Searchers recovered the body of a Beaverton, Ore., man who was swept over the falls at Lava Canyon on Sunday, according to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office.
Searchers with the Volcano Rescue Team and sheriff’s office located the body of James Fowler, 25, around 12:30 p.m. Monday.
The sheriff’s office first responded Sunday after getting a 911 call about a man who went over the falls, less than a mile down Lava Canyon Trail 184, about 20 miles northeast of Cougar off National Forest Road 83 in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Deputies and North Country EMS arrived to help with the search.
Witnesses and family members told officials that Fowler was trying to make his way across the Muddy River, just upriver from Lava Canyon Falls. He stepped on a partially submerged rock, then the current overtook him and sent him over the falls, according to the sheriff’s office.
A witness said he saw Fowler’s body floating facedown but couldn’t make it through the rugged terrain to reach him, the sheriff’s office said.
Searchers, with the help of an airplane, worked into the evening, and suspended the search at 9 p.m. Sunday. The search resumed the next morning.
The sheriff’s office said Fowler’s body would be taken to the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Rescuers also responded to two calls from hikers in distress Monday. Two climbers from the Puget Sound area made it to about the 7,000-foot mark on Mount St. Helens when one became too sick to continue, Skamania County Undersheriff Pat Bond said. The Volcano Rescue Team responded before 8 a.m. and helped the two hike down to the Climbers Bivouac.
Bond said searchers on Monday afternoon also responded to a report of a woman who had been on the mountain since Sunday. Bond said she was about a half-mile north of the tree line, and reported she was exhausted and unable to continue.
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Correction appended: The photo included with this article originally misidentified which Volcano Rescue Team member was pictured.
