The hiker was pronounced dead when firefighters arrived, according to the release. Multnomah County Search and Rescue then assisted the medical examiner’s office in recovering the woman’s body. They said she will be identified once her next of kin are notified. Staff from the Northwest Trauma Intervention Program were dispatched to provide emotional support and mental health resources to those affected by the hiker’s death, the release said. The woman was hiking the Multnomah Falls-Larch Mountain Trail, according to the release. Found about 1.3 miles from the trailhead. The Columbia River Gorge is a popular tourist destination in the Pacific Northwest, 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep, according to the US Forest Service. Multnomah Falls, a waterfall in the canyon area, is the most popular natural recreation area in the Pacific Northwest and receives more than 2 million visitors each year, the agency says. Stephanie Weinstein, a tourist visiting Multnomah Falls from Canada with her family, heard about the fatal fall shortly before she set out to hike the same trail, according to CNN affiliate KPTV. “It’s terribly devastating,” Weinstein said, according to KPTV. “It hit us hard to know it happened here,” Weinstein told KPTV. “My teenage son really likes going to the edge of the trails, horrible things can happen. “I send them all my prayers and thoughts.”
