The body of a hiker who went missing in late July has been found and recovered from the Bighorn Mountains.
The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the body of Grant Gardner, 38, was found on the northern route of Cloud Peak on Tuesday evening. Gardner had summited that peak on July 29, which was also the last time anyone had been in contact with him.
“A group of very experienced mountaineers from North Carolina was descending the North Slope of Cloud Peak on Tuesday evening,” Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn told Cowboy State Daily. “As they were making their camp at a high altitude, over 11,000 feet, they noticed a small glint of an object, which turned out to be a small piece of fabric from Gardner’s backpack.”
The mountaineers immediately contacted the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office. Personnel from Big Horn County Search and Rescue (SAR) mobilized and reached the scene on Wednesday morning, where they found Gardner deceased.
After “a difficult and dangerous recovery,” Gardner’s body was flown out of the Bighorn Mountains. Once an investigation is completed by the Big Horn County Coroner’s Office, his body will be brought home to his grieving family in Minnesota.
“We believe Gardner succumbed to a tragic accident, as we all have surmised,” the sheriff said.
Silence At The Summit
Gardner, an experienced hiker, set out to climb the 13,166-foot summit of Cloud Peak, the tallest mountain in the Bighorns. He intended to complete a hike around the Mistymoon Lake area in three days.
On the evening of July 29, Gardner texted his wife to tell her he’d reached the summit, but the climb “was more taxing than he expected and he was tired,” according to a report from Blackburn. That was the last contact anyone had with Gardner.
The Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office mobilized a massive search and rescue operation on Aug. 1.
Despite difficult weather, terrain and the challenges of searching at high altitudes, Blackburn deployed “considerable resources and manpower” in the search for Gardner, including multiple helicopters, airplanes, electronic tracking equipment, and personnel from Teton County SAR and the Wyoming Army National Guard.
Gardner’s vehicle was found in the West Ten Sleep trailhead parking lot, which is where he began his hike to Cloud Peak. His phone records showed that he reached the summit around 7 p.m. on July 29.
After 20 days, the search for Gardner was suspended on Aug. 20.
While it was “a heartbreaking and difficult decision,” Blackburn said his team had to “face the reality that the most optimistic survival odds (had) run out.”
A Fleeting Glimpse Of Fabric
The area where Gardner’s body was found had been searched from the air multiple times during the 20-day search effort. For Blackburn, it reveals the challenges of SAR operations in the Bighorn Mountains.
“It's important for people to understand how large and expansive the Cloud Peak Wilderness is,” he said. “It’s easy to disappear in that area. There are a lot of nooks and crannies.”
Blackburn said that Gardner’s body was found between two rocks on the mountainside. It was positioned in a way that obscured it from view, and Gardner’s clothes closely resemble the texture and color of the terrain, making it extremely difficult to spot.
The mountaineers were fortunate to spot the glimmer from Gardner’s backpack, which led Big Horn County SAR to his location.
“In that area, you can be right next to something and not necessarily see it,” Blackburn said. “It had to be the right people, at the right time, with the right light conditions, in the right place.”
The mountaineers had summited Cloud Peak earlier on Tuesday. They spotted Gardner while setting up their camp in preparation for a summit attempt of Mount Woolsey on Wednesday.
Blackburn said Mount Woolsey isn’t as tall as Cloud Peak, but it’s a “very technical climb” that many climbers practice for. Gardner didn’t indicate any intention of climbing Mount Woolsey, and Blackburn doesn’t believe he attempted to do so.
“His objective was to get back to Timberline on the south face,” he said. “Mount Woolsey was not his objective.”
Thanks, Thoughts, And Prayers
The exhaustive effort to find Gardner was, according to Blackburn, “an operation with so many moving parts.” It would’ve been impossibly difficult without the support and dedication of the multiple people and agencies who contributed to it.
Blackburn was particularly gracious to the North Carolina mountaineers, whose sharp eyes and immediate contact with the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office made it possible to recover Gardner’s body.
“These people graciously aborted their summit attempt for Mount Woolsey and stayed on scene to specifically point out what they were looking at, so there was no guesswork in it,” he said. “Additionally, they climbed with our mountain rescue personnel to access the area where Gardner was found.”
The Big Horn County Coroner’s investigation into what happened to Gardner will take some time. While the outcome is tragic, Blackburn takes solace in being able to return Gardner to his family
“While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much-needed peace and closure to the family,” he said. “We want to thank everybody and our community for their prayers and thoughts on behalf of the family.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
