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Hunter search: Hoping for a break in the weather

Updated at 11:42 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Bad weather still had aircraft grounded at mid-morning today in the effort to find an Onalaska man who went for a one-day elk hunting outing on Friday near Mount St. Helens and hasn’t been seen since.

David Sherwood, 56, is believed to have gone to an area about 15 miles south of Randle, according to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office. He was hunting alone, Undersheriff Dave Cox said.

After his truck was located, search and rescue resources were requested from the state Department of Emergency Management.  A search base is located at the Ryan Lake Trailhead, at the junction of Forest Service Roads 26 and 2612; the vehicle was found near the end of a spur road.

“I believe it was a family member that found the vehicle, at mid-day Saturday,” Cox said.

Some 80 friends, family and members of search and rescue teams combed the area on Sunday and again yesterday, Cox said. It’s inside the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Their efforts were hampered yesterday by ongoing snow showers and low cloud cover, according to Cox. The area is described as heavily-timbered steep terrain with as much as 20 inches of snow on the ground in places.

Cox said Sherwood has a medical condition which he wouldn’t elaborate upon, as well.

“Between the medical issue and the environment he’s in right now, and the time he’s been exposed to the weather out there, it’s a big concern,” he said.

The area is quite remote from the sheriff’s office in the Skamania County seat, Stevenson, along the Columbia River, according to Cox.

The search resumed this morning, but the undersheriff doesn’t have a cell phone connection with his people, who are at the search base, so he said he did not know which particular search and rescue groups are on the ground today. Skamania County’s group, Wind River Search and Rescue is comprised of about 30 volunteers, he said.

They’ve requested aircraft support, but its use is weather dependent, according to Cox.

“We are hopeful the break in the weather will allow us to utilize aircraft to assist with the ground search efforts today” Cox said in a news release early this morning.

The sheriff’s office this morning had a helicopter on standby, waiting to deploy two deputies and someone from emergency management.

“I know there was a helicopter the family hired that tried to get up there, but could not land,” he said.

Sherwood left Friday morning and was to return home after 5 p.m., according to Cox. His son called both Lewis County and Skamania County authorities around midnight to report him overdue, according to Cox.

“Because of the weather, we couldn’t get there from this side,” he said.

A Lewis County sheriff’s deputy went and looked around the Ryan Lake area, and then a Skamania County sheriff’s deputy went up to where Sherwood’s vehicle had been found, he said. The vegetation was so thick, he had to walk in, he said.

Once further resources came in on Saturday evening, they were put out, he said.