A search in Yellowstone National Park for a missing 22-year-old hiker has shifted focus from “rescue” to “recovery” about 10 days removed from the last time anyone talked to him, the man’s family has announced — but the park was unwilling Friday to confirm that.
“We are still actively searching for Austin King,” Yellowstone National Park’s public affairs office wrote in a Friday email to Cowboy State Daily.
The park did not comment on the family’s claim that the operation has shifted into “recovery” mode, a category that generally refers to seeking someone presumed to be dead, and the public affairs office pointed to its Friday press release on the search.
However, King’s father Brian King-Henke shared a statement to social media Thursday, calling the operation a recovery.
“With a heavy heart we’re sharing that over the past few days, the search team has transitioned to a recovery operation,” says the post, signed by King’s mother Pandy King and shared by Brian King-Henke.
“The search for Austin will continue,” the post adds. “They are focusing on new digital data the Search & Rescue Team received through collaboration with another agency.”
The statement credits the search and rescue team with using “unimaginable resources & technology to bring Austin home” and radiating “passion and personal commitment” to the task.
“Words cannot express how much your love and support has meant to us. Forever Austin’s mom, Pandy,” the statement concludes.
Neither parent could be reached for comment by publication time.
Crumbling
King, an amateur mountaineer and Xanterra concessionaire seasonal worker in the park, left earlier this month for a climb up the park’s highest mountain, Eagle Peak. He called friends and family after he summitted the 11,373-foot peak Sept. 17, cold in the fog and sleet but elated.
After that, he missed his scheduled Sept. 20 boat pickup. On Sept. 21, search and rescue crews deployed aerial and ground resources.
To date, 96 personnel, two helicopters, a search dog team, ground teams with spotting scopes and a drone have looked for King in what the park’s Friday statement calls “this high-elevation, expansive and hazardous area.”
Eagle Peak is hazardous in part because its sides are crumbly, with deceptive foot- and handholds that can break beneath a climber’s grasp.
One Teton County and one YNP helicopter searched extensively around the peak and nearby drainages and ridgetops Thursday, says the park’s statement.
YNP also noted the use of cellular data, saying staffers are working with cellular forensic experts to learn more about King’s cellphone data.
“Yellowstone continues to partner with Grand Teton National Park, Park County, Wyoming, and Teton County, Wyoming, to look for King,” says the statement. “Multiple crews will continue searching for the next several days as conditions warrant.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
