WY WY - Austin King, 22, Yellowstone National Park, Eagle Peak, 17 Sept 2024

[Eridachtlin]

The part I have wondered about is the note he wrote at the top, where he indicated he "“free soloed too many cliffs to get here" Source If he free climbed up, how could he consider doing the same on the way back? I can see how, with how difficult his route up was, he might consider going back a different way, albeit an unfamiliar way.

He had a difficult choice. Try to find the standard route in the dark, where he won't recognize anything familiar and may not be able to find it, or go back the way he came, where he at least knows the way. The cell pings indicate he did not attempt the standard route down.

Personally I think he should have tried a third choice: Find somewhere out of the wind and run in place, use isometric exercise, whatever to endure a miserable night then find his way down when it it light. The suspicion is that his clothing was inadequate for the conditions. It is not unlikely that he brought fleece gloves, which would be fine for summer/shoulder season backpacking, but would quickly wet out when climbing in snow. He may have been pre-hypothermic even before starting down, which would make attempting to stay in one place very challenging.

It would really help if we knew the time of the cell phone pings on the SW ridge.

 

[Eridachtlin]

And you would see wrecked drones around Old Faithful etc. because someone always has to get that "ultimate" photo.

Bison stampede caused by people annoying a herd with drones...

 

[Pseudonymph]

He may have been pre-hypothermic even before starting down, which would make attempting to stay in one place very challenging.

Based on his note where he describes how cold and tired he was but still seems to be expressing euphoria, I think he was definitely hypothermic. Euphoria is a symptom of hypothermia.

Edited to add, there's something called "terminal burrowing" that is also commonly one of the final phases of hypothermia. Victims crawl somewhere small and sheltered to hide, even digging into the earth. They also sometimes take off their clothes because you feel very warm when you're close to death.

 

[mickey2942]

I so wish he had called for help when he had cell service. There is absolutely nothing wrong with reaching out for help. I wish more people would know, that no matter how stupid you may feel, or whatever, it doesn't matter. SAR would rather find someone alive, than do a recovery mission.

That is what these people do, they rescue people who need help. We don't usually hear about the amazing stories, because there is no real "news" in a story with a happy ending. Unfortunately. Every day, when my son was doing ski patrol, he loved finding people who were stuck on a slope too challenging. They called out for help, before getting hurt. And they were more than happy to sled them out.

 

[RedHaus]

One, it is a national park. I believe it is against federal law to operate a drone in any national park

RSBM
Prolly worth adding a caveat that the NPS / SAR use drones, AK's case included. The last spaghetti search diagram had drone searches outlined in black, IIRC. Happy to repost it again if necessary.

 

[Eridachtlin]

RSBM
Prolly worth adding a caveat that the NPS / SAR use drones, AK's case included. The last spaghetti search diagram had drone searches outlined in black, IIRC. Happy to repost it again if necessary.

The superintendent for the park can make a determination that management or administration requires an exception. SAR would fall under that. For regular citizens the regulations in wilderness areas are very strict. You cannot even use one of those old school measuring wheels you roll along a trail to measure distance by measuring wheel rotations because the device has a wheel.

 

[RedHaus]

NPS/SARs search map as of 10/2. Since it's so important to AK's case, I'm reposting.
Source

 

[mlhenn]

The Search for a Missing Yellowstone Hiker Hits a Major Snag. But His Dad Vows to Keep Looking.

Officials denied a private helicopter to help volunteers continue their search for 22-year-old Austin King, who vanished in mid-September in a remote corner of the park

www.outsideonline.com

On Thursday, October 17, King posted on the (**** page) that he and crews were planning to pack up their base camp at Eagle Creek Campground.

“It is and will be rough couple of days to wait and see how much snow we get to determine if we can go back out or we are done until next year,” King-Henke wrote in the post. “I prayed to God to ask him to allow us some more time.”

 

[mlhenn]

Missing Yellowstone hiker’s dad continues ground search without park’s OK for helicopter • Idaho Capital Sun

The father of missing Yellowstone National Park hiker Austin King and volunteers are scouring the remote Eagle Peak area of Yellowstone.

idahocapitalsun.com

Park officials initiated a search the following morning at first light. In the 11 days that followed, more than 100 people participated in the effort with helicopters, search dogs, spotting scopes, trackers and a drone. The effort logged more than 3,225 air and ground miles in the area near Eagle Peak.

Search crews with Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and Park and Teton counties scoured the mountain on foot and from the air. They encountered accumulations of snow and ice and 6-foot drifts on Eagle Peak — evidence of the storm the King encountered.

Rescuers discovered his camp in the upper Howell Creek area, but did not locate the missing hiker. They recovered his belongings and returned them to the family, park spokesperson Morgan Warthin confirmed Tuesday.

 

[tarabull]

Blow in search for Yellowstone hiker as park rejects ‘risky’ mission

A volunteer coordinator was reportedly given a ‘hard ‘no’’ by the US Forest Service on the planned mission

www.independent.co.uk

 

[RedHaus]

Blow in search for Yellowstone hiker as park rejects ‘risky’ mission

A volunteer coordinator was reportedly given a ‘hard ‘no’’ by the US Forest Service on the planned mission

www.independent.co.uk

So frustrating for Lamb and Henke-King.

I have seen this several times over the past few days. And I now just feel the need to point out it is possible AK made it down from the Eagle Peak Summit. Did he accomplish that 9/18 at daybreak?

Regardless of descent date, I think it's important to note his cell phone ping near Table Mountain.

"Lamb said they intended to head to the southwest region – the less commonly searched “Table Mountain” – as cellphone pings had buzzed signal points in the area suggesting that the 22-year-old may have headed toward Yellowstone Lake."

ET: fix typo

 

[tarabull]

FWIW...

See fall snowstorm blanket Yellowstone National Park, create majestic display

Grand Prismatic Spring, the third largest hot spring in the world and one of Yellowstone's top attractions, looked particularly magical.

www.usatoday.com

 

[j_in_c]

over 8000 ft, you can get altitude sickness...I just cannot imagine getting down off this mountain in the dark, wind and precipitation- wind on mountain peaks is flat out life threatening- if AH could barely see and navigate in daylight, I cannot imagine how he could navigate in the dark... compass? With that much weather, you cannot easily take things out of your pack or hold anything securely and the simplest things like drinking water become arduous. IMO.

Just catching up on this thread - I was a summer worker in Yellowstone a very long time ago. Likely he was altitude adjusted as the whole park is pretty high and after 3 months living and hiking in the park he would be in good physical condition.

There are many peaks in the park that don't have established summit trails but rather routes and these are much easier to get yourself lost on especially in poor visibility. we had no GPS or phones when I was there and word of mouth\ paper maps were how you would hope to know where to go. It should be noted that unlike the Tetons there are virtually no true rock climbing routes in Yellowstone as quality of the rock is poor (especially as contrasted to the Tetons).

I'm surprised he was so completely off route since he had a phone and these days it is much easier to see where you are versus your intended path. But mapping apps drain phone batteries and they drain even quicker in the cold

It cannot be overstated how huge this park is and as mentioned elsewhere the backcountry of Yellowstone is incredibly remote.

All the best to his family and I hope they use extreme caution in continuing the search.

 

[Eridachtlin]

I'm surprised he was so completely off route since he had a phone and these days it is much easier to see where you are versus your intended path. But mapping apps drain phone batteries and they drain even quicker in the cold

Yeah, it would be very unusual if he was not using an app like Gaia GPS or CalTopo. They would, at the very least, make it very easy to backtrack. But I have looked in vain for a GPS track for the standard climbing route. Gaia GPS shows no trail to the summit. Its mountaineering route layer has nothing. No social media posts seem to have a track. The best seems to be the picture taken from Eagle Pass with the route drawn on it. It is super hard to translate that to a GPS route on a topo map.

My guess is he did not have any better beta than we have found in this thread--maybe worse. He probably expected dry conditions, thought he could find his way up based on descriptions of the route from trip reports, found cold and snowy conditions with poor visibility that made it impossible to find his ill-defined idea of the route, and pressed on when he should not have.

 

[Missing Susan]

Here is the track of the climbing route. The route has also been described with pics by Gerry Roach who i think is widely known.

Eagle pass is just to the East. I took this screenshot because I believe the crucial keyhole is in the exact center of the map.

 

[Missing Susan]

This is one of the SAR photos which show the route under the cliff leading to the keyhole. On the right hand side you can see searchers in yellow beneath the cliff. Then you see footprints in the snow along the base of the cliff heading towards the keyhole, which is just to the left of a small cascade of water seen coming off the cliff.

The path that the SAR crew took was slightly uphill to the track I posted. Feel free to check my work here...

https://flic.kr/p/2qivGaU

 

[Eridachtlin]

Here is the track of the climbing route. The route has also been described with pics by Gerry Roach who i think is widely known.

Eagle pass is just to the East. I took this screenshot because I believe the crucial keyhole is in the exact center of the map.

Thanks. Imported into Gaia GPS and adding cell coverage I get:

 

[Missing Susan]

Isnt it likely that multiple apps on his phone were tracking his gps location? These companies presumably collect this data to sell for profit.

For example, can I go somewhere to buy all gps data around eagle peak on the date in question from OnX?

 

[Tower]

Isnt it likely that multiple apps on his phone were tracking his gps location? These companies presumably collect this data to sell for profit.

For example, can I go somewhere to buy all gps data around eagle peak on the date in question from OnX?

Without a cell signal, the data is sparse. Most people in the backcountry turn off their phone to save battery because if apps were tracking his location, his battery would never last for his 7-day trek. Backpackers do use solar chargers, etc., but without cell coverage, there isn’t precise location tracking. Moo

ETA: I believe the technology you’re referring to works offline, meaning you download the track to follow, but the server is not tracking your location in realtime in a remote location without cell coverage.

 

[ch_13]

Isnt it likely that multiple apps on his phone were tracking his gps location? These companies presumably collect this data to sell for profit.

For example, can I go somewhere to buy all gps data around eagle peak on the date in question from OnX?

GPS is only one-way communication. The signals are broadcast from a satellite and your phone interprets them to determine your location. Nothing is sent back up to the satellite.

The only way for anyone to know where you are is if the phone can link to a cell tower. (And some of the newest phones can also send out messages via satellite. But that’s a separate system than GPS.)

In a way, GPS is a little like old-fashioned broadcast tv or radio. The tv/radio is only a receiver of signals sent over the airwaves. Nothing is sent from your tv/radio so no one could know what you’re watching or listening to.