Search for missing hikers in Alaska reduced after gear found

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Search crews found gear-filled backpacks and other items near a river where two hikers from Missouri were dropped off last month for a trip in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Anchorage TV station KTUU reports poor weather limited the search Saturday. A park pilot plans to continue searching the area where the backpacks were found, weather permitting, over the coming days.

The National Park Service says searchers saw footprints near a glacier that matched the tread of a boot found about a mile down river. The gear was found along a 7-mile stretch of the Sanford River.

An air taxi dropped off the unidentified hikers on June 22. They planned a six-day trip east of Mount Drum across Dadina (da-DEYE-nah) Plateau and were scheduled to be picked up last Wednesday.