A 34-year-old pilot who vanished on his way to work was found dead on a snow-streaked peak in Washington’s North Cascades last week, ending a three-day search that drew volunteers from seven mountain rescue units across the region.
Alex Keen, of Bothell, was reported missing on Sunday, May 10, 2026, after he failed to show up for his shift at Skydive Snohomish, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office said. By Tuesday afternoon, search crews had located his body on Mount Pugh, a 7,200-foot peak east of Darrington known by its Indigenous name, Da Klagwats.
For the people who knew Keen, the missed shift was the first alarm. He had worked as a full-time pilot at Skydive Snohomish for three years, flying out of Harvey Field in Snohomish and shuttling groups of skydivers into the sky several times a day. Failing to show up for work was completely out of character.
A Search That Climbed Into the Cascades
Deputies began piecing together Keen’s weekend almost immediately. He had told a handful of friends before the weekend that he planned to hike near Mount Pugh alone, and a search-and-rescue deputy soon found his vehicle parked at the trailhead outside Darrington.
What followed was a coordinated, multi-day operation that pulled in some of the most experienced alpine teams in the Pacific Northwest. Snohomish County Volunteer Search and Rescue worked alongside Everett Mountain Rescue, Skagit Mountain Rescue, Tacoma Mountain Rescue, Olympic Mountain Rescue and Seattle Mountain Rescue. Sheriff’s office helicopters swept the ridges above the trail, scanning the steep terrain that makes Mount Pugh both spectacular and unforgiving.
Crews aboard those helicopters eventually spotted personal hiking equipment at the top of a narrow, vertical gully. On May 12, mountain rescue teams were inserted by helicopter and worked their way down the ravine. They found Keen’s body about 800 vertical feet below the equipment, according to the sheriff’s office. A helicopter lifted his remains off the mountain and transferred them to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office, which will determine the cause and manner of death.
‘Passion for People and Adventure’
Family members identified Keen and began the painful work of remembering him publicly. His aunt, Karin Clemetson, told The Seattle Times that her nephew loved his church and approached life with what she called a “passion for people and adventure.”
“He enjoyed the outdoors, he enjoyed some adrenaline and he just enjoyed adventure,” Clemetson said. She described Keen as upbeat in the days before the hike and said the family was still struggling with one detail of the trip. “We’re just not quite sure why he went alone,” she said.
Friends at Skydive Snohomish painted a similar picture. The drop zone’s owner, Mayon Hight, who worked alongside Keen and considered him a close friend, remembered a pilot who was unfailingly punctual, generous with his time and almost impossible to dislike. Colleagues said Keen typically arrived 30 minutes early, smiling, before climbing into the cockpit for the day’s first lift.
An Unforgiving Mountain
Mount Pugh draws hikers each spring and summer with sweeping views of Glacier Peak, Sloan Peak, mounts Baker, Shuksan and Rainier, and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. But the trail’s upper reaches are notoriously steep, exposed and prone to lingering snow well into late spring. The Washington Trails Association has long warned that the route can be treacherous in snow or adverse weather and intimidating to less experienced hikers.
The location where searchers found Keen’s equipment — the top of a narrow, vertical gully — and the 800-foot vertical drop to his body suggest a sudden, catastrophic fall, though the medical examiner has not yet released findings. Investigators have not said whether weather, footing or another factor played a role.
A Family Now Facing the Aftermath
Keen was his mother’s only child. Clemetson has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover funeral expenses and end-of-life costs, writing that Keen’s mother is now confronting an unimaginable loss along with the practical weight of arranging her son’s burial.
In the skydiving community at Harvey Field, where Keen had spent the better part of his adult career flying jumpers into the sky above Snohomish, the absence is already conspicuous. Coworkers described a steady presence in the hangar — a pilot who measured his weeks not just in flight hours but in the people he met on every load, and who spent his off days chasing the same kind of vertical thrill from the ground up.
The sheriff’s office has not released additional details about the timeline of Keen’s hike, and questions remain about exactly when he reached the area where searchers ultimately found him. A positive identification from the medical examiner is pending, along with a final determination of how he died on the mountain he had told friends he wanted to climb.