THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300555
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: Medium
Members of mountaineering groups, camp counselors and rangers had been looking for Tyson Navis, 17, of Cox High School, and Brandon Lindsey, 15, of Norfolk Academy. The boys disappeared from a group of 135 students that hiked to the summit of Ampersand Mountain on Monday, about 15 miles west of Lake Placid, N.Y.
{REST} ``They were tired and dehydrated, but otherwise healthy,'' said Michele Hamilton, of the local Young Life chapter, the group the students were with. ``They had apparently strayed quite far from the mountain.''
Young Life is a student ministry that combines recreation with Christian themes and invites secondary school students each summer for a weeklong stay in lodges near Saranac Lake.
Navis and Lindsey were reported missing after camp counselors took a head count after the hike, New York authorities said.
``All the kids were together on top'' of the mountain, Ranger Doug Bissonette said. ``Apparently, they lost these two kids on the way down.''
Members of the Lower Adirondack Search and Rescue group and the Adirondack Orienteering Club from Saranac Lake joined forest rangers in search teams Wednesday, Bissonette said.
A ranger searched the mountain Monday night after camp workers searched the trail for three hours. Seven rangers and a state police helicopter joined the search Tuesday amid scattered rain showers.
``Young Life is very concerned about the safety of all its campers,'' said Susan Roys in a press release faxed from the ministry's headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. ``A full investigation will be conducted to discover how the boys strayed from the group and how to prevent this in the future.''
{KEYWORDS} MISSING PERSONS
by CNB