HOOD RIVER, Ore. — With the skies finally clear above Mt. Hood, a search plane and a military helicopter joined the hunt for
missing skier Steve Leavitt on Friday.
The 57-year-old disappeared Tuesday after skiing with his brother at Mt. Hood Meadows in the middle of a snow storm that dropped five-and-a-half feet of snow in one week.
Search teams focused their search on the right side of Mt. Hood Meadows in an area called Heather Canyon.
Leavitt’s brother said they were skiing that area Tuesday. The brother felt ill late in the morning and went home. Leavitt continued to ski and rode the Heather Canyon chair lift last at 11:20 a.m., according to a scanner at the lift.
A Hood River County sheriff’s office spokesman said everyone hoped for a breakthrough Friday.
“Yes. Oh yeah for sure,” said Sgt. Pete Hughes. “We’ve said that as a group. That today is great chance. Tomorrow we’ll hit it hard too. The weather won’t be as good but we’ll have a lot of people. But today we believe today is our best chance,” he said.
Outside the official search, many on the mountain said they were keeping an extra watch for the missing man, including snowshoer Kathleen Adams.
“We heard the helicopters overhead and we did look in areas like tree wells and down little ledges. But there’s not much out there other than a lot of snow,” she said.
Searchers suspect Leavitt may have fallen into a deep tree well.
They form when snow falls on an alpine tree. The branches keep the snow from piling up at the trunk but it does build up just outside the branches, creating a deep hole down to the base of the tree. Tree wells in Heather Canyon were reported to be 12 feet deep in some areas.
Steve Leavitt is a sales manager in The Dalles for the Tonkin Subaru dealership. He’s described as extremely fit and very capable.
His family has spent each day since he disappeared in a special room set aside for them at the Mt. Hood Meadows Lodge. The sheriff’s spokesman gives them regular updates.
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