A Washington state hiker who went missing over the weekend was found dead 800 feet below a mountain trail on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old man from Bothell, a city just northeast of Seattle, was reported missing after he failed to show up for work on Sunday, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff's office was told that the unidentified man's last known location was on Mount Pugh, a peak near the western edge of the North Cascades northeast of Seattle, where he was hiking alone.
Deputies found the man's vehicle abandoned at the Mount Pugh trailhead, and a large, multi-day search effort followed.
The search involved members of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, volunteer personnel from Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue, Everett Mountain Rescue, Skagit Mountain Rescue, Tacoma Mountain Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue and Seattle Mountain Rescue Units.
The sheriff's office said that during the first 12 hours, other hikers coming down the mountain helped search-and-rescue personnel determine the missing man's last known location.
A pair of sheriff's office helicopters were dispatched, and from the air, the crews spotted the deceased hiker's equipment at the top of a steep couloir, which is a narrow and vertical gully.
On Tuesday, the third day of the search, rescue teams were brought up to the couloir by helicopter and dropped off.
A missing 34-year-old hiker from Washington State was found dead on Tuesday 800 feet below a trail on Mount Pugh, which is a a peak northeast of Seattle
The unidentified man was hiking alone, and he was found after a large, three-day search involving sheriff's deputies and several volunteer agencies. A hiker is pictured (stock image)
They descended into the deep gully and found the missing hiker's body '800 vertical feet from where the initial personal hiking equipment was located,' the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said.
His body was recovered and transported by helicopter to Taylor’s Landing, the Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue headquarters.
The man's identity has not been publicly released, and the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office is working to determine his cause of death.
Other American hikers have also recently died on mountains. On Monday, a Utah business owner was swept away in an avalanche while she was descending Mount Makalu in Nepal and died on the mountain from her injuries in her husband's arms.
She shared a haunting final message to friends and family on Facebook shortly before her death.
On Saturday, an acclaimed film and concert music composer suddenly collapsed after suffering a cardiac emergency while hiking Mount Wilson near Sierra Madre, which is just north of Los Angeles, California.
And late last month, a hiker in New England was found dead on a trail after an unexpected snowstorm left him stuck in nearly half-a-foot of snow.
He was discovered on April 22 about 5.5 miles from his car in the Franconia Notch mountain pass in New Hampshire. Officials determined that he had not been prepared for the three to five inches of snowfall and that he was expecting warmer conditions.