A month ago, a 22-year-old man went missing in Yellowstone National Park. His father has said that they will have to give up their search until spring if they do not find him soon.
Austin King went on a solo trip on September 14 and three days later reached the top of Eagle Peak in Wyoming, which is Yellowstone’s tallest mountain.
He has not been seen or heard from since, though, and his family is worried that the search for him is being slowed down.
Brian King-Henke, Austin’s father, said, “If we do not go now, we will have to wait until Spring.” and it was important to move now.
The harsh warning comes as temperatures in the national park are about to drop to minus 10 degrees. As winter approaches, things will get even worse.
As the weather gets worse and sub-zero temperatures become common from October to April, the National Parks Service closes roads. This makes it much harder to do a search and rescue operation.
Austin has not been seen or heard from in a month. His father said that when he went on his walk to Eagle Peak, he brought only a water bottle and a sleeping bag.
The hiker told his father in a note left at the top of the mountain that he was relieved to have made it to the top of the mountain after dealing with terrible weather in a message.
His dad did not get the message until a week after Austin called—he had no idea that it would be the last time he would hear from Austin.
“I can not feel my fingers and my glasses are so foggy from the harsh mountain weather,” the note read. “After everything that happened to get here, I still can not believe I am here.” It rained, sleeted, hailed, and blew so hard I thought I would die.
“There was so much fog that I could not see Eagle for most of the day.” I free-climbed too many cliffs to get here, and I took the wrong way up to the peak from the connecting peak. Today is the 22nd of my life, and I will never forget it.
“Live your life, it is beautiful!” before he signed it and put a happy face next to it.
Sad to say, his dad said, “He was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He was best friends with his little brother.” He was always happy…I have no words to describe what we are going through.
Search and rescue teams said they saw tracks and the remains of a fire pit on the trail, but they were not sure if they were Austins’.
It looks like his dad is now trying to find his son on his own, by organizing several search attempts before winter comes.
There is a GoFundMe page that has raised $13,000, and more than 100 relief workers have helped with the search so far.
He said this about the people who have volunteered to help: “I asked God to send me an army, and he did.”