Authorities say a hiker who has been missing in the Bear Tooth Mountains near the Wyoming-Montana border was evidently killed in a rock slide.

Twenty-three-year-old Tatum Morell had been missing since the Fourth of July weekend. Morell was an experienced hiker and it's believed she left her tent on July 2 and didn't return.

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Hikers found her body on Saturday well below the Whitetail couloir. Despite the area being rigorously searched, it was difficult to see Morell's body as she was covered in rocks.

Morell's body was airlifted from the area where she was found to Red Lodge Airport, where she was met by her family and fire rescue personnel.

“After almost two months of extensive search efforts, we are relieved that she is able to be returned to her family,” said Assistant Chief Jon Trapp with Red Lodge Fire Rescue. “The effort volunteers put into finding Tatum surpassed anything I’ve seen in my 17 years with Search and Rescue operations; it was absolutely incredible."

According to Sunday's announcement, Morell planned to climb five mountain peaks over 12,000' in the west fork of Rock Creek near Red Lodge, Montana.

Red Lodge sits in extreme southern Montana, just beyond the Wyoming border.

She backpacked into Shadow Lake on July 1 and contacted her family via an InReach satellite communicator.

It was her last communication with her family.

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