1. Friends mourn outdoors writer who vanished on hike
SEATTLE - Friends and family on Sunday mourned a well-known outdoors writer and photographer
who had been missing for three days in Mount Rainier National Park before searchers said they
recovered a body of a woman.
The National Park Service said it will be up to the Pierce County medical examiner to confirm that
the body found Saturday afternoon was that of 70-year-old Karen Sykes of Seattle. It was discovered
in an area where searchers were looking for Sykes, and they ended the three-day rescue effort after
finding it.
Sykes's daughter, Annette Shirey, posted a Facebook message saying her mother was dead, CBS
affiliate 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 now
that's gone."
Sykes was prominent in the Northwest hiking community for her trail reviews and photographs, for
her book on hiking western Washington and for leading group outings. Friends said she found
sanctuary 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 area
east 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 had
fallen or what caused the death. It remains under investigation.