Two US climbers and 1 Canadian who went missing on New Zealand’s highest peak believed to have died in fatal fall

Two climbers from the US and one from Canada who vanished this week near the peak of New Zealand’s tallest mountain are believed to have died in an apparent fall, authorities said Thursday.

The search for Kurt Blair, Carlos Romero and an unidentified Canadian man has ended, authorities announced, after rescue teams discovered footprints in the snow on New Zealand’s Mount Cook, along with climbing equipment they believe belonged to the trio of men, the Associated Press reported.

“After reviewing the number of days the climbers have been missing, no communication, the items we retrieved, and our reconnaissance today, we do not believe the men have survived,” Police Area Commander Inspector Vicki Walker said. 

“We believe they have taken a fall.”

The men’s bodies were not found or recovered in the search, she added.

Blair, 56, and Romero, 50, are both certified alpine guides, according to the American Mountain Guides Association website, with the former hailing from Colorado and the latter of California. 

Local authorities have not released the name of the Canadian climber at the request of his family, the outlet reported. 

The three men were reported missing after they didn’t make their scheduled flight out of New Zealand on Dec. 2. Authorities started the search the same day, but all activity was stalled due to brutal weather conditions, including heavy rain and snow on the mountain. 

The search resumed Thursday with crews using helicopters and drones to spot the footprints and recover the items that supposedly belonged to the trio. 

“This is certainly not the news we want to share today,” Walker said, according to local news outlets.

“First and foremost, we’re thinking of the men’s families in the United States and Canada. We have spoken to them today and, as you’d expect, it’s not the phone call they wanted to receive. I’m devastated for them — the entire search team wanted a positive result.”

Mount Cook, also known as Aoraki, is part of the Southern Alps and towers over all others in the region at 12,218 feet high.

More than 240 deaths have been recorded on the mountain and in the greater national park since the early 1900s.