newsminer.com

ANCHORAGE — The National Park Service on Monday resumed a search for two women missing on what was supposed to be a short backpacking trip in Denali National Park and Preserve.

The agency added one ground team looking for Abby Flantz, 25, of Gaylord, Minn., and Erica Nelson, 23, of Las Vegas. Also, searchers with dogs were to arrive Monday.

The women were last seen Thursday at the Savage River check station just 15 miles from park headquarters. Visitors can drive that far, but beyond Savage River, visitors must use park or concessionaire buses to limit traffic on the road.

The women had picked up a wilderness permit Thursday and planned to return Friday.

They were reported overdue Saturday when they did not show up for work at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, a hotel outside the park.

Searchers initially focused on the Savage River drainage north of the Denali Park Road. Park officials said that was the route the women likely would have taken to reach the Mount Healy wilderness unit, the area for which they had a permit.

The search area Monday was expanded to include terrain west of the Savage River. High water was reported Thursday in the Savage River and the two women may have been discouraged from attempting to cross it, said park spokeswoman Kris Fister.

The area being searched is just under 100 square miles. It consists of rugged terrain without trails ranging in elevation from approximately 2, 000 feet to 6,000 feet.

Searchers over the weekend found evidence of moose kills by grizzly bears in the search area but bears were not the highest concern for the missing women, Fister said.

“Most of our concerns are the other types of environmental hazards,” she said.

River crossings can be especially dangerous and the women had been advised to cross the Savage River downstream where it breaks into shallow braids, she said.

Steep terrain without a trail is also a hazard for spraining an ankle, she said. But park personnel would have expected to find some sign of the women on such a short trip.

“Our concern with these young women is, they were only going to go in for one night,” Fister said. “They wouldn’t have gone in that far.”

Searchers have focused on camping areas and other travel routes on Mount Healy and in the adjacent Primrose Ridge backcountry unit.

An air search Saturday used two helicopters and a fixed wing aircraft. Teams of ground searchers Sunday checked heavily wooded and vegetated sections that could not be searched effectively from the air.

About 40 people assisted with the search Sunday.

The two women are experienced trail hikers but had limited experience with Alaska backcountry conditions, Fister said.

Temperatures have been mostly typical of the season, with daytime highs in the 60s and nighttime lows in the 40s.