A 54-year-old New York man died sometime during a snowshoe hike that began Sunday above Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park.

He has been named as�Dr. Brian Grobois, an Orthodox Jewish psychiatrist, and resident�of New Rochelle, N.Y.

A CH-47 Chinook helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord was used Tuesday morning to lift Grobois from the mountain and take him to Madigan Army Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

�It appeared he had been dead for 24 hours,� said park spokeswoman Patti Wold.

�We have no idea what happened. (Rangers) had seen footprints in the area, so if he fell, it wasn�t from a distance,� Wold added. �We just don�t know what happened yet. We may never know.�

Rangers scanned the scene from a helicopter Tuesday afternoon, trying to determine what might have taken place. A ground team might investigate the area today.

Grobois� car was seen in the Paradise parking lot Sunday night and again early Monday morning, Wold said. At 9 a.m. Monday, his family called the park to report him overdue.

Six search and rescues teams, as well as a helicopter, began a search. Late in the afternoon, the helicopter crew spotted Grobois laying in the snow at the top of the Stevens Creek drainage. There was a dusting of snow on him.

The scene is northeast of Paradise at 5,500-6,000 feet in elevation, not far from the Paradise Glacier Trail on the south side of the 14,411-foot mountain.

Because of rough terrain in the area and fast approaching darkness, it was decided not to send in a ground team Monday evening.

A team reached the scene Tuesday morning and was able to load Grobois aboard the C-47, Wold said.

Temperatures at Paradise reached a low of 14 degrees Sunday night and were in the mid 20s Monday night.

Grobois is the third person to die on the mountain this year.

(Source: TNT)