The chairman and three members of the Korean Mountaineering Association were on an expedition from New York to Seattle for the President’s Day holiday, and were found dead or went missing after being swept away by an avalanche. The local Sheriff Bureau has set up a mountain rescue team, but has not been able to access the accident site due to bad weather.
According to the Seattle Korean Mountain Association (Chairman Yoo Dong-hyuk) under the Korean Mountain Federation and the Chelan County Sheriff Bureau, Washington, at around 1 p.m. on the 19th, four out of seven Koreans from the New York American Mountain Association were swept by an avalanche at about 6,000 feet above ground. The four Koreans who were swept away by the avalanche fell about 500 feet down the cliff of the trail.
Chairman Cho Sung-tae and former chairman Park Seung-chan of the New York Korean-American Music Association were caught in an avalanche shortly after the accident, but was said to have regained consciousness shortly after. However, Chairman Cho could not move due to a fractured bone, so former Chairman Park went down to the base camp to ask for help.
Oh Seok-hwan, chairman of the Korea Mountain Federation, said, “Former Chairman Park went back to the point where Chairman Cho had been waiting, but Chairman Cho had passed away by then,” adding, “Currently, the two missing (presumed dead) cannot be found due to an avalanche. Chairman Cho’s body cannot be recovered because the helicopter cannot fly,” he said.
Currently, the missing persons due to the avalanche are a Korean woman, Lee (60), and a man in his 60s, Park. Local media reports three people were killed in an avalanche in the mountaineer’s popular Colchuck Peak.
The Chelan County Sheriff Department said the victims were all from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the east. The Sheriff Bureau said in a press release, “Except for the missing and the dead, four people are back at the base camp and are stabilizing” adding, “22 mountain rescue teams were sent out, but they are struggling to re-access the site due to snowstorms.”
“Four members of the Seattle Korean Association, including me, have been climbing the mountain with seven members of the New York Korean-American Association since the 17th,” said Yoo Dong-hyuk, chairman of the Seattle Korean Association. However, the New York team seems to have had an accident while continuing to climb the summit.
The Colchuck Peak, which is 8705 feet above sea level, is said to be highly popular among mountain climbers that it is known as North America’s version of the Everest. However, the slope reaches 50 degrees and the mountain is rough, causing frequent accidents. It was the first time for all members of the New York Korean-American Mountain Association to climb the mountain.
Jeong Chan-il, the head of the Seattle Korean Mountain Association, who was climbing with the New York team, said, “We went all the way to the ninth ridge, but the strong snowstorm was so severe that we went down the mountain first. People from New York seem to have been swept away on the snow piled up on a steep hiking trail,” he said.
The Chelan County Sheriff Bureau are planning to fly a rescue helicopter today (22nd) to recover Chairman Cho’s body and search for the additional missing people when the weather improves.
Meanwhile, the Korean Mountain Federation and the authorities advised people to check the weather conditions of the area for safe hiking, prepare appropriate hiking equipment such as climbing clampons, ice axes, appropriate clothes, and GPS devices, and make sure the mobile phone is fully charged before going on a hike.
BY KIM HYUNG-JAE [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
