VERLOT — Marysville hiker Jack LaMont was found dead at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 6 after he went missing in the mountains east of Granite Falls over the weekend.

LaMont became the subject of a search by Mountain Rescue teams from throughout the Puget Sound region off the Mountain Loop Highway when he did not return home after he left to go on a hiking trip on Dec. 4.

By 10 a.m. on Dec. 6, about 21 mountain rescue volunteers were on Morning Star Peak, along with two search dogs, and the Sheriff’s Office helicopter was set to make another search run at 11 a.m., according to Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Director of Communications Rebecca Hover.

LaMont’s wife reported him overdue at 11:30 am on Dec. 5, after he and his dog, Shotgun, departed their residence at about 9 a.m. on Dec. 4 for a day-long hike in the Morning Star Peak area of the Mountain Loop Highway.

After his wife called 911 for assistance, patrol deputies located LaMont’s car in the Morning Star Peak area and called for Snohomish County Volunteer and Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.

A command post was established in the Verlot area and deputies, Search and Rescue Volunteers and the SNOHAWK 1 helicopter searched throughout the day and into the night of Dec. 5 for LaMont, a 54-year-old member of the Everett Mountaineers who was described as an experienced hiker.

Additional volunteer searchers from King, Skagit and Whatcom Counties joined the search on the morning of Dec. 6, before LaMont’s body was finally found at about the 3,100-foot level of Morning Star Peak, which reaches 6,017 feet. LaMont’s dog, Shotgun, was found alive with the body.