AN APPEAL TO MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK SERVICE TO CONTINUE AGGRESSIVE SEARCH FOR AN ALIVE SAM FOR ANOTHER 72H; ITS SEARCH DAY 11

Sam is a humble guy, a lover of nature, and someone who seeks to find goodness in everyone. He is a physician, a scholar, a teacher, and a devoted family man, thrilled to be able to be a faculty member at the University of Washington. He is a very fit and skilled hiker with tremendous experience including in the Himalayas. He was recently going thru a hiking book of the Seattle area and a few weeks ago completed a hike even harder than this one. He is experienced.

Sam has with him overnight gear, rain gear, and snow gear as well as a cell phone and a charger. The National Park Service has been running a rigorous and thorough search and rescue for him. We have deep respect for them and their amazing skills — they have shared with us daily updates from search Day 1 thru Day 9, including that weather has not been on our side with seriously treacherous conditions that have limited these efforts

Sam’s family friends and colleagues have so much ongoing gratitude for the NPS, the brave searchers, the FBI and so many others who have had Sam in their thoughts and prayers.

And we have a very specific plea to the National Park Service who leads this search in collaboration with the FBI and military. They are currently phasing out of a search and rescue operation for an alive Sam. But we implore them to continue the rigorous search for an alive Sam, just for a few more days, even 72 hours, for three compelling reasons.

1. There is a very high chance that Sam is alive. He is still in a window of survivability, even with hunger and hypothermia, which many medical experts estimate between 2–3 weeks with the type of gear he was carrying.

2. With a high level of fitness and experience and gear including tent, sleeping bag, raincoat and more, there is a reasonable chance that he is currently surviving beyond missing Day 12, today.

3. Finally, there have been gaps in the search. The search and rescue teams were prevented from areas and had to scale back because of severe weather and then were unable to go back into those areas. With better and even clearer weather on the horizon, Mount Rainier is offering a prime opportunity to continue the search and we hope to take advantage of this in one last effort to return our brother, son, and friend.

A hiker was just found in Mt Zion at Day 19 — we are only at search Day 11. There is HOPE. Sam is fit, he has gear, and we are just at search Day 11. We, again implore the National Park Service to continue their aggressive search for just a few days — — even 72 — — -hours to find a wonderful soul who has a real chance of survival.

Other resources:

1. Initial report of the missing hiker Sam Dubal in Mount Rainiere. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mount-rainier-national-park-rangers-still-looking-for-missing-uw-professor-after-5-days-of-searching/

2. The University of Washington : https://artsci.washington.edu/news/2020-10/search-for-sam-dubal

Sincerely,

Dena Dubal (Sister). (denadubal@gmail.com ; Twitter @Denadubal)

Veena Dubal (Sister)

Bharat and Saroj Dubal (Parents)

Friends, Family, Colleagues of Sam Dubal