Friends mourn outdoors writer who vanished on hike

SEATTLE - Friends and family on Sunday mourned a well-known outdoors writer and photographerwho had been missing for three days in Mount Rainier National Park before searchers said theyrecovered a body of a woman.

The National Park Service said it will be up to the Pierce County medical examiner to confirm thatthe body found Saturday afternoon was that of 70-year-old Karen Sykes of Seattle. It was discoveredin an area where searchers were looking for Sykes, and they ended the three-day rescue effort afterfinding it.

Sykes's daughter, Annette Shirey, posted a Facebook message saying her mother was dead, CBSaffiliate KIRO in Seattle reported. Shirey said public and family memorial services would be planned.

"For a lot of local hikers, it's an extreme loss," said Greg Johnston, who edited a "Trail of the Week"column she wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "For decades, she showed us the way, and nowthat's gone."

Sykes was prominent in the Northwest hiking community for her trail reviews and photographs, forher book on hiking western Washington and for leading group outings. Friends said she foundsanctuary in the wilderness.

"It was a real healing thing for her," Johnston said. "Once she found hiking, she never stopped."

She had been hiking with her boyfriend, Bob Morthorst, on Wednesday in the Owyhigh Lakes areaeast of Rainier's 14,410-foot summit when they encountered snow on the trail at about 5,000 feet.He stopped and she went on, friends and park officials said.

When she didn't return as planned, he made it safely down the trail and reported her missing.

The body found Saturday was off-trail, about halfway down a steep hillside above Boundary Creek,park spokeswoman Patti Wold said. She didn't know whether it was apparent that the woman hadfallen or what caused the death. It remains under investigation.

Among the dangers of hiking on snowfields in the summer are falling through snow bridges causedby melting water beneath the surface and sinking into tree wells, where deep, soft or unsupportedsnow accumulates around tree trunks. A searcher was hurt Thursday when he punched through asnow bridge and was airlifted out of the area.

"It's a time to be cautious when you're in the backcountry on snow, but we don't know if that was acontributing factor or not," Wold said.

Michael Fagin, a meteorologist who specializes in mountain weather forecasts, said Sykes invitedhim on the hike, but he had to work. Often during hikes with Sykes and her boyfriend, she'd continuewalking around and taking pictures when Fagin and Morthorst stopped to eat or rest.

"Bob and I would stop and eat lunch, and she'd be crawling in the dirt taking pictures of flowers,"Fagin said. "She couldn't sit still."

Fagin said he would typically take the lead on their walks; Sykes, who was also a distance runner,would get too far ahead if she led.

Much of Sykes' recent work had been for the website of Visit Rainier, an organization that uses locallodging taxes to promote tourism at the mountain. She often tried to write about lesser-used trails,Fagin said.

"After lunch on the ridge we continued, climbing from one high point to the next facing themountain," she wrote in a piece about snowshoeing on Mazama Ridge. "As much as we love theforest there is something that stirs the restless soul to go further, to go higher.

"One has to be careful to establish and stick to a turnaround time. The siren will tempt you withanother high point along the ridge, then another, then another."

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