Helicopter search suspended for Squamish, B.C., mountain runner missing on Matterhorn

The helicopter search for Canadian mountain runner Kalie McCrystal has been suspended after repeated aerial sweeps of the Italian side of the Matterhorn failed to locate the 38-year-old athlete and lawyer from Squamish, B.C.

The dedicated helicopter operation was called off after a full day of aerial searches on Thursday turned up no trace of her.

McCrystal was last seen on Tuesday above the Jean-Antoine Carrel hut, at roughly 3,830 metres, making her way toward the summit.

Rescuers initially deployed a large air ambulance helicopter before switching to a smaller aircraft able to manoeuvre closer to the mountain's sheer rock faces and narrow gullies.

"We moved to a much smaller helicopter that can go closer to the cliffs and see in the couloirs," Valerio Segor of the Valle d'Aosta mountain rescue service told CBC. "They didn't see anything."

The last confirmed encounter came when a mountain guide crossed paths with McCrystal above the Carrel hut.

"She saw her still going up, quite quickly, and [McCrystal] told the guide she was training because she wanted to try the record," Segor said. "No one saw her since then."

One of the most recognizable peaks of the Alps, the Matterhorn straddles Italy and Switzerland, standing 4,478 metres tall.

McCrystal had been based in the Cervinia area of northwestern Italy preparing for an attempt to climb and descend the Matterhorn in less than five hours via the Lion Ridge, the main route from the Italian side.

Her disappearance prompted an extensive reconnaissance of the mountain. Crews searched steep gullies, cliff bands and sections of the route on both the Italian and Swiss sides.

Segor said they also used a helicopter-mounted RECCO detector, a radar system capable of locating