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

[Tower]

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.

You’ve explained thus very, very well. There are simple phone apps that track location as MissingSusan referred to, but you must have a cell signal, which we know Austin did not, and he would have had to specifically set them up, so his father would have known. Also, they burn through a phone battery. Jmo

 

[Eridachtlin]

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.

On top of that, it is standard practice to turn on airplane mode when backpacking in areas with poor cellular coverage. Otherwise a phone's battery runs down rather quickly as the phone continually tries and fails to connect to a non-existent cellular network.

There is no guarantee Austin's phone would be enabled to ping a cell tower.

 

[Missing Susan]

Good info thanks. Is it not established that King had cell service, made calls and pinged towers? I would have guessed his apps would have been in the background disgorging the precious data whether King wanted it to or not.

If your phone knows where you just ate without you knowingly setting it up to do so, it would likely know which way King headed after signing the register. Seems like every app requests location permission regardless of app function.

 

[Tower]

Good info thanks. Is it not established that King had cell service, made calls and pinged towers? I would have guessed his apps would have been in the background disgorging the precious data whether King wanted it to or not.

If your phone knows where you just ate without you knowingly setting it up to do so, it would likely know which way King headed after signing the register. Seems like every app requests location permission regardless of app function.

The information is pretty detailed earlier in the thread, but Austin used his cellphone and left a voicemail from the peak, per his father’s report. It is common in my experience in backcountry areas that I have cell coverage only on the summit.

The other pings from his phone are few, indicated by the fact they could not pinpoint Austin’s location, and likely occurred on a nearby summit or ridge that was also very high in elevation. We won’t know until Austin is found.

Line-of-sight cell connection is possible for many miles when there are no obstructions between a phone and a faraway cell tower. It is common when I summit a popular peak to hear many people’s cell phones chime with incoming text messages, as that is the first time all day they have cell coverage and we receive the messages all at once.

I do not know exactly how infrequently Austin would get coverage in that area, but there is a map earlier on this thread. It is remote wilderness, devoid of cell towers, and would simply not allow any type of app tracking like you would have in a city. The location would be incredibly imprecise compared to a city where cell towers are nearby and abundant.

ETA: I have all location services turned off that track “where you just ate” because even in the city, it depletes my phone battery. As others have said here, when there are no nearby towers, those location services use even more battery to constantly search for cell towers that are too far away to connect with. My new-ish phone would not stay charged for 24 hours in the wilderness if I had location services turned on. A 7-day backpack and summit in bad weather would not even allow solar charging. Phones are pretty useless out there, so most people turn them to airplane mode to use an offline track or turn them off.
My own experience

 

[CuriousCricket]

Solar power packs are abundant, inexpensive and been around a decade or more. One clipped to the outside of a backpack would provide great backup for recharging a phone. Seems that would be a great addition to most people, but esp. backpackers, hikers and travelers.

 

[Tower]

Solar power packs are abundant, inexpensive and been around a decade or more. One clipped to the outside of a backpack would provide great backup for recharging a phone. Seems that would be a great addition to most people, but esp. backpackers, hikers and travelers.

Austin very well may have had one. The reason why I’d guess not, all in my own experience. The good ones are expensive. The cheap ones require mid-afternoon direct sunlight at camp in a good position for a very long time to provide a decent charge. Clipped to the pack wouldn’t do it. Hazy or cloudy weather would make it nearly impossible. I’m sure this technology is improving, but it’s still very hard to keep a phone charged for a week and not worth the trouble, in my opinion. So I’d still say the chances that Austin had precise tracking apps running on his phone all week are unlikely. Jmo

 

[Eridachtlin]

Austin very well may have had one. The reason why I’d guess not, all in my own experience. The good ones are expensive. The cheap ones require mid-afternoon direct sunlight at camp in a good position for a very long time to provide a decent charge. Clipped to the pack wouldn’t do it. Hazy or cloudy weather would make it nearly impossible. I’m sure this technology is improving, but it’s still very hard to keep a phone charged for a week and not worth the trouble, in my opinion. So I’d still say the chances that Austin had precise tracking apps running on his phone all week are unlikely. Jmo

He would probably have carried a power bank. Phones and other electronics are ubiquitous for backpackers these days since everyone seems to rely on their phone for navigation. (I suspect a large percentage of youngish backpackers do not even know how to use a map and compass.) It seems like almost everyone carries a power bank to keep their stuff charged. That still does not get rid of the fact that without a satellite device he could not send anything except in very limited positions on top of peaks in the area. Below is a wider map of the area that shows cellular coverage (purple=4G/5G, green=3G/voice). In my experience these coverage maps are rather optimistic in areas like this.

 

[j_in_c]

Solar power packs are abundant, inexpensive and been around a decade or more. One clipped to the outside of a backpack would provide great backup for recharging a phone. Seems that would be a great addition to most people, but esp. backpackers, hikers and travelers.

Just a caution, if you connect to a cheap solar charger pack that is not actively getting enough sun it can actually drain your battery instead of charge it. I stick with name brand small power banks!

 

[ch_13]

Phones and other electronics are ubiquitous for backpackers these days since everyone seems to rely on their phone for navigation.

RSBM

The fact that he got so lost on his ascent and took a non-standard route suggests to me that Austin wasn’t using a navigation app and may have been relying on map & compass, or even dead reckoning. We know his phone was functioning at the peak so it wasn’t as if he ran out of power before summitting.

I’ve also been toying with the idea that maybe he went off-trail on purpose. To find a route no one’s done before, perhaps. Not something that a person with his level of experience should have been considering. But young people sometimes make foolish choices.

 

[Eridachtlin]

RSBM

The fact that he got so lost on his ascent and took a non-standard route suggests to me that Austin wasn’t using a navigation app and may have been relying on map & compass, or even dead reckoning. We know his phone was functioning at the peak so it wasn’t as if he ran out of power before summitting.

I’ve also been toying with the idea that maybe he went off-trail on purpose. To find a route no one’s done before, perhaps. Not something that a person with his level of experience should have been considering. But young people sometimes make foolish choices.

I don't think navigation by phone would have helped much for the actual ascent if was attempting the standard route. The route is not that defined. It mostly follows the ridge until the keyhole level. As the GPS track posted above shows, it basically amounts to scrambling up the ridge line anyway you can until 10,400 feet then traversing south under the cliff band until the keyhole. That peakbaggers site has two trip reports from two members of a six person party. The GPS route above is taken from that party's ascent. They took different ways up to the keyhole level. I will quote relevant sections from two trip reports below.

Report 1:

Leaving the trail at the pass, we headed toward the Northeast Ridge which looked a little intimidating; I was glad to have read so much about the route and looked at Eric G's beta photo, because the route is not straightforward and without prior knowledge it would be tricky to pick your way up any non-technical route. As it was we generally kept the route to class 3, with maybe a move or two of 4th. The scrambling is mostly on great rock, and for me the loose class 2 sidehills between scrambles were the toughest part.

Report 2:

Near the pass I found a clear drainage that went straight up and ended up bypassing a bit of the route. While I waited for the rest of the group, I topped out the little round pinnacle that serves as an obstacle along the ridge towards Eagle. Great views of the objective and also a good look at the potential route to adjacent 11497, which we had been considering today, no longer given the time and seeing the convoluted ridge containing several cliffs.

The rest of the group traversed below and I joined them as we regrouped at the start of the nice beta photos provided by Gilbertson and Neben. Grog and I got a head start, and fearing we were off route, recommended the rest of the group traverse around the cliffband we were on. Turns out we were probably on the better route, which snaked up to the ridge, allowing for a little bit of fun scrambling and easy access onto the grass ledge towards the keyhole. The rest of the group went up the wide gully, which seems to be what the beta photos were showing. We regrouped once again on the point, and took a short walk to the chockstone hole climb. We all enjoyed our moment squeezing up the corridor, handing up our backpacks and being careful of rockfall. From there it was a relatively straightforward steep climb up to the main NE ridge, then up to the clearly inferior east summit.

It seems that group of six did their research, had six people to look around for the best way up, and still used different paths up. That was with clear skies and perfect visibility. Coincidentally it was one year and one day prior to Austin's ascent.

The problem with the standard route is that it does not match Austin's description of hitting a connecting peak before the summit. Maybe, as you suspect, he might have tried a completely different route. Ending up on the SW ridge would somewhat match his description of a lesser peak connected to the summit. A new route in bad conditions sounds even crazier than just summiting at seven via the standard route.

That cell phone pings were detected from the SW ridge area lends credence to the theory. If he spent lots of time getting to a position under the SW ridge then it would explain why it took ten or more hours to do what should have been about a three and half mile hike. That is overselling the distance because the first two miles is a 1000 vertical foot hike to the pass that would have taken forty minutes.

 

[ch_13]

I don't think navigation by phone would have helped much for the actual ascent if was attempting the standard route. The route is not that defined. It mostly follows the ridge until the keyhole level. As the GPS track posted above shows, it basically amounts to scrambling up the ridge line anyway you can until 10,400 feet then traversing south under the cliff band until the keyhole. That peakbaggers site has two trip reports from two members of a six person party. The GPS route above is taken from that party's ascent. They took different ways up to the keyhole level. I will quote relevant sections from two trip reports below.

Report 1:

Report 2:


It seems that group of six did their research, had six people to look around for the best way up, and still used different paths up. That was with clear skies and perfect visibility. Coincidentally it was one year and one day prior to Austin's ascent.

The problem with the standard route is that it does not match Austin's description of hitting a connecting peak before the summit. Maybe, as you suspect, he might have tried a completely different route. Ending up on the SW ridge would somewhat match his description of a lesser peak connected to the summit. A new route in bad conditions sounds even crazier than just summiting at seven via the standard route.

That cell phone pings were detected from the SW ridge area lends credence to the theory. If he spent lots of time getting to a position under the SW ridge then it would explain why it took ten or more hours to do what should have been about a three and half mile hike. That is overselling the distance because the first two miles is a 1000 vertical foot hike to the pass that would have taken forty minutes.

It’s a head-scratcher, for sure. From the description in the logbook it doesn’t seem like Austin ever made it to Eagle Pass, which is an extremely straightforward hike from his campsite.

 

[Missing Susan]

I think King wrote "AKA not the right path" in the register. This suggests he was aware of the standard route and was probably intending to take it. If he set out to do a different route, he might have written "different path".

The standard hiking route has the much talked about section where you sidehill beneath the cliff to find the keyhole. If you are a rock climber, you might not need the keyhole as you could scale the cliff any number of ways.

Assume King was in the hiker category and was on the standard route but missed the keyhole. He might continue to sidehill towards and end up on the southwest ridge looking for a way around the cliff.

Interesting to note that none of the SAR routes show that they continued to sidehill like that so maybe it is very inhospitable that direction. But the tracks also show that no SAR hiked a continuous path from the SW ridge up to Eagle Peak, either.

 

[Missing Susan]

What happened to Minnesota native missing in Yellowstone? His dad is determined to find out.

Brian King-Henke is leading his own search from Wyoming for backpacker Austin King, a 22-year-old Winona native, who disappeared after reaching the summit of Eagle Peak.

www.startribune.com

Says
1. King talked on phone to mother from summit and the gist was he was already in trouble that evening

2. Gave park staff his plan that he would spend the night on Eagle and watch the sunrise in the morning from there.

 

[kccorona]

Gave park staff his plan that he would spend the night on Eagle and watch the sunrise in the morning from there.

Well… this is new, I’m pretty sure at least I haven’t seen it anywhere else. I do wonder though, given the poor conditions at the peak, and with his calls (and guestbook message) making it seem as though he knew he wasn’t doing so well, if he made a change in plans, at least to try to get to somewhere with a bit more coverage from the elements.

It does explain why he would’ve taken his sleeping bag with him though, as was reported early on.

 

[PrairieWind]

Well… this is new, I’m pretty sure at least I haven’t seen it anywhere else. I do wonder though, given the poor conditions at the peak, and with his calls (and guestbook message) making it seem as though he knew he wasn’t doing so well, if he made a change in plans, at least to try to get to somewhere with a bit more coverage from the elements.

It does explain why he would’ve taken his sleeping bag with him though, as was reported early on.

Has the sleeping bag been found? Do we know what color it was?

 

[Eridachtlin]

Well… this is new, I’m pretty sure at least I haven’t seen it anywhere else. I do wonder though, given the poor conditions at the peak, and with his calls (and guestbook message) making it seem as though he knew he wasn’t doing so well, if he made a change in plans, at least to try to get to somewhere with a bit more coverage from the elements.

It does explain why he would’ve taken his sleeping bag with him though, as was reported early on.

Wow. That explains a lot. Why he summited so late. What happened to his sleeping bag. With his sleeping bag, there are a lot more possibilities for where he ended up.

 

[tarabull]

Here's the photo of him departing....(left)

 

[mlhenn]

What happened to Minnesota native missing in Yellowstone? His dad is determined to find out.

Brian King-Henke is leading his own search from Wyoming for backpacker Austin King, a 22-year-old Winona native, who disappeared after reaching the summit of Eagle Peak.

www.startribune.com

King has been missing for nearly a month, and Lamb said elements of his story make it unlikely he survived. Search-and-rescuers found King’s food bag at his campsite, in addition to his tent and sleeping pad, Lamb added. And, while King submitted his trip plan to a park staffer, saying that he intended to sleep overnight on the summit to watch the sunrise, he was inexperienced.

Lamb said it’s possible King succumbed to cold weather or fell into a crevasse or ravine. That might explain why no one has found any trace of him, not even a missing backpack and sleeping bag from his campsite.

 

[RickshawFan]

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

Two, 90% of Yellowstone is federally designated wilderness. There are accomodations for maintenance by authorities, but the regulations break down to:

• Motorized equipment Motor vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, ATVs, OHVs, motorboats, chainsaws, carts, wagons, and drones are not allowed.
• Aircraft Landing aircraft, or dropping or picking up people, supplies, or material by aircraft is prohibited.
• Roads and structures Permanent or temporary roads, structures, or installations are not allowed.
• Commercial enterprises Commercial enterprises are not allowed.
• Competitive use Competitive use, such as foot races, water craft races, survival exercises, or war games, is prohibited.

This is true, but SAR, with permission, can use drones and other things.
I was with someone (age 90) who was rescued by SAR in a wilderness area (also a motorized anything prohibited) after he split his head. They came in on ATV's, including a Gator. SAR was super thrilled, because they weren't normally allowed up in there on ATV's, and they'd never used the Gator. They were going to make me walk out with both backpacks (!!!!!), at 2 am. But I ended up hanging onto the waist of a Big Bubba as we went down a deliberately obstacled mess of an old logging track. The backpacks ended up on the Gator!
SAR has become so overworked, drones really help out, especially in places like GC.
Recently-ish, they've started using Recco to find lost hikers. This has been around for avalanches for years, but now a Recco detector is available on a big ball that hangs on a cable from a helicopter. They can cover miles and miles in quick sweeps. It pings off a Recco strip in your jacket or pants. It will even penetrate DEEP snow. They used one of these to try and find Julian Sands: I guess the family paid for it, since it's the first time I've ever heard that kind of resource used in that kind of situation, where it was obviously a recovery mission, and not a rescue.
However, the missing person has to have a garment on (usually a jacket or snowpants) that has a Recco strip in it. This isn't very common yet in hiking apparel. It's very common in snow gear.
You can also buy a Recco tab and attach it to your pack, for not much money. However, there aren't a whole lot of Recco balls around yet! Presumably YNP could get one from Jackson, since that has a wealthy ski area. Dunno if they used one here. I would venture to bet the young many didn't have a Recco strip on him, but SAR might have considered this option.

 

[RickshawFan]

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.

I can't see the whole of the pack in the photo, but what I see would be too puny for shoulder season with risk of blizzard in Yellowstone. It would be about right if you were thru hiking the AT in summer and were kind of on the light side. You'd need a really warm sleeping bag here, and that takes a fair amount of volume, even if it's an expensive down one. You'd need raingear bottoms (to retain heat in an emergency), mid-weight long underwear and a substantial jacket. He seems to have had a raingear jacket. I wonder if he even took a tent? Enough water bottles? Food for a whole week? Enough rope? His mandatory bear spray?
He coulda gone off the end of a rope....
My iphone will call a satellite if 911 isn't reachable by phone. It would automatically send your position. Funnily, mine did that once, when I was taking a pit stop and magically ended up face down in the duff. I had to quick tell my AppleWatch it wasn't an emergency. (Note: my AppleWatch uses my phone to dial; I don't have cell service to the watch).
Plus, in this case, the young man must have been above treeline? So it would be easy to have the phone grab a satellite. But maybe he didn't have any kind of phone with him?
I wonder why he chose this trip? He doesn't seem to have much experience, or he'd have gone somewhere tamer. If he works for a YNP caterer, he wouldn't have enough days off to gather much experience in that park. And it's not the friendliest place to backpack, in the first place: too much could go wrong.