SEATTLE - Citing dangerous conditions, Mount Rainier National Park officials said there are no immediate plans to recover the bodies of six climbers who likely fell thousands of feet to their deaths in the worst alpine accident on the mountain in decades.
Continuous ice fall and rock fall make the area too dangerous for rescuers, park spokeswoman Patti Wold said Sunday morning. The area will be checked periodically by air in the coming weeks and months, she said.
Wold added that "there's no certainty that recovery is possible given the location."
Rob Mahaney told KARE 11 told KARE 11 on Saturday that his nephew, Mark Mahaney, was among the killed who were missing. He said that Mark's father and brother traveled to Washington, but are returning home because the search was called off.
Park officials believe the group fell 3,300 feet from their last known whereabouts of 12,800 feet on Liberty Ridge.
"It's inconceivable that anyone survived that" fall, Wold said.
Mark Mahaney grew up in Prior Lake. He graduated high school in 2006 and he currently lived in St. Paul.
