2 national parks in Washington among U.S. search-and-rescue hot spots, analysis finds
Jan. 21, 2022 at 7:21
By Christine Clarridge
Seattle Times staff reporter
... One ranger with North Cascades National Park also cautioned that search-and-rescue statistics can be misleading.
For one thing, said North Cascades District Ranger Gabe Asarian, it’s not uncommon to get reports of missing hikers that may be logged as incidents but are never followed up on because the hikers show up quickly.
“We get calls every single weekend about missing hikers and most do not end up as searches,” he said.
Asarian said he did not know the numbers for Mount Rainier, but said the number of open cases there could be the result of a quirk in the system or could be due to hikers being found and the case never officially being closed.
https://www.seattletimes.com/life/outdoors/2-national-parks-in-washington-among-u-s-most-dangerous/