Search suspended for Olympic National Park hiker

PORT ANGELES — Officials suspended a search for a missing hiker in Olympic National Park in Washington state after no additional signs of the 60-year-old man were discovered over the weekend, a spokesperson said Monday.

“There’s nothing more we can do,” spokeswoman Jailene Wray said about the search for Jim Griffin of Port Angeles.

His chance of survival was low, Wray told the Peninsula Daily News.

“Sometimes people are not recovered,” she said.

Still, rangers and others were patrolling the area and hoping to hear from other hikers who might have seen Griffin in a hot springs pool, she said.

Griffin went for a day hike on Dec. 22 and was reported missing on Christmas Eve by friends when he failed to show up at a dinner.

His pack was found on Christmas Day about 50 feet off a trail. A can of soda, coffee cup and bag of freeze-dried food were set up on a nearby log.

Nearly two-dozen people completed an intensive grid search within 500 feet of the pack. They also searched a wider area with steep slopes and heavy brush.

The hot springs are about 2 1/2 miles from the trailhead, and the backpack was found about a half-mile from the trailhead where Griffin left his car. Weather conditions have been rainy with nighttime temperatures near freezing.

Griffin was last seen in the late afternoon and would have been returning to his car in the dark.