A massive search effort continues for a Minnesota man missing for nearly two weeks in the rugged Cloud Peak Wilderness of northern Wyoming.
Grant Gardner, a 38-year-old Minnesota man described as a skillful and experienced outdoorsman, texted his wife at about 7 p.m. on July 29 that he’d reached the top of Cloud Peak.
“He solo hikes, and he’s been hiking for over a decade,” Lauren Gardner told Cowboy State Daily last week from their home in Minnesota, where she’s with their two children, ages 13 and 11. “He’s used to this stuff, and he’s very detail-oriented.”
That text, in which Grant Gardner told his wife that the ascent up Cloud Peak was more difficult and taxing than he’d anticipated.
“He said it was straight uphill on boulders,” his wife said last week.
That was the last anyone heard from Gardner.
He was reported missing to the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 1, and the search effort has grown and expanded since.
Even though “the odds go down every hour” of finding Gardner alive, that’s the goal and expectation, Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn told Cowboy State Daily last week.
Although more time has now passed, the sheriff reiterated Monday that nobody has given up and that there has been a nationwide outpouring of offers to help.
“Since our last update (Aug. 7), considerable resources and manpower have been deployed in the search for Grant Gardner,” Blackburn says in a Monday update report. “We are actively working to resolve this emergency. The search, as you will see, has been very active.”
Massive Effort
The search of the Cloud Peak Wilderness area where Gardner is believed to have gone missing is expansive, Blackburn reports.
The search has employed considerable manpower from a large number of agencies, along with equipment like:
• Drones with cameras capable of identifying colors and minute disturbances.
• Drones, helicopters and planes with forward-looking infrared radar.
• Military-grade Bluetooth/cellphone detection equipment.
• Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation cellphone forensics teams, along with FBI forensics teams.
• Multiple dog tracking teams.
• More than a dozen search and rescue agencies.
• Many private donations and volunteer efforts.
“Our team is tired, but pushing forward,” Blackburn continues. “The Cloud Peak Wilderness is deceptively expansive, remote, and snow is starting to fall at higher elevations above 10,000 feet.
“Very thorough searches of these areas have been performed. Mr. Gardner could plausibly be in several areas and routes, all of which have been extensively searched.”
Tips from hikers in the area are being routed to the Bighorn County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch at 307-568-2324.
In the meantime, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
