BEIJING — Frequent rockfalls and avalanches have prompted an end to the search for one of three U.S. mountain climbers whose companions were found dead on a mountain in southwestern China.
A Colorado spokesman for the search effort said Friday that Chinese and U.S. search teams called off the search for 32-year-old Micah Dash of Boulder.
“After days of effort, the searchers agreed that frequent rockfall and near-daily avalanches made further efforts extremely dangerous,” read a statement by Robb Shurr, a spokesman for a search effort organized by friends and family of the climbers.
Rescue teams on Mount Gongga last week found the bodies of 35-year-old Jonathan “Jonny” Copp, also from Boulder, and 24-year-old Wade Johnson, of Arden Hills, Minn.
Chinese officials say their deaths were the first on the mountain since 2001.
The three men were last heard from May 20 at the base camp of Mount Edgar, a Mount Gongga peak.
Copp and Dash were professional mountain climbers, and Johnson was working for Boulder-based Sender Films, which makes climbing and outdoor adventure films.
Dash is a native of Lancaster, Calif. His father told the Antelope Valley Press last week that he hoped his son would be found but that it would be a miracle if he was alive.
Shurr said rescuers found some of Dash’s equipment on the mountain, but search teams believe he is dead. Shurr did not rule out the possibility of a future search effort for Dash, but said the vast area and new avalanche debris have diminished the probability of finding him.
Shurr said a memorial for the climbers is planned in Boulder, but no date has been set.
The search teams included members of the Sichuan Mountaineering Association, the Chinese Mountaineering Association, and U.S. climbers who were friends of the missing men.
