Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- A teenager reported missing on Mount McGinnis was found dead on the back side of the mountain after an apparent fall, authorities said Thursday.

The body of 16-year-old Cameron Clark was discovered late Wednesday, but retrieval efforts were put off until Thursday because of poor weather on the 4,228-foot mountain, Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. The body was recovered before 9 a.m.

Clark, who attended Thunder Mountain High School in Juneau, had been hiking with two friends Wednesday. The group reached the top of the mountain and was having lunch when Clark set down his backpack and it slipped off a ledge, Trooper Jeff Landvatter said.

Clark went after it and never returned. The other teenagers waited awhile, then called out but heard no response. After a half-hour, one of them used a cell phone to get help.

Peters said Clark's body was found at the 3,500-foot level, suggesting a fall of hundreds of feet.

"He took a horrendous tumble," she said.

His body will be shipped to Anchorage for an autopsy, the date of which has not been set, Peters said.

Mount McGinnis is on the west side of the Mendenhall Glacier.

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