Police now believe missing Auckland tramper Irina Yun is dead, after finding her backpack, which was forced from her by rushing water.
The bag was discovered in a treacherous gorge area of the Dart River, below the Dart Hut, in Mt Aspiring National Park, Sergeant Aaron Nicholson, the Wanaka Police Search and Rescue (SAR) coordinator said.
"We have positively identified the pack as belonging to Ms Yun.
"Finding the pack, in its present condition has clearly indicated that it was torn from Ms Yun by the force of the water and that this, coupled with the other work done by search teams, unfortunately confirms our earliest fears that Ms Yun has been caught trying to cross one of the side creeks that bisect the track," Mr Nicholson said.
"Both Police and Land SAR regret what was a tragic and avoidable loss of life."
Ms Yun went missing on New Year's Eve while attempting to tramp the Cascade Saddle track from Mt Aspiring Hut in the West Matukituki Valley, to the Dart Hut on the Dart River.
She was last seen at 9.30am heading up the Cascade track.
Mr Nicholson said Land SAR teams would make one last attempt to find Ms Yun, focusing on the area immediately above and below where the pack was found, and using air scenting dogs and swift-water experts when weather conditions allowed.
"Realistically however, our chances are slim," he said.
"The volume of water in the Dart, as recorded by the Otago Regional Council was running at just under 700 cumecs (cubic metres per second) on the day Ms Yun went missing, 10 times above its average low level.
"The gorge area in which the pack was found is basically a huge jumble of massive rocks and white water and there is every chance the body is buried under silt or trapped well below the surface."
Search teams returned to the area shortly after dawn today, focusing on areas outside those searched exhaustively yesterday. The pack was found during a low-level helicopter search of the river gorges.
Bad weather has hampered the search for Ms Yun, who has lived in New Zealand since coming here five years ago from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.
She climbed in the mountains of her homeland and has visited Mt Aspiring National Park once before.
She left her four-year-old daughter in Auckland where her former partner lives and travelled alone to the South Island on Christmas Day.
