Efforts were scaled back Tuesday in the search for Kate Svitek, the 22-year-old Upper Dublin Township woman who disappeared Feb. 9 while snowboarding in Bend, Ore., according to an official in Oregon.
Sgt. Chris Nolte, director of the Deschutes County Sherriff's Office of Search and Rescue, said Svitek was last seen making a run in an expert area of the Mount Bachelor ski resort known as the Northwest Territory on Feb. 9. The resort, where Svitek was employed, was notified she was missing at about 5:30 p.m. that day and Nolte's office was called in at about 7:30 p.m.
Covering an area of about 4-and-a-half square miles on the mountain, the search included at various times personnel on skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles and crews in helicopters, according to Nolte. On a day-to-day basis, he estimated there was a command crew of about 100 people putting in 600 to 700 man-hours looking for Svitek.

As of Feb. 19, Nolte said the search had been "scaled back" and there were no personnel searching on Tuesday. However, he noted Mount Bachelor has routine ski patrols in the Northwest Territory area and that those sweeps would continue.

While there are many theories as to what might have happened to Svitek, Nolte said they are all speculation at this point. There are numerous hazards in the expert area of the volcanic mountains, he said, including tree wells and naturally-occurring heat bents that could have created deep holes in the 142 inches of snow on the ground when Svitek went missing. Though many of these hazards were part of the search, Nolte said, "I don't believe we could have or did" investigate all of them in the area.

Mount Bachelor spokeswoman Molly Moloney said it was Svitek's first season working at the resort as a ticket attendant and she was out snowboarding on her day off on Feb. 9. According to Moloney, she went out on the mountain's Northwest Territory that day with friends and they all got separated from each other, which is "very common." There have been no previous incidents of guests or employees missing for this length of time at Mount Bachelor, she said.

Svitek grew up in the Ambler section of Upper Dublin Township and attended school at Germantown Academy. Last year, she graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in outdoor recreation and a minor in eco-tourism, according to published reports. A special prayer service was held for the Svitek family, which includes parents Ellen and Frank and younger brother Michael, at Spring House's Congregation Beth Or on Feb. 15. The family, which has been in Oregon since shortly after Svitek disappeared, participated in the evening via telephone.

"It was probably one of the saddest services any of us remember," said Steven Stone, second vice president of the congregation. On Feb. 18, he called the events of the previous week every parent's worst nightmare. "It's quite a tragic situation." The Sviteks are a very active and involved family at Congregation Beth Or, with Ellen serving as first vice president, according to Stone. Knowing Kate's background in teaching others survival skills, he said, "If anybody could take care of herself in that environment, Kate was certainly trained to do that."

Locally, people have turned to Oregon-based news service www.bend.com for the latest information on the search efforts and the Web site's comment board has become an outlet for people to offer their support and prayers to the Sviteks. A reporter for the site posted a message from the family Feb 17: "To the Bend community, the people of Mount Bachelor [and] all the people involved in the search effort: Kate Svitek's family could not be more appreciative of the massive effort of the search teams, the flawless coordination of the sheriff's department and Mount Bachelor ski patrol and the prayers of the Bend community in helping us find our missing family member. We will be forever grateful. God bless you all. The Svitek family."