Micah Dash Search Suspended — Rescuers Descend Mt. Edgar

The search for Micah Dash, the missing American climber from Boulder, Colorado, was suspended today because of bad weather on Mount Edgar in western China. The rescue team felt that Dash was unlikely to have survived the avalanche and is presumed buried under snow. The team evacuated the bodies of Jonny Copp and Wade Johnson, which are being transported to Moxi, a town about six hours from the mountain.

Xinhua News Agency in China reports that the eight rescuers—four Americans and four Chinese—descended on Thursday afternoon. Lin Li with the Sichuan Mountaineering Association said, “Weather condition is quite bad, with fog, rain, snow hampering the work. Sometimes stones fell off the peak, another avalanche is quite possible according to our experience.”

Adventure Film Festival notes today on their website that the search for Micah hasn’t been completed shelved, “The search team is resting and will resume searching for Micah when the weather clears.” Stay tuned and we’ll see what happens when the weather improves.

Pete Takeda, one of the American rescuers and a great alpinist, wrote earlier today on his Facebook page: “Pete Takeda , Steve, Eric, and Nick just got down from the mountain. We are all safe and sound. We brought Jonny and Wade down. Micah could not be found. Nick Rosen and Mick Follari met us at the trailhead. Thanks for the support. Words can't express our gratitude.”

Thanks, Pete and the rest of the rescue crew—Eric DeCaria, Steve Su, and Nick Martino—you guys rock in my book. You dropped everything you were doing, traveled to the other side of the world, hiked up to Base Camp, and then put your own lives on the line to bring your mates off the mountain, either dead or alive. That, my friend, is a shining moment in an otherwise bleak week of bad news.

Photograph above: Jonny Copp and Micah Dash at a snowy bivouac in the French Alps in 2008. Photograph courtesy Micah Dash