At approximately 1100 hours this morning, searchers at Mount Rainier National Park found the two snowboarder who have been missing since Sunday, November 12th. Derek Tyndall, 21, and Thomas Dalle, 20, had spent Sunday snowboarding in the area above Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park before they became lost in white-out winter snow conditions while descending from Camp Muir.
Monday’s search effort focused on an area believed to be where the two snowboarders had spent Sunday evening. On late Monday afternoon searcher had a visual of what they believed were the missing snowboarders. Because of difficult terrain and low visibility, they were not able to make contact with these individuals before nightfall.
Today the park deployed a stronger search response over a greater area of the park, with volunteers from Tacoma, Olympic, and Seattle Mountain Rescue Teams; as well as four dog teams from the Washington Search and Rescue Task Force.
Derek and Thomas were found by one of the search groups in the Upper Stevens Creek drainage. Currently Mr. Tyndall and Mr. Dalle are being rewarmed, as an appropriate way to extricate them is being determined.
Searchers utilized a combination of snowshoes and skis in the difficult conditions they found on the Mountain. Stefan Lofgren, the Incident Commander on this search said, “We are relieved to have found Derek and Thomas! The health and safety of not only our two lost subjects but all of our searchers has been and will continue to be our greatest concern today considering the avalanche high avalanche danger and the deep and laborious snow conditions.”
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