Engineering graduate student and 2014 College and Wharton graduate Qi He went missing Sunday when he was glissading — using an ice ax to control his slide — down Asgard Pass, a popular alpine hiking area near Seattle, Wash.
The Seattle Times reported that He apparently lost control and slid over the edge of a rock outcropping into a hole carved in the snow by a waterfall.
As of Tuesday, the search for He had been suspended.
Jason Mathews, the county’s undersheriff, told the Seattle Times that the search “has been canceled for now with the intention of resuming a recovery effort in the near future. It’s all going to be based on weather conditions and the snowpack level receding.”
Mathews added that the search had to be called off Monday because of safety concerns for the rescuers due to rapidly moving water inside the waterfall hole and the potential for snow collapse.
Chris Murphy, the director of the Master of Computer Information Technology program that He is a part of, sent an email to the department on Friday morning.
“It is with great sorrow that I write to you to share some information about your classmate, Qi He, who is missing after going on an outdoor excursion in Washington State,” Murphy wrote, linking to the Seattle Times article.
Murphy went on to say that Penn administrators are coordinating with local authorities to “do whatever they can.”
“We are certainly hopeful that he will be found safe as soon as possible,” he wrote.
This story was last updated on 6/10/16 at 1 p.m. Check back for updates.
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