Searchers in India get another week to find Minnetonka hiker

September 30, 2011 at 12:39AM

Searchers are being given at least another week to find a hiker from Minnetonka who fell from a steep path near a river in northeastern India and is presumed dead, the school that sponsored the expedition said Thursday.

Thomas Plotkin, 20, fell Sept. 22 from a 6-foot-wide cobblestone trail far above the rain-swollen Gori Ganga River while hiking with five others from the Wyoming-based National Outdoor Leadership School.

School spokesman Bruce Palmer said 40 to 50 people searched Thursday but made no progress in finding Plotkin, a Hopkins High School graduate and a junior majoring in international business at the University of Iowa.

Palmer said authorities in the area were willing to keep up the search for another week but added, "I don't think that's a hard deadline."

The search area has been narrowed, Palmer said, after Plotkin's backpack was found in a tree branch about a mile downstream from where he fell. Other belongings, including a raincoat and a headlamp, were strewn about.

Plotkin's study group was trekking the 37-mile Johar trail, which meanders along the river in the Himalayan foothills.

PAUL WALSH

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Paul Walsh

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Paul Walsh is a general assignment reporter at the Minnesota Star Tribune. He wants your news tips, especially in and near Minnesota.

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