A recovery effort was to begin at about noon today for the body of a Portland woman who died while hiking in Skamania County.
Skamania County Undersheriff Dave Cox said the recovery effort was awaiting the arrival of a helicopter from the King County Sheriff’s Office.
The body of Kathrine Huether, 24, of POrtland, was discovered Saturday afternoon at the base of an 800-foot cliff.
A local man and his son, who had been riding their four-wheelers, discovered the body.
Friends and family hadn’t heard from Huether since March 4.
“We hope they will be able to drop some folks in,” Cox said Saturday, and then use a rescue basket to lift Huether’s body to the helicopter.
Cox said the man, who was four-wheeling with his son, had been following the weeklong search effort.
“The dad said he wanted to look around,” Cox said.
The man and his son, who were not identified, had parked their vehicles and had hiked up to the site where they found Huether’s body wedged behind rocks at the base of a cliff. They called Skamania County deputies, who confirmed that it was Huether’s body.
Deputies needed a four-mile ride on all-terrain vehicles, plus a one-hour hike, to reach the site, which is near Table Mountain, Cox said.
Huether, a student at Portland State University, left her car on the afternoon of Thursday, March 4 at the Bonneville trailhead about a mile east of North Bonneville, officials said. She’d texted a friend that she was going on a short hike.
That segment of the Pacific Crest Trail leads from state Highway 14 toward Table Mountain, several miles to the north in steep, rugged and forested terrain.
A Skamania County deputy found her car at the trailhead about 1 a.m. Friday, March 5. She was reported missing Saturday, and large-scale searches began Sunday morning.
The last clue came Sunday when a credit-card receipt bearing Huether’s name was found near Table Mountain.
Rescue teams put in four grueling days of large-scale searches. On Tuesday, a sheriff’s dive team searched a small lake.
After Wednesday’s search effort — which included 46 people on foot, two rescue dogs, two horse teams and the helicopter — officials said they were suspending such searches until new leads emerged.
