Three climbers from the U.S. and Canada who went missing five days ago on New Zealand’s tallest mountain are presumed dead, authorities said.
The two Americans and a Canadian climber were planning to summit Aoraki by using the Zurbriggen Ridge, but they never met their flight out Monday as planned, police said.
The search, which began the same day, has been hampered by poor weather, Aoraki Area Commander Inspector Vicki Walker said in a statement Friday afternoon local time.
Searchers in a helicopter spotted a jacket and an ice ax believed to belong to the men. Footprints and other evidence of where the group planned to traverse slopes beneath Zurbriggen Ridge have also been found, she said.
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“After reviewing the number of days the climbers have been missing, no communication, the items we have retrieved, and our reconnaissance today, we do not believe the men have survived,” Walker said. “We believe they have taken a fall.”
“This is certainly not the news we wanted to share today,” Walker said in the statement.
The trio — Kurt Blair, 56, of Colorado, and Carlos Romero, 50, of California, as well as a Canadian who has not been publicly identified pending notification of next of kin — arrived on a flight Saturday, police said.
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They were supposed to fly out at 8:30 a.m. Monday. When they did not arrive, they were reported overdue and a search was launched, Walker has said.
Aoraki, also called Mount Cook, is 12,218 feet tall and part of the Southern Alps on New Zealand's South Island.
Police will consider whether a recovery operation is feasible, and the search could be restarted if there is more information or there are sightings, like from the climbing community, Walker said.
"I would like to thank the teams who have given their all to this search," Walker said. "We all wanted this operation to be a success."
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