The bodies of two hikers from New York State — a father and daughter — were found this week near the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine, the state’s tallest mountain and the final stop on the storied Appalachian Trail, the authorities said.
Park rangers began searching for the father and daughter, Tim Keiderling and Esther Keiderling of Ulster Park, N.Y., on Monday morning, after finding their vehicle parked in the day-use parking lot, officials said. They had last been seen hiking at about 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, heading toward the peak, officials said.
The Maine Warden Service K-9 team found the body of Mr. Keiderling, 58, at about 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Searchers found the body of Ms. Keiderling, 28, around 1 p.m. Wednesday in a wooded area.
Although the authorities did not give a cause of death, the company that employed the Keiderlings, Rifton Equipment, said that they encountered difficult weather conditions and that they had both had been found “succumbed to exposure.”
Rifton Equipment is a New York company that designs and manufactures adaptive equipment.
“We are deeply saddened to tell our friends and customers of the death of two members of our Rifton family,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We appreciate your support for their loved ones and the members of the search teams during this incredibly difficult time,” Baxter State Park officials said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon. “Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Tim and Esther Keiderling’s family and friends.”
Baxter is home to the Appalachian Trail’s northernmost 15 miles and to Mount Katahdin, which stands at about 5,300 feet.
Temperatures on the mountain on Sunday began in the low 30s, with cloudy skies, rain, sleet, and winds were up to 40 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service office. The weather was similar on Monday.
Crews searched on the ground and from the air for the hikers, officials said. That included a helicopter equipped with a thermal imaging device, which they used on Tuesday night.
The search on Wednesday included 25 game wardens, four K-9 teams, and 21 Baxter State Park rangers, as well as helicopters and personnel from the Maine Forest Service and Maine Army National Guard, officials said.
Tori Gray, who was a ranger for three seasons in Baxter State Park and is now a guide in the Katahdin region, said that the park is very remote and the terrain is treacherous. There is no cellular service, she said, and satellite communications are difficult.
“There’s only a handful of campgrounds in the whole park, and there’s no R.V. hookups,” Ms. Gray said in a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s all very primitive, and that speaks to the mission of the park, to maintain this true wilderness.”
To reach the summit, she said, hikers generally start out at about 1,000 feet in elevation and gain over 4,000 feet in about four miles.
She said that she could still see snow on the mountain from where she lives. The area where the hikers were found is at cloud level, she said, and sometimes you cannot see three to five feet in front of you.
“There’s a reason why the park had only opened two out of the five trails to the summit for this early season crowd of hikers,” she said. “It’s because parts of the mountain are still very icy, still very slick.”
She described the terrain as very rocky and steep. “So when it’s wet or cold out at all, it’s slippery,” she said. “It’s a very serious mountain that I think a lot of people underestimate.”
More than 60 people have died at Baxter State Park since officials began tracking deaths there in 1933, according to the 2018 book “Death on Katahdin.”
Adeel Hassan, a New York-based reporter for The Times, covers breaking news and other topics.
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