The search for a Colorado doctor who vanished near the top of Mount McKinley ended Tuesday after six days of searching failed to turn up any sign of him or his gear, according to the National Park Service.
Gerald Myers, a 41-year-old climber from Centennial, Colo., is now listed missing and presumed dead, Denali National Park and Preserve spokeswoman Maureen McLaughlin said.
The aerial search for Myers was called off Tuesday afternoon after search crews determined further efforts were unlikely to find him, McLaughlin said. Rangers searching on the ground had also been unable to find sign of Myers, she said.
"It's such vast territory it's amazing how small things get obscured either behind rocks or snow," McLaughlin said. "There's many different possibilities of why we wouldn't see him now, but the bottom line becomes if he was able-bodied, by this point we would have expected to see him waving or moving to a camp or received contact via his Spot transceiver."
Though the active search was called off, park rangers would continue examining thousands of high-resolution images taken of the mountain during the search for any sign of him.
A chiropractor with extensive climbing experience, Myers had been planning the ascent for a few years, said Dr. David Friedman, whose Centennial practice, Arapahoe Chiropractic and Acupuncture Center, Myers worked for. He'd held out hope Myers would be rescued until the search was called off, he said.
"If somebody was going to be up there on the mountain having difficulties, he's the type of person that you would think could survive it," Friedman said. "As we went on and on, day after day, each day it did seem like things got a little dimmer."
Myers left his three climbing partners at a 14,200-foot camp last Tuesday packing a pair of skis but little other gear as he attempted a solo summit, according to the park service.
Myers had talked about skiing down after his ascent, but park officials didn't know what route he planned to take, McLaughlin said. A number of them were searched, though weather was an impediment at times, she said.
The last confirmed sighting of Myers was Thursday between 18,000 and 19,000 feet up the 20,320-foot peak. A GPS device Myers was carrying, which he had used to record his position at least once a day, last registered that day at a 17,200-foot camp.
An individual climber was seen on the summit ridge Wednesday, but McLaughlin said officials were not sure if it was Myers or another climber who had moved ahead of his party and only appeared to be alone.
Myers was carrying a small daypack and had minimal survival gear with him. Park officials said it appeared he was not carrying recommended gear like a sleeping bag, bivy sack, stove or thermal pad.
Surviving on the mountain, with its subzero temperatures, is "outside the window of possibility" with such limited supplies, according to park officials.
Myers' disappearance brings to 104 lives Mount McKinley has claimed since tracking began in 1932, McLaughlin said.
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By JAMES HALPIN
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