Search continues for lost hiker

JACKSON (WNE) — Yellowstone National Park officials are still searching for Austin King, a 22-year-old Minnesota man last heard from a week ago on the highest peak in the park.

The park is asking for the public’s help in locating King.

People with information about his whereabouts should contact the park dispatch center at 307-344-2643. Anyone backpacking, horsepacking or otherwise moving through the backcountry near Eagle Peak since Sept. 14, three days before King went missing, may have seen him.

King is about 6 feet tall, weighs about 160 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes. He wears glasses and may be wearing a black sweatshirt and gray pants, officials said in a Sunday press release.

King was on a seven-day backcountry trip when he called friends and family from the summit of Eagle Peak on Sept. 17, acquiring service on the 11,364-foot mountain in Yellowstone’s remote, southeastern corner.

“While on the summit, King described fog, rain, sleet, hail and windy conditions,” Yellowstone officials said in the press release.

Sept. 17 was the last time King contacted the outside world, officials said in the press release. Three days later, King was reported overdue to Yellowstone’s dispatch center. He did not arrive for a scheduled boat pickup Friday on Yellowstone Lake’s southeast arm.

At first light the next day, Yellowstone began a search and rescue effort, surveying higher elevation areas surrounding Eagle Mountain and lower areas near Yellowstone Lake from air and land. Later that evening, first responders discovered King’s camp and belongings in the upper Howell Creek area southeast of the peak.

King worked for a concessionaire in Yellowstone. 

This story was published on September 24, 2024.