TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An American woman was missing after her guide was found dead in the mountains of central Taiwan, reports said Saturday (April 22).
A group consisting of the guide, two assistants, and three women from the United States took off Tuesday (April 18) for a six-day hike over the mountains of Nantou County to end at the Aowanda National Forest on Monday (April 24), UDN reported.
However, heavy rain damaged their tent and slowed their progress, with the group splitting up as two of the women moved faster than the other hiker, per CNA. The guide, surnamed Chen (陳), stayed with the third woman on the Nenggao-Andongjun trail.
On Wednesday (April 19) evening, Chen called his assistants, telling them he was suffering from hypothermia while the hiker had altitude sickness. As they had no tent and only basic food, they called the emergency services for help.
When a rescue team reached Chen at 11 a.m. Friday (April 21), he had suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), while the hiker was nowhere to be found, the report said.
Rescue workers saw plastic material which could be part of clothing 15 meters down a cliff, leading them to plan a descent to try and find the missing woman in the area. The use of helicopters during their mission had been impossible due to poor weather conditions. The two other hikers had broken off their journey to leave the mountains, the report said.