Leave search for missing hiker to professional rescuers, Washington sheriff advises
Washington authorities are warning people that private search efforts to find a hiker who went missing two weeks ago could obstruct official recovery efforts.
Rachel Lakoduk, a 28-year-old from Moses Lake, disappeared after going hiking Oct. 17 in the North Cascade Mountains near Marblemount, Washington.
Rescuers and her family thought Lakoduk might have taken shelter inside a lookout tower at the Hidden Lake Lookout “when weather conditions turned snowy,” the Skagit Search and Rescue Council said. But when searchers reached the cabin on Oct. 22, Lakoduk wasn’t there.
Lakoduk’s family “is now presuming that she is dead,” KHQ reported. Elizabeth Tripp, Lakoduk’s mother, said Monday that the search effort had given way to a recovery effort, KING5 reported.
“We have heard there are plans for private searching activities this weekend,” the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Thursday. “This will interfere with our Search and Rescue making another attempt, specifically we will not be able to send teams in because of the increased dangers this could be impose.
“If you know of anyone planning such activities, please advise them,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
The National Park Service called the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 18 to help find Lakoduk, Skagit County Undersheriff Chad Clark said in an update on the search effort last week.
“Deputies located the hiker’s vehicle at the trailhead to Hidden Lake,” Clark said, adding that the missing hiker only planned to stay the night at the cabin and was expected to return on Oct. 18 around 2 p.m.
A search and rescue team tried to make its way up the trail to the cabin the morning of Oct. 19, but had to give up after reaching an elevation of around 6,000 feet because of “safety concerns as the weather was extreme and the avalanche danger was also high,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
The cabin is perched in the North Cascades at 6,800 feet, deputies said.
Another rescue attempt Oct. 20 nearly reached the cabin — making it as close as a few hundred yards — before searchers had to turn around because of the treacherous conditions, deputies said.
KOMO reported last week that “other hikers reported seeing Lakoduk on the trail, which rescuers said is now covered in 2 to 6 feet of snow.”
Haley Anderson, Lakoduk’s sister, said she believed her sister had a sleeping bag, water and food, according to KOMO.
Some material in this story appeared in a previous article by the author.
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Leave search for missing hiker to professional rescuers, Washington sheriff advises."
