticks were used.

On July 28, the climbers returned to the area with a Parks Canada search dog and handler from Banff, and an additional search of the area was searched with the dog team.

Moskaluk says the area had multiple deep crevasses, some of which were of unknown total depths.

Rescuers also noted that continuous natural avalanches had occurred in the area since the fall on Sunday.

“The extreme and dangerous conditions present only permitted the searchers to be on the mountain face for three hours per day, early in the morning from 5 to 8 a.m., given that daylight temperature changes caused worsening snow conditions.

“Given that the fall distance exceeded several hundred feet, searchers have made the determination that there was an extreme unlikelihood of her surviving the fall.”

Moskaluk says the search was suspended Thursday. He adds that RCMP have been in contact with Fan’s family throughout the week and are continuing to provide support to them.

“The Alexis Creek RCMP would like to express their gratitude to all the partner agencies who assisted in this rescue response this week, including White Saddle Helicopters Ltd.,” adds Moskaluk.