The volunteer search orchestrated by a missing hiker’s father in Yellowstone National Park hit a devastating obstacle Monday night, when Yellowstone National Park authorities declined to authorize a private helicopter flight to drop experienced climbers on the southwest side of Eagle Peak, searchers say.
The flight was meant to be one last effort to find Austin King, 22, who vanished Sept. 17 after summitting the park’s highest mountain, Eagle Peak.
Snow is forecast for the early-morning hours of Thursday in Yellowstone. If the storm brings more than a dusting, it could block search efforts for months until summer.
Yellowstone National Park authorities and at least one leader of the volunteer search team made different assertions about why the park refused to allow the flight.
The park’s superintendent told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that park authorities have not received enough information about the planned flight to ensure its safety, such as the helicopter’s capacity to fly in high, mountainous terrain, and the pilot’s experience to do the same.
“We deeply sympathize with Austin’s family and their desire to continue searching for him,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly in an email statement the park’s spokeswoman sent Tuesday to Cowboy State Daily. “While we are supporting requests to help them conduct these additional search efforts, they have recently requested to use a contracted helicopter to insert additional searchers.
"We have asked specifically for the helicopter’s capacity to fly at high mountainous altitudes and the level of experience the pilot has flying and landing in mountainous terrain. We have not received this information at this point but will evaluate it further once we do."
He added that safety of those in the search party also is a top priority.
“The last thing anyone would want is a helicopter crash and additional fatalities or injuries," he said.
Park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin elaborated in a Tuesday phone interview, saying authorities are “still waiting” on critical information about the pilot and the flight. She reiterated that the search effort is now in the “recovery” phase rather than a “rescue” phase.
Recovery generally denotes a search for a dead body, rather than a lost or injured person.
“We will continue (to search) as weather conditions allow, with limited searches for recovery,” Warthin added.
She said Sholly has personally been involved in the park's search efforts, including a late-season aerial mission Yellowstone orchestrated Sunday, involving helicopters.
"The fact that this well-intentioned search party couldn't answer basic questions about the type of helicopter or pilot's experience says it all," added Sholly in another Tuesday statement. "And if I said yes without asking those questions and the helicopter crashed and killed five people, everyone would be asking why Yellowstone didn't vet the helicopter and pilot before flying to the highest peak in Yellowstone."
Hard No
John Lamb, a coordinator of the volunteer searches that deployed last week, said Yellowstone didn’t indicate it needed more information from the team’s plan, but delivered a hard “no” via phone call just before 10 p.m. Monday night – while the helicopter team was preparing to fly out at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The message he received was that the risk was too high with the search now in its recovery phase. He countered the park’s assessment, pointing to the team’s experience. He said the searchers have signed risk waivers.
“The whole plan and the helicopter service was 100% qualified,” said Lamb. “We’re not trying to bash the park itself, and all the good workers that work up there. I believe every searcher was searching diligently and doing everything they can.”
Still, he said, he was disappointed that the flight was turned away.
“They never told us they were disqualifying us for the helicopter or anything like that,” he said. “All we got back was ‘no.’ That was it.”
Earlier when Lamb described to Cowboy State Daily the crew’s limited and dwindling search efforts in light of the rejection, he fought back tears.
The southwest region of the mountain, known as Table Mountain, is the least-searched area but also appears to be a likely trajectory for King, said Lamb.
Some cellphone ping information has pointed towards that region. Also, said Lamb, King may have abandoned his camp and decided to trek straight toward Yellowstone Lake after weathering a cold and harrowing full-day climb to the summit in the fog.
King was due to catch a boat on the lake to take him back toward his RV in Grant Village three days later. He never showed. He had spent the summer working in the park for concessionaire company Xanterra.
Lamb said it’s not feasible for the hikers to hike into the region on foot to perform their search, especially with the anticipated storm. The hike-in, hike-out time could add days to the journey that the searchers don’t have. Even experienced mountaineers don’t prefer to traverse that region, let alone with overnight packs and other gear on their backs, he said.
Brian King-Henke at the Eagle Creek Trailhead, watching the final, desperate search for his son dwindle ahead of Wednesday evening’s expected storm. (Photo courtesy John Lamb) 
The search crew. (Courtesy John Lamb) 
Brian King-Henke facing the creek the searchers have to cross to trek the 14 miles into their search area around Eagle Peak. (Courtesy John Lamb) 
A Cody woman named Jessica brings the crew hot food every day. (Courtesy John Lamb)
The Plan
Yellowstone released the search team’s proposed flight plan to Cowboy State Daily via a Tuesday email.
It lists the scope, personnel involved, locations, backup and communications plan, a map and a phone number.
The plan says the helicopter was from Yellowstone Helicopters in West Yellowstone, Montana, and listed a phone number for the service.
The flight service did not immediately respond to Cowboy State Daily’s Tuesday voicemail request for comment.
Warthin noted that the company appears to be a tour guiding service.
“While we appreciate that, there is no information on the type of helicopter nor if the pilot has experience,” said Warthin in an email.
For the rope crew, the plan lists three volunteers with a combined 39 years of search and rescue experience. It says the team would also supply a fourth crew member with technical alpine rope rescue experience.
The plan lists one primary and two backup landing zone options with coordinates. It lists the communication plan to include an Inreach communications and navigational device, a command group tracking and supervising the operation, cell communications and radio.
The plan shows a topographical map of the search region.
Searchers hoped to land at their primary landing zone then search on foot on and around the Table Mountain ridge, the plan says. They’d spend about seven hours there while the base commanders tracked them via Inreach.
The plan concludes with: “Please reach out if you have any questions” and the coordinator’s direct cellphone number.
Meanwhile, A Father
After he received the news, Brian King-Henke started to contemplate a winter of not knowing where his son is.
“It’s a lot to take in, because our future’s kind of – we don’t know what it’s going to hold right now,” he told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “If I have to make the decision to come back home, it’s going to be a long road.”
King-Henke has a support system back home, and he’s in touch with the many people who love his son, he said. But if the weather obscures the mountain for the winter, King-Henke may not be able to bring another search party out until July at the earliest.
“There’s nothing I can say or do. It just is what it is, I guess,” he said. “I gotta take it in and move on and keep moving forward.”
As in his past interviews, King-Henke ended on a positive note. He’s amazed at the generosity of the town of Cody. Residents have been bringing the searchers warm food every day. A local gear rental shop, Sunlight Sports, has let them borrow gear.
People from many areas have donated online as well, he said.
And his volunteer team has voiced an eagerness to return next July, if that’s what it takes to find King, he said.
“At the beginning of this journey, I asked God to bring me my army,” said King-Henke. “It’s just been truly amazing and I’m at a loss for words.”
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include a post-publication comment by Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
