Search crews in Alaska continued their efforts for a fifth day to find star Vail climber Sue Nott and her Canadian partner, who disappeared while attempting a difficult route on 17,400-foot Mount Foraker.
“Obviously, as the time goes on, the likelihood of finding them alive gets less and less. But you can’t completely rule it out at this point,” said Kris Fister, spokeswoman for Denali National Park. “Potentially, they (reached the summit) and perhaps exited off a different route.”
The search Monday confirmed that the women got as high as 15,800 feet, but “then their tracks just end,” Fister said.
Aerial crews on Sunday spotted tracks high on the mountain, retrieved a backpack and spotted additional gear believed to be from Nott in avalanche debris at the base of the exposed-rock- and-snow climb.
Nott, 36, and her climbing partner, Karen McNeill of Canmore, Alberta, were attempting the Infinite Spur route up the avalanche-scoured south face of the mountain and became the subject of the search Thursday.
“They both are considered very, very experienced, essentially professional climbers,” Fister said.
Last year, Nott and her usual partner, John Varko, had planned to climb the same route but were deterred by ice and snow and opted for an easier line, reaching the summit in May, according to records kept by the national park.
They also climbed neighboring Mount McKinley – at 20,320 feet the highest point in North America – and Mount Hunter, becoming only the fourth and fifth people to reach all three of the park’s major summits in a season.
New snow has obscured any indications that an avalanche may have started above Nott and McNeill, although Nott’s ripped backpack, radio, sleeping bag and other gear were found in avalanche debris at 8,000 feet.
The terrain is so vast and so dangerous that ground crews can’t venture in, so the search is being conducted almost exclusively with a high-altitude helicopter and a small airplane, Fister said.
Nott, who has forged a reputation as one of the world’s elite female climbers, survived a horrible fall in 1999, when an ice pillar in Vail collapsed on her, severing her intestines.
Her mother, Eve Nott of Boulder, said Monday night that she was still hopeful the two women would be found alive.
“She has a remarkable survivability instinct and a guarding angel hovering over her,” Eve Nott said.
Staff writer Jim Kirksey contributed to this report.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
